Lian-Li PC-V2110 Full Tower Case - Review

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Lian-Li PC-V2110 Full Tower Case - Review.



We have another Lian-Li full tower case here at Clunk.org.uk.

Today’s dosage of Lian-Li loveliness is the PC-V2110.

The 2110 is aimed at the quiet PC enthusiast market and uses separate chambers to eliminate noise, improve air flow, and it also has a couple of rather nifty features for the water cooling enthusiast too.

The lower section houses the PSU and hard drives, while the upper deck is where the motherboard and all the rest of your gear will live.

The concept of sectioning areas off isn’t a new one, the old V1000/2000 were the first cases from Lian-Li to use this kind of layout, but the difference being that they were a “left handed”, upside down ATX design whereas the 2110 has the more conventional “right way up” layout.

The aesthetic qualities of the 2110 won’t appeal to everyone, the styling is quite minimalist, and having a corrugated** aluminium front door on your case is definitely an acquired taste, but despite these factors, you still have to step back and admire the workmanship, it really is incredible.

**Corrugated is as close as I could get to a word for describing the door design, you'll see what I mean later.

Let’s have a look round the outside of the case...

Index

1. Intro & Index
2. The Outer Casing
3. Behind The Door
4. Behind The Door - Part 2
5. The Top
6. The Side Panels
7. The Back Of The Case
8. The Accessories
9. The inside
10. The Inside - Part 2
11. The Inside - Part 3
12. Conclusion

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The Outer Casing.

When you first look at the PC-V2110, the most striking feature is the front door.



It's made from corrugated (See above), cast aluminium and it has an ever so slightly industrial feel to it.

Down the edges of the front door are air vents to allow the front intake fan to breathe.



The top edge of the doorway is fixed to the front of the case and is capped with some 2mm, black, hairline brushed aluminium.



On the right hand side of the door is a lock – I’m not sure how secure this is, but as a temporary measure, it could have its uses – maybe a Lan Party?



Another great feature is that the door can be adjusted so that it opens the opposite way – There are detailed instructions on how to do this included in the box.

I realise that you are itching to see what’s inside the door, so let’s have a look.....

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Behind The Door.

Behind the door, we have a more conventional looking layout.

Everything is finished to the same standard as the outside.



The drive bays.



There are seven 5.25” bays, each sporting the new Lian-Li bezel that is punched with holes and backed by a two piece dust filter.



I have seen a number of reports that during transit, the 5.25" bay blanking plates had come loose and this was indeed the the case here. Two of the seven blanking plates required gently pressing back into place.

The reason that this happens is that the plates rely on tension from the aluminium, and also the precise placement of two retaining bumps on either side of the plate (see pic above), matching up with holes in the case.

If you push the plate in and match up the lugs/holes first time, you will hear and feel a snap and the plate locks into place, but at the same time, if you don't quite get the alignment right, the plate will either just push straight through, or fall out of the front during transit.

It's no big deal, but I thought I would explain it anyway

Continued below...

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Behind the Door - Continued.

At the top right, we have the power and HD LEDs.



Underneath the drive bays is a circular, soft touch, on/off switch and a tiny reset button directly below that, both fitted centrally.



Lower down, we have a built in grill for the front 140mm intake fan, smart yet functional.



The door itself is solidly built and features a large, spring loaded ball bearing that keeps the door in position, and stops any unwanted vibrations.



The ball bearing fits into a cut out in the door frame.



Still on the subject of anti vibration measures, there is a strip of foam rubber affixed to the left and right of the inside of the door – This and the ball bearing give the door a real feel of quality when you open and close it!



Continued below...

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The Top.

The only obvious thing on the top panel is the Lian-Li badge and the lift up flap that reveals the “front panel” connections.





From left to right we have;

• 1x e-SATA
• 1x Firewire
• 4x USB 2
• Microphone
• Headphones

On closer inspection, there are a couple of not-so-obvious things towards the back of the top panel, and they are circular plates that are held in place by two countersunk screws each and appear to be for feeding water cooling tubing through.

This leaves me quite puzzled, because I just can’t picture the scenario where the tubing would need to poke out of there and be inkeeping with the look of the case – If anyone else knows, please let me know!

(Maybe a single rad on the rear 120mm exhaust fan hole, barbs facing outwards, tubing looped over into the top of the case? - Urgh )


Continued below...

