Hi again, here is my review, I am going to post pictures later.
This is the 5th pc I have put together, and 6th cabinet I have worked with, I had read more than one review about a lian li case and therefore I was willing to pay a little extra for a quality case.
I bought the cabinet for 1400 DKK, the features that I was looking for when I bought it where.
1. Anti hdd vibration mounts
2. Sound Dampning of some kind, (now since I had a friend that has bougt the nzxt hush(hu001) I knew what sound dampning mats do to some extent)
3. Good air flow for a quiet computer and a little overclocking
4. Work space inside the case and room for a high-end graphic card 28 cm(i live in denmark and work in metric).
5. Style was as always a nice feature and I like lian lis' brushed black look.
6. I am planing to go to a lan a few times a year and there for weight was also a concern.
Other cases I had look at where the antec p182 (too heavy for lan 14 kg), nzxt whisper (12 kg), lian li A05b (to small), I loved the internal design of the lian li PC-A05 but when I look around it did not sound like there would be room for a full sized gfx.
I have so far only used it for a Windows Home Server with 7 HDD (2 WD 400 RE2, 1 WD 500 GB AAKS, 1x750 GB Samsung spinpoint F1, 3xWD 1 TB GP) so have not tested its thermal capacity or a full sized gfx in this case that will happen sometime around the new year because I am waiting for a 32 nm cpu.
To the case LIAN LI PC-B25B
I bought it in a Danish store where it was wrapped in a standard cardboard shipping box with Styrofoam and plastic bag around the case as protection.
This is an all aluminum case and I weight it to around 7 kg or 14 pounds, on a bathroom scale.
The features of the case are:
Rubber mounts for the HDD.
Sound isolation with double sheet metal walls and sound dampening foam in the top of the case.
Tool less installation.
Removable motherboard tray.
2x120 mm Front intake fans operating at 1500 RPM @ 12 V with air filter
1x120 mm exhaust fan, operating at 1500 RPM@ 12 V with metal mesh for protection; intake and exhaust sides.
PSU mount bracket, for easy swap or installation of PSU.
The photos should show the rest.
What was included:
Screws, thumb screws, thumb screws with rubber for hdd, plastic screw case (see photos)
3 fans preinstalled.
Sound dampening mat, mounted on the top surface.
All 7 expansion card slot covers, with went holes (see photo)
Working with the Cabinet:
The thumb screws on the back of the case where impossible to loosen without a screwdriver but came out easily after they were loosened.
The side panels have blue protective plastic on the inside and are extremely stiff which is probably due to the shape.
The inside of the case is all aluminum panels; this is a nice feature as it means that the light gets distributed evenly within the case.
On lian li´s website and the reviews I could find there is one 5 hdd removable case, but I had 2x3 for a total of 6 internal 3.5? mounts with there and the 2 cases have 4 screws connecting them together as well as 4 screws connecting it to the cabinet, and an additional 2 screws to the front of the case.
1x3.5? external drive bay
3x5.25? external drive bays where there is a removable plate that separates the top 2 bays from the bottom one. It is however tedious to remove as there are 2 plates with 6 screws each that have to be removed before the plate separating the two compartments can be removed.
The case came with no screws pre installed, which means you have to install the motherboard mounts, there was however included a screwdriver for the hexagonal motherboard mounts. The removable motherboard tray came out easily and just slides in, two thumbscrews on the outside of the case keeps the tray firmly mounted once the case is closed. The tray seemed very flimsy but did not lose its shape while I worked with it.
The hdd cage is also made of thin aluminum which is something you notice when removed, inside the case they seem stiff, the hard drives slide in with ease and the screws with rubber mounts are easy to attach, but the bottom (only the one at the case floor) and top slot are tricky to mount do to the limited space.
Everything was an ease to work with but it still took me 2 hours to assemble.
Now I have not tried to stuff this case as I only bought this case for a home server until I buy a new pc, which I plan to do around dec. 08 early 09.
The anti vibration for the hdd does not at all eliminate the vibration it does reduce but not much, with 1 or 2 drives it might work better but with all 6 installed there is a clear hum from the cabinet. The Samsung drive is probably the quiets drive I have, when the vibration is eliminated, my WD GP drives have little vibration and are also very quiet(I can´t hear them). So the only thing I don´t like is the anti vibration lian li has chosen to use which I find inadequate.
Post questions if you have any and please replay if you liked the review.
edit>
If you have a good guide on how to post pics please give link, otherwise I was just going to use some photo hosting service.
I see I used the wrong words here and there, I have edited the ones I saw.
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