Lian-Li PC-A77 - Review

[GSte]

Looks fantastic quality, everything has been well thought through it seems. Will be interesting to see how dusty the front mesh gets, that's one of the issues with my Antec 900.

[supershanks]

The HD enclosures are different to any of the other Lian-Li cases I've used.

There are 3 cages and each cage holds 3 drives.

The cages have 4 hooks per drive in them and you just hook the drive on once you have fitted the 4 grommets and thumbscrews, so it actually sits on the rubber.

They are actually pretty good and hugely better than the G70 where it was metal to metal and it sounded that way. The hard drive cage in the G70 was like an amphitheatre for hard drives

Sounds good , will look forward to seeing pics in build thread hint hint

[SquidgyB]

Yeah, I like the lian li drive enclosure, I've added some akasa spongey stuff to stop any extra vibration as well, even with raptors I barely hear any hard disk noise.

My power supply is now the noisiest piece of the machine, and it's not the fan either, it's high pitched noises that actually corresponds to the applications running and what they're doing... it's a little bit noidy, I've never had a psu make a high pitched sine wave when watching the render on ATITool...???

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by SquidgyB

My power supply is now the noisiest piece of the machine

I hate it when that happens...or even worse, the hard drives, now that IS annoying.

[Shanara Red]

An excellent review for an excellent case ... an I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything you stated. It is an awesome case. However in my opinion, perfection is marred by four factors alone.

1) It might just be the case with my case (no pun intended) ... the on/off and reset swithches' frames wiggle about and spin a bit. I have tried to tighten them, but they are based on a pin-in mount, so tightening them appears impossible. Some rubber beneath the switches' frames (switch frame = little aluminium circle on the outside of the button you actually push down) wold surely stop the fiddly feeling everytime you press that button.

2) The SmartFanControl buttonshave the same issue. The swithces wriggle about in a most clumsy manner. They could use some rubber fastenings as well.

3) The I/O cables for the HDD and Power swithches could be just a little longer. Threading them behind the MB monuting rack is a must to reduce case clutter, but trying get them over a thick graphics card to correctly fit the USB, Firewire and audio plugs into the MB / Audio card leaves the cables slightly streched.

4) More dedicated and plastic shielded holes (only 2 available)in the MB mounting rack would reduce a LOT of messy cable issues.

But all four points are nitpicking and are easy to work around. At this price tag, they could have fixed up those issues as well.

The front dust filters actually work wonderfully, all you need to do is to vacuum the front of the case every once a month, and it should contain at least 60-70% less dust inside. The fact, that the whole case can be disassembled and reassembled in a very easy way and the excellent amount of extra gear that comes along with it it would make it reason enough for this investment, as it saves you A LOT of hassle, when plugging and unplugging various components.

Judging from the cases I've used so far, this case truly shines, and I'm extremely happy with it. Despite it's price it was definitely worth it, and I'm not going back to anything else. Highly recommended.

[Clunk]

You are right about the movement of the buttons, I hadn't noticed that.

Should be easy enough to fix, but as you say, it shouldn't be there to begin with!

[moreempty]

well i recently got my a-77 in silver

the rattle of the above mentioned buttons are present even on my case.. but with two small straps the rubber rings got wider and tightened up the buttons.. u use whatever u got at home

my first idéa was just to take any thin thread and wind it around below the rubber rings..

I must say that I like the silver color especally since its "silver/blank" inside

components arive tomorrow.. ordered sunday im not frustrated just pissed of!

[Clunk]

Pics when it's done then

[BlackDragon24]

Bout to order this case up today....well either this one or the new coolermaster atcs 840. I'm curious if anyone knows a place in the US where you can get the top cut per the review for a feser triple rad? Performance PC's will do it for a small fortune but I'm looking for something closer to me (California).

[Clunk]

I'm not sure about US retailers mate, sorry.

I would have thought the smaller retailers/modding companies will be your best bet?