Lian Li's PC-6070 Aluminum Case
by Purav Sanghani on March 25, 2004 10:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Benchmarking
When benchmarking the PC-6070, we test the temperatures of key components, including the actual CPU temperature, the actual temperature inside the heatsink, the temperatures of the DDR, Northbridge, Southbridge, HDD, PSU, and the amibient temperature inside the case, all during normal operation.Gigabyte GA-7VRX |
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The thermal readings for the key components and points on the motherboard during operation were as follows:
| Lian Li PC-6070 | ||||||||
| System On-Time | CPU | Heatsink | HDD | DDR | Northbridge | Southbridge | Power Supply | System Ambient |
| 10 | 52.5 | 36.8 | 26.2 | 35.3 | 39.9 | 39.7 | 29.4 | 30.2 |
| 30 | 53.8 | 37.7 | 26.9 | 39.5 | 41.6 | 40.2 | 31.6 | 33.4 |
| SilverStone SST-TJ03 | ||||||||
| System On-Time | CPU | Heatsink | HDD | DDR | Northbridge | Southbridge | Power Supply | System Ambient |
| 10 | 51.2 | 35.4 | 26.9 | 33.2 | 38.2 | 38.1 | 29.1 | 28.5 |
| 30 | 52.6 | 36.8 | 27.4 | 35.5 | 39.5 | 38.5 | 31.2 | 30.1 |
| Kingwin KT-436-WM | ||||||||
| System On-Time | CPU | Heatsink | HDD | DDR | Northbridge | Southbridge | Power Supply | System Ambient |
| 10 | 54.0 | 38.0 | 27.2 | - | 25.0 | 28.5 | - | - |
| 30 | 54.5 | 38.9 | 27.4 | - | 26.1 | 29.0 | - | - |
The temperatures for the key components are higher than those of the SilverStone TJ03 that we tested last week. This is most likely due to inefficient air circulation. The TJ03 had three 80mm exhaust fans and one 120mm intake. The PC-6070, on the other hand, has only one 80mm exhaust fan and two 80mm intakes. The temperatures are about 1-2 degrees higher than those for the TJ03. The only component that resulted in a slightly lower temperature was the HDD. The two 80mm intakes pushed air directly at the drive.
Compared to cases that we have reviewd in the past, we predicted the Lian Li to be much quieter in our noise benchmark. We measure the noise level of the PC-6070 12" away from the closed chassis with the power supply fan turned off. Take a look at our results.
| Case | dBA |
| Lian Li PC-6070 | 44 |
| SilverStone Nimiz Temjin III | 53 |
| Kingwin KT-424 Aluminum | 48 |
| Thermaltake Xaser III Aluminum Fan Low | 52 |
| Cooler Master ATC-201A Aluminum | 53 |
The PC-6070 was, on average, about 10dBA quieter than the others we have tested. The 2mm thick foam insulation dampened the internal noise from the case fans very well. The low noise levels could have been due to there being only three 80mm fans, but we could barely hear the loud fan from the Volcano heat sink.
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puravsanghani - Sunday, March 28, 2004 - link
#13: You're right! We have fixed this typo in the review.#18: I agree, we have been performing the heat tests with the power supply fan ON to simulate a system under normal operating conditions. The fan was only turned off for the noise benchmarks. We will state this in future reviews.
Thanks for all of your input, if you have any other questions feel free to email me at purav.sanghani@anandtech.com
divide_by_zero - Sunday, March 28, 2004 - link
"As mentioned before, Lian Li is well known for its aluminum products and they know how to use the metal alloy."Aluminum is a pure metal, not an alloy. Symbol Al on the periodic table of elements.
On the Design page the link to the Silverstone Nimitz is to the manufacturer's page, not to the review that it refers to - which I'm sure has a link to the manufacturer on it and which I didn't see
"Unlike the SilverStone Nimitz that we reviewed last week"
I can see doing sound tests with the power supply fan off to eliminate it as a variable between cases. But it seems to be implied that the heat tests are also done with the power supply fan off. If this is true then the heat tests do not reflect actual operating conditions.
divide_by_zero - Sunday, March 28, 2004 - link
"The third fan is mounted at the rear directly below the PSU opening. This single fan serves as the one and only exhaust for the PC-6070. We noticed that in many other cases, two fans are used to exhaust warm air out of the rear. This imbalance could cause increased temperatures of components, lowering the overall performance. And since there are no other openings on the chassis, additional fans cannot be installed."I would think that this actually is the correct number of fans to have be *in* balance, since the power supply will also be exhausting air.
ripdude - Saturday, March 27, 2004 - link
Kristopher, could you take the Coolermaster CM Stacker STC-T01 in the roundup if you can lay your hands on one?I'd like to see it tested.
--rip-dude
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, March 27, 2004 - link
Purav and I are working on a roundup. We got a new testbed, A64 with Zalman 7000Cu hsf. We are RETESTING all of these. What fun!Kristopher
Gromis - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
Hmmm. From a $150 case, I'd have expected rubber grommets mounting for hard drives... after all, it's available in much cheaper units, such as HEC 6A series.Visual - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
you listed 55dba for the kingwin while in its own review you listed it at 48dba so what's the difference from?LarryHorse - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
I have this case and Spacecomber there is not much clearance between the heat sink and the power supply. I have a stock AMD heat sink and I get about an inch clearance.My temps range from 39C to 46C on a Barton 2500+ with stock settings. There is room below the back exhaust fan to install an addition fan if so desired.
The case does run very quiet. This can best be heard when reading from an optical drive. Closing the front door almost completely removes the sound of the cd spinning up. This is great if you read or write a lot to a high speed drive.
One or two more fans would have been nice and the case can get a little tight if you run a lot of drives or a larger heat sink, but overall a solid case.
thundershaft - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
I was on the market for a Lian Li case..I had to choose between the PC6089A or this case.. at the end.. I didn't like the PC-6070 because the lack of air... if u are running a hard-drive and 2 optics.. I think it is the best case around.. anymore than that? NO GOOD...
I trieed it with my 8 drive setup.. TOO HOT INSIDE
BTW.. spacecomber.. there is enough clearance space.. I have tested it with a enermax 565 and it works fine =)
Spacecomber - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
I liked the write-up and the choice of this case for a review. (I also see that page 3 is now fixed.) One area that I would have liked to have seen a bit more coverage about was how well this case can accomodate oversized heatsinks, such as those made by Zalman and Thermalright. A case like this is aimed at those wanting to build a silent computer, and one way to go about this is to use very large heatsinks and slow rpm fans. However, I'm afraid that this case will have a problem with any heatsink that overhangs the edge of the motherboard. I think this will be a problem with Zalman 7000A heatsinks when the socket is close to the edge of the board and with the Thermalright heatsinks that mount directly to the motherboard on socket A motherboards, if the socket is close to the edge. I see two ways that this could be a problem for this case. First, it will prevent the motherboard tray from sliding completely in or out. Second, there won't be enough clearance between the power supply and heatsink. A picture showing and/or some measurements about how much distance there is from the edge of the motherboard to the edge of the motherboard tray and from the edge of the mothergboard to the bottom of the power supply would be helpful in this regard.Just my 2 cents.
Space