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The Side Panels.

The side panels, as on all Lian-Li’s V series cases are 2mm thick and have knurled edges and rounded corners.

Other than that, externally, the side panels are standard issue with no windows or modifications.



The inside of the panels are fitted with sound deadening material (heavy foam rubber), to further reinforce the fact that this case is aimed at the silent PC enthusiast.



The sound deadening foam adds a fair amount of weight to the side panels, and combined with the sound deadening foam in the roof, and the large front door, this brings the total weight of the case to more than most aluminium full towers, so this is something to consider when making your final decision, especially if you are a lan party nut! (Don't get me wrong, it's not heavy like a steel case, it's just not as light as other aluminium full towers )

The panels hook onto the bottom of the case, and then push into place, at the rear of the case are a pair of latches/bolts that are pulled to release the panels and then pushed back to lock the panels in place and then secured with an M2 thumbscrew.

One latch also has a hasp for a small padlock – Again, maybe good for a Lan Party where you want to keep your hardware safe.




Continued Below...

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The Back Of The Case.

The back of the case is slightly unusual, in that most of it is black anodised and still retaining the classy appearance – nice touch, even though most people won't be looking at it!



Starting from the bottom, we have a small black lever that can be pulled to lock/unlock the wheels.

The wheels are solid, machined aluminium and are fixed in pairs – dumbbell-esque (Yay!, a new word!)



Next, we have a dual PSU compartment and the plate allows you to fit a single PSU either way up, or dual PSUs in a set configuration with the fans facing outwards.

It may be possible to remove the plate and flip it over so that you can point the PSUs the opposite way round if needed (I will test this later).

The plate is held in place with four M2 thumb screws.



Moving up, we have the PCI/PCI-E section which gives space for 8 single cards/devices.

To the right of the PCI/PCI-E section, we have a vent to which a blower or side fan assembly can be fitted.



Moving up further, there is a 120MM Adda fan, held in place by four, chrome, dome head, Phillips screws.

To the left is the hole for the I/O shield – nothing to report there.

Above the fan, you can see the panel lock/release bolts and the thumbscrews that hold them in place (We've already covered this here).



Just above the fan, there is a three position switch that controls the fans.

This kind of fan control can be found on cases dating right back to the original PC-6x/PC7x series and works well, even if it is a little bit limited.

One minor gripe I have with the switch is the positioning of it.

In the position that it is in, the green PCB of the fan controller is on full view (See The Inside Pics) – I feel that Lian-Li could have possibly incorporated it into the top of the case, possibly under the flap towards the front, or even included the digital controller as featured on the PC-A77 case.




Continued below...

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The Accessories.

As with all Lian-Li cases, you get a generous bag of screws and "stuff".

Inside the PC-V2110 is a larger than usual, white cardboard box containing the accessories.

• 1x Buzzer/speaker
• 1x 12v EPS Extension Cable
• 2x PSU Holder Kit (2 Screws + 2 Grommets)
• 3x PCI Card Holder - Small
• 4x PCI Card Holder - Large
• 7x Thumb Screws For PCI Card Holders Above
• 70x M2 Screws
• 16x M" Motherboard Standoffs
• 1x SSI CEB/EEB M/B Motherboard mounting plate
• 3x Standoff Nuts for SSI CEB/EEB M/B Motherboard mounting plate
• 1x Standoff Screwdriver
• 8x Thumb Screws
• 8x Hex Head/Phillips Screws For PSU
• 34x Hard Drive Screws
• 34x hard Drive Grommets
• 1x Spare Coarse thumb Screw
• 3x Cable Ties
• 2x Snail Clamps
• 1x Side Fan Assembly Including 120mm Fan + 2x Thumbscrews
• 4x Rubber Tyres For The Aluminium Wheels

Here are a few shots of some of the more notable accessories.

This small plastic box wasn't listed as being included, and I presume it's for keeping your spare screws in.

Also, there is a 12v 8 Pin EPS extension lead - These are always useful in cases like this where the PSU in the lower section.



This is the SSI (Server System Infrastructure) CEB (Compact Electronics Bay) /EEB (Entry-Level Electronics Bay) Motherboard mounting plate - It's a fairly specialised item, and unless you have any odd spec components, it's unlikely that you'll ever need to use this.



Also in the box is the side fan, or as Lian-Li call it, "The Chipset Fan".



