PC-9300 Aluminum: Lian Li Enters the Small Form Factor Race

Features

The small design of the PC-9300 may be its most significant feature.  The case already has one strike against it for violating the "aftermarket no-sharp edges" rule, so it's a good thing the case has more to offer than just its unique size.

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Almost every quality case these days has forward USB ports.  The PC-9300 is no exception.  Two small, no frills forward adaptors are present in the lower corner of the unit and are easily accessible.  Almost everything on the case is removable by thumbscrews, which we have also come to accept as the standard for high end cases.  Even the individual internal drive bays are each removable by thumbscrews.

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The manual rear fan control was somewhat of a surprise to us.  We did not see this feature advertised even though most other case companies are making a big deal of it on their cases.  The rear control connects to any of the internal fans and provides 3 levels of intensity.  We still think a good thermal resistor based solution beats manual control, but some people enjoy the degree of management the manual control provides.

LED from lightbar

PC-9300 feet

Other nice touches were provided by Lian Li as well; front panel blue LED strip, mountable plastic clips on the inside of the case, and pre-glued aluminum plates to place over CD and DVD drives.  All of these were nice touches and demonstrated the quality of the case we were dealing with.

Just when we thought Lian Li was able to get it all right, we saw the removable motherboard tray.  Unfortunately, this tray is hardly removable at all.  Four screws hold the bottom of this tray in, and the only way to remove the tray is to push the tray to the rear of the case and pull up.  The problem with this process is two fold.  First all the PCI/AGP cards must be removed to remove the motherboard. Second, the fans on the back of the case must also be removed in order to give the tray enough clearance to be pulled out completely.  This hurt our opinion about the case drastically.

Before

Fans removed for tray

Installed