Rocketfish by Lian Li Aluminum Full Tower Case - first impressions

[Markfw]

Well, it reminds me of my Lian-Li 2000, the worst cooling case I have ever had...

And its for sale for $100 !!!! I paid $300, and I can't even unload it...

 

[Zepper]

Lian Li often does things just because they can - not because of any technical validity or merit and the fools buy anyway. Choose your L-L poison carefully. Inverted ATX designs are suspect from the get-go anyway. I can see that the 2000 could be cooled adequately - just not the way that L-L provided. I don't foresee any serious problems in cooling the Rocketfish. Reorienting the HDD cages would be the most difficult if it is needed - but aluminum is soft and drills like butter...

..bh.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Is this case a good buy for the money? If it's worth it I will do whatever is needed to improve airflow. Also, why is inverted ATX bad? Should I avoid it?

 

[Bluefront]

Well I found one for $49 at my local BestBuy (they actually had five left). Figured I could return it if it was too flimsy. But it's not so bad, although it looks like a support beam across the middle would help the thing.

It looks like the door could be reinstalled to hinge at the right by reversing the support brackets. The lock wouldn't work, but no big deal.

The fans are all 3-pin, with a 4-pin adapter.....so you can monitor the rpms if you connect them to the MB.

The side fan like Zepper's was installed to blow out the rear.....stupid. It's airflow will be severely restricted by back-pressure if you run it like this. By all means reverse the fan.....have it blowing toward the cards if you actually use it.

Over-all.....not bad, and worth the $50 for sure. I'm not sure what I'll do with mine, but I've been thinking of making a dual-MB setup. It looks to be wide enough. A low power setup on the left panel that could be fired up for browsing, with a higher power board in the std position. We'll see......

FWIW....I just reversed the door on my unit. No sweat. The lock would require a new hole to work. The Rocket-Fish label is now up-side-down. And the HD and Power LEDs don't shine through the door anymore. Other than that, it now swings open the "right" way. Also.....you could just remove the door completely if you wanted....looks ok like that.

 

[Zepper]

I think it is well worth the original $120. price - you seldom can find anything this large that is any better for less. If you need the room, I think it's aces.

.bh.

 

[gpgofast]

I bought one to use with Windows HomeServer. Currently running 4 hardrives. My motherboard only supports 4 IDE and 6 SATA drives, so if I ever get to the point of utilizing all the drives the board supports, I will end up buying a Lian Li EX-34 drive bay. As far as cooling goes, my 4 drives never go over 40 Degree's C, even while moving large amounts of Video files accross the "array". Depending on room temperature, my drive temperature is generally from the high 20's to the mid 30's (I've got one of the "Green Power" WD 1TB drives that spins down to 5400 RPM when idle). I would say in my application, the cooling is much more than adequate. The fans are NOT quiet, but I don't feel any stock fans are anyhow. I would replace with NEXUS fans if it was important to me. Currently, mine is stuck in a closet, as all it needs is power and Cat 5e to function as a WHS. Probably one of the best deals I've gotten off this board at $48!

 

[Zepper]

Bluefront,
You could move the LEDs to the lower left corner so they would still shine thru if you wanted only need to drill two holes for the standard LED holders...

.bh.

 

[Bluefront]

Yeah....that wouldn't be much trouble. But I'll probably do something different. I want to move the power button somewhere so I don't have to open the door to turn the thing on. I might construct a new panel fitted into the door itself, for the lites and the button.....maybe even for the USB ports. I don't like their location on the top.

I haven't owned a big case in quite a while. There's so much room to play with, it opens up many modding possibilities.

I'm thinking of mounting a fanless PSU in the standard location at the top, adding passive vent holes to the top -rear of the case, and using the lower part of the case as a big filtered intake chamber, separated from the upper part of the case. I want to eliminate the front intake completely, bring the air in through the lower rear hole, and the vent holes in the bottom. Lots of possibilities. Positive pressure for this thing for sure.