The 120mm fan itself is Lian-Li branded and is made by Adda. These are actually really good fans - They shift a decent amount of air, are very quiet and work well with a fan controller.

It has a standard 3 pin fan plug, and also an adapter so you can plug it into a larger 4 pin molex connetor.



Next, The Inside...

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The Inside.

Let's have a look what we have inside.

As with all the V series cases, the lower half is sectioned off. The advantages are that the hard drives and PSU have their own air flow, this keeps temps down in the upper section and allows for lower fan RPMs as there is a steady stream of fresh air coming in the front and being expelled by the PSU at the back.

So, in a nutshell, more efficient cooling = lower temps and less noise.



Starting from the bottom left, we have the PSU compartment.



There is a bracket that supports the weight of the PSU/PSUs and that has a rubber strip to prevent vibration.

In the centre of the PSU support is a captive nut. The is another one of these in the upper part of this chamber and they are for screwing in anti vibration grommets that keep the PSUs isolated if you are running a pair of them (See accessories pics).

To the right of that is the hard drive compartment.



There are two cages, and each cage can hold four hard drives.

The cages are different from the old V series cases where the drives used special screws and plastic locking rails.

These cages simply allow you to fit the screws and grommets and then hook the drive into place - I really like this set up, and it is a vast improvement over the old style that I mentioned above.

Either of the hard drive cages can be removed to provide more space for water cooling gear.



Lian-Li supply special thumbs screws and rubber grommets for holding the hard drive in place (see pics below).



All you need to do is slide a grommet onto the special thumb screw, then screw that into the hard drive, one at each corner.

The drive then slides into the cage from the back of the case and then hooks into place - You will feel the rubber grommets bed into the cage.

The insulation is very good, the drives feel solid and well supported, but there is a little bit of play from the soft rubber and that takes care of vibrations.



The drives will fit either way round in the cage, but because of the way the cages are orientated, the wires must be at the back of the case (In other words, the gap at the front of the case is smaller than at the back).

This keeps the wiring out of the way and lets the all important airflow through - Again, a well thought out and well implemented design.



The hard drives are cooled by a 140MM Adda fan - this is held in place with thumbscrews and anti vibration rubber grommets.

The fan is also fitted with a coarse, open cell foam filter - These are washable and do the job well.



Again, anti vibration measures are apparent here with a rubber insulator, sandwiched between the chassis and the fan housing assembly, all held in place by a captive thumb screw - This isn't a new idea, but it is a fantastic one. Imagine how awkward it would be to try and fit a standard thumb screw to this area while holding the fan in place and reaching round the drive cages!




Continued below...

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The Inside - Part 2.

Moving up a floor and starting on the left hand side, we have the PCI/PCI-E section.

The PCI/PCI-E blanking plates are the older style Lian-Li favourites and they are thick, steel plate with a chrome finish – they really do look fantastic when everything is in.



Above the PCI/PCI-E section is a 120MM exhaust fan, again, made by Adda for Lian-Li and it is sporting a pressed aluminium grill - I've never been too keen on these as they can be noisy.



Also of note here are the vents in the motherboard tray behind the CPU socket area - Ventilation here is always welcome.



In the ceiling of the case are the two circular blanking plates that I mentioned earlier.



Earlier, I mentioned the fan controller on the back of the case, well here is the back of it.

I'm quite surprised at Lian-Li putting this here for two reasons.

Firstly, it doesn't look great and for people that do have a window, this will have to be the first thing to go.

Secondly, it creates a really unnecessary wiring management problem.

Fortunately, this can be easily removed from the case by undoing two screws on the back panel, but you will then have to fit an after market fan controller or use the fan headers on the motherboard.



Directly above the fan, you can see the side panel release latch.

Running vertically down the centre of the case is the bracket for holding any larger PCI/PCI-E cards steady and stopping them from leaning – this is especially useful if you have a heavy, full face water block on a long graphics card.

The bracket is easily removable by undoing four screws, two in the top and two at the bottom.



Removing the bracket reveals a hole in the “first floor” of the case, this allows all your cables to be neatly routed to the upper chamber.



The PC-V2110 comes with an adjustable 120mm side fan fitted with a chromed, wire grill - (See The Accessories).

The fan housing bolts onto the side of the vertical PCI/PCI-E bracket and can be fitted at any height and either left or right facing.

Continued below...