It’s fashionable and has large open, but
this chassis will create a large living room PC.
Lian Li PC-V355 is a nice and attractive
chassis that could easily be mistaken for a piece of top-end hi-fi equipment at
first glance, especially because it sits on four round, silver-colored feet.
Its design makes it an obvious choice for a living room-based media PC, but the
PC-V355 doesn’t limit you to build a fine media transmitter.
First, PC-V355 is rather big than your
typical small media PC chassis, with the size of 470x350x336 (HxWxD). This
means that it can accommodate to more hardware, with room for maximum three
internal 3½in, one 2½inch drive and one external 5¼inch drive. Your motherboard
options are microATX and Mini-ITX, but there's enough space for up to four
full-size expansion cards and a standard ATX PSU.
PC-V355
is rather big than your typical small media PC chassis.
The chassis looks like it’s carved from a
solid block of aluminum, but PC-V355 actually has two easily detached side
panels without using screws. This makes you get in to the PC-V355 easily, but
it also means there are many sharp edges. It also has a separate motherboard
tray to facilitate the installation and maintenance of your preferred board.
The tray is held in place by four chunky thumbscrews, so you’ll have no
problems taking it out. PSU must be attached to a bracket which is then screwed
onto the case.
As it is aluminum, the PC-V355 is
incredibly light, but it can also feel a little flimsy in some places. The
panels are thinner and flex much more than we’d like. It also occasionally
emits a high-pitched squeak that’s similar to the unpleasant noise of a scratch
on a school blackboard.
The front panel may be as solid as
monolith, but it has two USB3 ports as well as separate microphone and
headphone ports. The USB3 ports are well spaced, so you won't have trouble
inserting two large USB drives side by side.
To cool the components, PC-V355 has two
120mm intake fans attached to the front panel. They are protected by metal
grilles to reduce the risk of something getting stuck in the fans and impeding
rotation. One fan blows air over the 3½inch drives and the other blows air straight
over the expansion cards. There’s no pre-installed exhaust fan, but there is a
mount for an 80mm model, although we prefer a mount for a larger yet low-rpm
fan.
PC-V355 has a three-speed fan switch
located just behind the front panel that can be accessed when you remove the
right-hand side panel. We normally prefer fan switches to be mounted externally
so that we can change them without opening the case up, but it does mean you
can’t change the setting accidentally. The fans were quiet, even on the fastest
setting.
Thanks to the removable motherboard tray,
installing components is easy and can be done outside the case. There’s also
3-4inch of space between the front panel and the motherboard tray, so you won’t
have a problem attaching power, SATA and front-panel cables to the motherboard.
The internal drive bay might obscure some items, but you can always withdraw
the motherboard tray slightly to access them.
PC-V355
has two 120mm intake fans attached to the front panel.
The single 5¼in drive can be installed on
the left or right-hand side of the PC-V355. Your 3½inch drives are installed in
a hanging bay on the right-hand side of the case. Because of its depth, the
PC-V355 can accommodate graphics cards up to 310mm in length, which means you
can use some powerful GPUs.
The Lian Li PC-V355 is large for a media PC
chassis, but its looks mitigate its size. It has room to expand, which means
it’s wasted if used purely as a media center and is best suited to those
looking for a living room-based gaming and media PC.
We like the PC-V355, but it feel a bit
flimsy and its easily detachable sides mean it isn’t quite suitable for
households with small, curious children. If you’re looking for a stylish
microATX chassis with enough room to accommodate powerful components, the
PC-V355 is for you.
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General info
·
Price: $149
·
Website: www.overclockers.com
·
Rating: 4/5
Technical specs
·
Drive bay: 1 5¼-inch bay, 3 built-in 3½-inch
bays
·
Port: 2 USB
·
Size: 470x350x336mm
·
Warranty: 1-year RTB
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