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In the Forums... |
Posted: March 25th, 2002 Written by: Davey McWatters Lian-Li PC60 Modified By The Card Cooler Introduction: Case modding seems to become increasingly popular as each day progresses. Everyone seems to be in a competition to have the best looking case. The Card Cooler has recently started up a service where you can either order a new case pre-customized or send them your case and they will do whatever you wish to it. If you are worried you may damage your expensive case or if you just aren’t very good with the dremel, this would be a good route to travel. The Card Cooler has sent us a Lian-Li PC60 with a couple mods done to it. They include a 120mm blowhole and fan on the top and a rectangle side window. They have also included a cold cathode light kit to dress it up even further. Lets find out a little bit about the case and how it performs… The Case:  Above is a picture of the case right after I removed it from the box. It proved to be a very light case. It also looks very, very nice; however, it should for the over $300 dollar price tag including the mods and a power supply.  As you can see, the back panel uses the standard ATX port panel so it will work with most standard ATX motherboards on the market. You will also notice that the case does not come with an included power supply. People who buy an aluminum case usually include an Enermax power supply. Enermax power supplies do not come cheap. They can cost from 50 to around 170 dollars depending on the wattage you want. That price just adds costs to an already expensive case. You will also notice that the back contains quite a few thumbscrews. Lian-Li likes to call this case a tool-free design, which is mostly true except for screwing in the drives and the motherboard.  The picture above is simply to show you what the inside of the case looks like without the motherboard tray, hard drive cage, or 3.5” drive cage. As you can see there are a few wires lying in the bottom. One set is to connect the LED’s and buttons to your motherboard to control your computer. The other is for the front mount USB ports, which plug into a header on your motherboard as well.   The above two images show the blowhole cut in the top of the PC60. It shows the hole from both the inside of the case and the outside. The Card Cooler did an excellent job when cutting the hole. There are no jagged edges or signs of bad cutting. The fan they have included is a Sunon 120mm low-speed dual ball bearing fan. It pushes quite a bit of air without the high noise of a smaller fan that can push the same amount of air. The Card Cooler offers you a choice between a metal fan grill or a filter. Since the fan is blowing out there is no real need to have a filter, unless you expect to be dropping stuff onto your case. Not even a filter will help you if you spill liquid over your case and happen to have a blowhole in the top.  As you can see, the hard drive cage sits directly in front of the intake fans which will cool your hard drives and the rest of the case at the same time. The cage is held in place by two thumbscrews on the right side. The design is quite good, as you don’t have to remove both side panels to get the cage out. |
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