LIAN LI PC-V354B Black Aluminum Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case

Pros: I don't have a place under my desk for a tower, so I was looking for a decent smaller case that could go on my desktop, with front-mounted ports, and room for a full size graphics card. These are surprisingly hard to come by. This is my second Lian Li case. The quality, fit and finish are excellent as always. USB 3.0 ports provide some future proofing. The card reader and fan controller add value. The case seems to have decent airflow and keeps temperatures reasonable without being noisy.

Cons: As far as anyone has been able to figure out, an H50 cooler can only be used with the lower front fan, which is quite a stretch. It's unfortunate since that is such a popular cooler - you think a new case would be designed to accommodate it easily. The H70 won't fit. The 120mm Noctua U12P won't fit (interferes with PSU). I am using the 92mm Noctua U9B and it fits, with one or two fans. Note that all of this will depend somewhat on your motherboard and the placement of the CPU socket. So check the forums and see what other people are doing. The cables for the front fans and the front audio connectors are just long enough to reach the fan header and the motherboard audio connection. There is no leeway for creative wiring. Since this isn't a side-window case and nobody will really see the wiring, this didn't bother me too much.

Overall Review: I didn't see it in the spec sheet, but there are accommodations for 3 2.5" drives: 1 on the bottom of the upper drive cage, and 2 on the floor of the case. I only needed one and I used the drive cage one; with the ones on the floor I imagine it would be tricky bending the cables in there. There is room to route cables behind the motherboard, but it is difficult to do so in practice because the motherboard mounts directly to the side panel. You would need a lot of slack in the cables. It seemed like too much trouble for me.

Pros: Incredibly high build quality, I am simply amazed. If you want mATX, buy this case!

Cons: Scratches easily.

Overall Review: I replaced all fans with Noctua. 1x NF-P14 FLX 140mm Case Fan for the top and 3x NF-P12-1300 120mm Case Fans for the front intakes and rear exhaust. Best CPU cooler that fits in this case is the Noctua NH-U9B SE2 92mm CPU Cooler.

Pros: VERY high quality case! Plenty of room to work with. Both sides of the case come off so it gives you many angles to put your hands in. Even with both sides off, the frame still stays rigid. The black aluminum looks very classy! GREAT GREAT GREAT airflow! the power button seems durable (although it has a hard click, interested in it's actual quality) EVERYTHING is built vibration proof. it's awesome! built in fan speed modulator

Cons: It's huge! I'm not sure why they call it a mini tower. It's about the same height and depth of my mid tower but about 3 inches wider. It makes it easier for fitting in parts, but I was hoping to have a smaller case. The black aluminum is cool and looks really clean, but I would suggest the silver version if you are trying to make a statement with the case like I was. Maybe the texture would show more in a better lit room but it kind of just looks like a painted case in a darker bedroom

Overall Review: supports much larger than 11.5" vid card. THAT measurement is if you have 7 HDDs installed. the bottom HDD holder is very easily removeable and will give you another 5 ish inches. 2.5" SSD's mount to the floor of the case - FYI The fans are clear with blue led. I replaced mine with smoked fans with white led. paid a little more for the smoke because I thought you would see the clear through the grate but there is actually a vibration proof screen in front of the fans that hides its the fan color. -1 egg for size confusion +4 eggs for quality, room, design, airflow

Pros: Lian Li quality. USB 3.0 Nice finish. Surprisingly keeps everything running cool for how small it is. Was able to mount my Antec KUHLER 620 in the lower front fan slot by turning it sideways and removing the HD cage. Fan options/availability with the case are perfect! (2 front 120mm, 1 rear 120mm, and 1 top 140mm) Able to fit video cards up to 350mm (after removing lower HD cage).

Cons: Couple things, but not enough for me to take an egg off: Has 8 tiny screws on each side panel that need to be removed each time you want to open up the case. The nice finish leaves finger prints pretty easy. Also, wasn't able to take advantage of the front USB 3.0 ports as my motherboard didn't have the right connector for it. The adapter that comes with the case converts it to USB 2.0. (not really the case's fault though)

Overall Review: I did a lot of research on M-ATX cases before buying this one. The V354 is a little more expensive, but IMO it has the best features and makes it worth it. Not to mention, it's the best looking case too! My setup: ASRock Z68 PRO3-M Intel Core i5 2500k with Antec KUHLER H2O 620 CPU Cooler G.SKILL Sniper 8GB DDR3 1600 EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked Corsair HX 750w PSU

Pros: I wanted to shrink down from a standard ATX Mid Tower when I built the new family computer system. The material is nice and the case looks fantastic. The fans are not very loud, and the rear has a fan speed controller for whichever case fans you connect in-line with it. The best part in my opinion was the removable hard drive trays that made it real easy to mount the drives and run the cables to the motherboard. Also was helpful to be able to remove both sides of the case. Lots of room for a real big video card too, especially if the lower hard drive bay is removed.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Make sure you have all your PCI cards installed before installing the power supply because it is seated in front of them in the case.

