Evolution of Lian Li's SOHO Server Cases
by Joshua Buss on May 16, 2006 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
It's nice to see manufacturers realizing what's good about a product and merely improving upon it without getting rid of the qualities that made the original such a good design. Lian Li should be commended on this approach, as even now the PC-V2000 is an excellent choice for anyone in the market for a large tower case.The PC-V2000 retails for around $235, and the PC-201B for about $40 more. Really, both cases offer very similar performance and features for people wanting to build a larger system. The extra $40 will get you better overall cooling, especially for the lower hard drives and expansion cards, along with more modern styling and a door to conceal and protect the external drives.
Plenty of people really don't care for doors though, and in our own testing the PC-V2000 kept the eight hard drives right around a 42 degrees Celsius average, while the PC-201B managed an average of 38 degrees Celcius - which are both certainly healthy temperatures for hard drives. The noise levels of both cases were surprisingly similar, and the PC-V2000 subjectively scored a 3.0/10 (with 0 being absolutely silent - the best) in our tests while the extra two fans in the PC-201 brought it's score up only marginally, to 3.5/10. Bearing all this in mind, we really only see a few situations where one would want to splurge for the PC-201.
The main reason of course would simply be if you really want the door or more modern styling. Ultimately, aesthetics tends to matter the most to people when looking at this type of case, and for good reason - no one wants to spend over $200 for a case that they find ugly. If you have a preference in looks between these two cases, you should simply get the one you like more.
Another reason to go with the PC-201 would be if the server was going to be running in an area that could potentially be quite warm, and proper cooling was of the utmost importance. That being said, a case this nice looking probably isn't going to be placed in a dark hot closet anyway, so this situation does seem rather contrived.
Ultimately, these are both great choices if you need tons of storage or simply want something a little larger than average. They'd both handle even rather elaborate water cooling setups easily, and with window kits available can even make nice boxes as a base for building a super-sleek monolithic gaming rig. The build quality, the ease-of-use, and quality of materials is all first-rate. Other cases in this price-range rarely offer the same number of available internal 3.5" drive bays, but even so the Thermaltake Tai Chi and Cooler Master Stacker line, along with Silverstone's TJ07 are good competing cases to check out as well. Congratulations to Lian Li are in order for more fine examples of good PC case engineering.
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cgaspar - Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - link
The V2100B is just the V2000B with a door, and no silly side window.Be careful with which power supply you buy for this case - the PC Power & Cooling 850W unit I got didn't fit, because it was too long.
Also be careful with which CPU coolers you use if your motherboard has a CPU on the bottom edge, as there is almost _no_ clearance between the motherboard and the case. I had to replace the Zalman CNPS7000B I was using. On the other hand, this is the first case where my Extended ATA montherboard didn't feel cramped (this thing is _huge_!)
Other than those minor issues, I've been extremely happy with the case. My 8 500G SATA drive array is running along quite nicely.
Missing Ghost - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
Who would use IDE for this.....And with a lot of 2 port expansion card?Also, the cables that you used are out of spec. (40 cm max I think)
This case is meant for SCSI.
JoshuaBuss - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I used IDE 'cause it's all I have on hand. More importnatly though, it takes up significantly more space than SATA cables, making it apparant how well the case can handle that much cabling.ohnnyj - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I love my PC-V2100, been a wonderful home to my AMD SLI system for over a year now. Build quality is excellent but I have but one gripe. The USB cables for the front panel are not nearly long enough to reach my motherboard. Perhaps they have fixed this in an updated model.JoshuaBuss - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
the front panel cords in the PC-201 are very long.. you'd have to route them all over the place for them not to reach pretty much anywhere on a motherboard.rowcroft - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I liked the article, always fascinated with cases. One thing I would have liked to see was an E-ATX motherboard though- it would give a better idea of the case flexibility. I would think most people buying this case would be putting a workstation class mobo in it. I've been looking for a good box to build a dual opteron rig around and this looks like a contender. Thanks again!Xenoid - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
Would have been nice to see some temperatures on the cpu/video between the cases and other popular enthusiast cases. Overall, nice article and quite a nice case.JoshuaBuss - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I'm hoping to follow this look up with a more in-depth comparison of performance once I have some real sever-style equipment.mkruer - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I have this case. Never had an issue with it other then the rubber wheels not staying on when moving the system around. The only thing I would like to comment on, is that if you are building a “quite system” there are a few things you can do to improve that subjective score of 3.0/3.5 of 10 to 7.5 to 8.5. first remove the drive mounting (you can unscrew it) and suspend the drives is a harness. This will eliminate 99% of the reverb from the case while the drives are on. Next replace the 120mm fan. I don’t know why but the fans that are included with the case are not that grate for making a quite system.Finally at the front of the case where you would mount CD Rom drives. Place it some foam. It really doesn’t effect the air flow but it will deaden any sound that my be coming from the mother board.
I have very sensitive herring and if I can leave the system on full boar and still go to sleep then I know that its pretty dang quite.
Lifted - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
That reverb has been driving me nuts lately. I replaced a drive and moved a couple to different places, and it seems to have gotten a bit better, but still shows up now and then.