I ran one of the fans for a while. It is fairly quiet up to about 9/10V. But it refuses to start at 5V, or even run at 5v on an analog control. Haven't tried all the fans yet.....

Before I start this project, there are many things to consider.....I'm looking forward to your expanded review, and any other modding ideas anybody comes up with.

 

[Zepper]

Yeah, as long as there are no ankle munchers about the house, having the switches on the outside is convenient.

The working voltage ranges of fans vary quite a bit - sleeve bearing fans are more likely to be able to start down to 5V, but all of my Sanyo Denki 1011s can start at under 5V I guess it depends a lot on the quality of the ball bearings... What voltage can they reliably start at?

.bh.

 

[EarthwormJim]

The fans that came with mine will start at 5v. Not sure how long that will last, I've had fans in the past work fine at low voltages, then one day they stop working at that voltage.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: Bluefront
Yeah....that wouldn't be much trouble. But I'll probably do something different. I want to move the power button somewhere so I don't have to open the door to turn the thing on. I might construct a new panel fitted into the door itself, for the lites and the button.....maybe even for the USB ports. I don't like their location on the top.

I don't even use the power button on cases anymore. I configure the bios to start using the keyboard. My Gigabyte motherboards let you type a password to start which is better that the typical two key combinations.

 

[Zepper]

I have found that the H-shaped guard (the metal they left in the fan hole) on the front fan affects the stock fans in a strange way. Cut it out if you can and find another way to keep the filter from feeding itself to the fan (I would use the hooks part of sticky-back Velcro) - your RF will be a lot quieter. It may affect other fans differently or not at all, but since it doesn't need to be there, get rid of it. I might just stick the filter right to the front of the chassis metal with my Velcro hooks - that way you could get rid of the filter holder too as the H-brace in that may affect the fan as well. If you can't bring yourself to cut it all away in one swell foop, then cut away a leg at a time - I'd suggest cutting the left top and right bottom legs of the H away first.
. I tried first with a Silverstone/Everflow fan and still pretty noisy. Cut out the two legs and not much difference. Cut out the whole thing and quite a bit better. Still a bit noisy from the side with the side panel off, but go around the front and the noise dropped off dramatically. With either the SST or LL fan the filter showed no tendencies to enter the fan with nothing holding it in place. Eventually I'll be trying with some 90 to 110 CFM fans :shocked: in the front, so may need some filter fastening then...

.bh.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: Zepper
I have found that the H-shaped guard (the metal they left in the fan hole) on the front fan affects the stock fans in a strange way. Cut it out if you can and find another way to keep the filter from feeding itself to the fan (I would use the hooks part of sticky-back Velcro) - your RF will be a lot quieter. It may affect other fans differently or not at all, but since it doesn't need to be there, get rid of it. I might just stick it right to the front of the chassis metal - that way you could get rid of the filter holder too as the H-brace in that may affect the fan too. If you can't bring yourself to cut it all away in one swell foop, then cut away a leg at a time - I'd suggest cutting the left top and right bottom legs of the H away first.

.bh.

You could probably use zip ties to hold the foam in place and keep it from being fed into the fan. Either that or double sided tape on the edges of the filter foam.

 

[Bluefront]

I got to try the other two fans from my case.....they both start and run without any trouble at 5V. I guess the first fan is slightly different....same # though.

Never did like to start a computer with the keyboard...... too many pets that might touch it.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: Zepper

I just can't stop fiddling with it. That's what one of my nephews said when he first located his peepee...

Heck, I say that too! :laugh:

 

[imported_Jackyl]

I'm not sure what to think about this case. Got it for $50, so I probably shouldn't complain. I was originally going to purchase a Cooler Master Cosmos 1000. It is a heavier case, with padded side door to keep the noise down. I also have an Antec case that is a lot heavier, due to it being made of steel.