Pros: Nice looking case, very solid, lots of room for a micro ATX with great air-flow. Includes three fans (2x 120 mm intake, and 1x 140 mm exhaust) plus room for one more 120 mm. Included a SD card reader with two usb 3.0 ports on front of case. usb included the 20 pin plug for motherboard, which isn't obvious from description or photo, so this was a pleasant suprise. Final assembled machine is very attractive, not your typical looking case, nothing about this looks cheap (except maybe the blue led's on fans).

Cons: minor things:Verdict is still out on the blue led fans, not sure if it's my style, but going with them for now. Nice thing is that they're really not too bright, the led on the power button, is much brighter. Also, not too sure on having the exhaust fan for the psu facing into the case, seems a little weird. Have to see if this becomes an issue, but so far no heat issues with stock AMD apu heat sink and fan. Also, filters for intake fans seem like they'd be difficult to clean, have to remove entire fan to get to them, no removable front face.

Overall Review: This case is all about the final looks, not ease of assembly. MB tray is the side panel, so there's no place to route cables behind tray. Take the time to plan out your cable routing. As other's have stated, install optical drive first. Also, plug in everything to the board before you reattach the side-panel/MB tray to the case, front panel cables are long enough. If your not going to be making frequent changes/upgrades to your machine and just want something that looks nice and not like a typical flashy gaming rig, then the time spent assembling this case is worth it. Even the wife likes the way it looks.

Pros: Great Case. Looks good. Fits everything I need. The blue fans look nice and circulate air well. I haven't had any overheating issues. There is also a fan dial on the back which controls the levels of up to four fans. Blue is a good color since many peripherals also use blue leds. For example my mobo cpu lights are blue and my usb dongle has a blinking blue led. I think the fewer colors of LEDs is almost universally better. The two front USB ports are 3.0 but my mobo doesn't have an input for this. Luckily the case comes with an adapter. However, if your mobo does have a usb 3.0 connector than you could still hook up the adapter to the mobo and you would get two internal usb 2.0 ports. This could come in handy for a bluetooth dongle assuming bt can transmit through the aluminum case.

Cons: I am worried the brushed aluminum will get scratched. I have been super careful but I think any metal to metal contact would leave marks. The two USB ports on the front are a bit close and are the top one is too close to the audio port. This is a problem when using usb sticks that protrude to the sides. You have to remove the two 3.5 HD bays to remove the 5.25 external port. Be careful when selecting your external 5.25 media drive. I got a stock black asus model and the painted plastic stands out from the brushed aluminum. Ideally you would want a drive where the front had a brushed black paint job. I haven't found an easy way to turn off the LED fan lighting which some people may find bothersome when trying to sleep. Although unless looking directly at the front of the case, the light would not be disturbing enough to disrupt sleep.

Overall Review: I used this case in my first build. I did a substantial amount of research to find a case that was not too large but could accommodate a hefty computational workhorse. I also demanded a case that looked sleek and professional as opposed to a WoW machine with anime warrior stickers. My build: MSI 890GXM-G65 AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition Deneb 3.5GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDZ970FBGMBOX 2x G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply ASUS PCE-N13 PCI Express Wireless Adapter

Pros: Plenty of open space, especially with removable drive cages Fan speed controller Has enough fan slots to fit most casual users Can fit full size GPU's.

Cons: No quick release side panels. You need to unscrew 8 very tiny screws on each panel in order to take it off. Very easy to lose them, and very difficult to screw back in while holding the panel in place. Pretty annoying.. Scratches easy Case was pretty expensive for what it was. Motherboard needs to be mounted on the side panel. That on it's own causes some problems for building. It's not necessarily bad, but it's pretty worrying when putting in a full size GPU and trusting it to hold. If you want to replace anything, you need to be VERY CAREFUL removing this side panel, and it takes a lot of work with the GPU to take apart. THE POWER BUTTON. If you press down a bit too hard on the power button, it will push inside of the case, and get stuck. You will have to take the side panel off, just to reseat it. And if you're forgetful, you will have to do this a lot.

Overall Review: Overall, this case was a major disappointment. I used it in a build for my friend, after being recommended by another friend. I'm not sure if it's just this Lian Li case in particular, but it's not good. Take your money elsewhere. I'm honestly glad that I was not stuck with it, however I do feel bad for my friend.