This Rocketfish case seems a little flimsy in some areas. The side panels especially. I don't have all my components installed yet, but I bet that this case is loud. With no insulation, and flimsy side panels, it can't be a quiet case. Can anyone hear their hard drives seeking? How quiet are the fans?

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: Jackyl
I'm not sure what to think about this case. Got it for $50, so I probably shouldn't complain. I was originally going to purchase a Cooler Master Cosmos 1000. It is a heavier case, with padded side door to keep the noise down. I also have an Antec case that is a lot heavier, due to it being made of steel.

This Rocketfish case seems a little flimsy in some areas. The side panels especially. I don't have all my components installed yet, but I bet that this case is loud. With no insulation, and flimsy side panels, it can't be a quiet case. Can anyone hear their hard drives seeking? How quiet are the fans?

I have mine built up and it's silent. The doors may be a little flimsy, but that's not really noticeable when they're actually on the case.

I'd gladly give up some rigidity in exchange for lightness. I had an Antec mid tower, and it was atleast 25% heavier than the computer I have in the rocketfish case. And it's water cooled too.

 

[Bluefront]

The two side panels would seem to be the places that need some help in the noise dampening department. They're simply too thin, too large, and missing any bracing. All fixable from the inside without a bunch of trouble.

Since the top removes easily, it could be lined with acoustic foam, as could the bottom of the case. A layer of 4mm Paxmate foam behind the door would help, without much airflow restriction. All cases benefit from noise reduction materials, if you're so inclined. This one is no exception.

 

[Zepper]

Paxmate would hardly do anything - something like Dynamat might help a bit. It has a little heft to it.

.bh.

 

[Bluefront]

There's not much room behind the front door for acoustic foam. And the door is heavy enough. 4mm Paxmate is about the best you could do up there, without blocking the intake vent holes.

The side panels are a different matter, particularly the left panel. A layer of Dynamat or generic "roofer's tape" (same stuff) will add quite a bit of weight to the panel, and lessen rattles/vibration. Cover the Dynamat with a 1" or thicker layer of real acoustic foam...you'll notice the difference for sure.

The right side panel doesn't have much room for thick dampening materials....but a layer of Dynamat covered with Paxmate will certainly be quieter that stock.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I gotta say, the diversity of the computer enthusiast community is really entertaining sometimes. There are people like Bluefront that spend all their time and hard earned money to make this beyond silent then there are people like me that are tearing apart a window ac unit to get their cpu to below freezing and think that 40dbA is good enough. We really define diversity some times.

 

[Old Hippie]

We really define diversity some times.

Like life, that's what makes livin' fun and interesting!

 

[Bluefront]

When you get into this quieting thing, you'll find that aluminum cases tend to resonate more than steel cases. It has to do with the density/weight of the metal. The side panels of this case will be the worst offenders with this setup. No way I'm going to put together a big, nice-looking case that annoys me with rattles, and buzzing noises, not to mention fan noise and hard drive noise.

Quieting down a case is not that difficult or expensive....but it's easier to do it before the internal parts are installed. I know most of the Anandtech posters don't much care about noise. But some do right now, and all will when they get a little older and computing means something more than gaming.... :laugh:

 

[WoodButcher]

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
I gotta say, the diversity of the computer enthusiast community is really entertaining sometimes. There are people like Bluefront that spend all their time and hard earned money to make this beyond silent then there are people like me that are tearing apart a window ac unit to get their cpu to below freezing and think that 40dbA is good enough. We really define diversity some times.

Ha! uh oh! I guess that makes me a switch hitter!:Q

The roofers tape is similar to my favorite, EPDM roofing membrane, it's sheet rubber, darn! rubber sheets, givin away all my secrets.... Contact cemen or spray adhesive will hold the stuff nicely.

 

[Bluefront]

Here's an example of acoustic foam that would do nicely for the left side panel. One sheet is all that's necessary. I doubt this would fit behind the right panel. A few dots of adhesive on the corners would hold it, and make it removable if necessary.