External Design of the PC-60 Plus
Like every other Lian Li product as well as many plain vanilla cases on the market, the PC-60 Plus has the simplest of bezels with a flat, door-less design. No modified parts will be found on any Lian Li case, especially the PC-60 Plus. From the outside, the case even looks extremely small compared to the ones that we have reviewed recently.The top half of the bezel consists of four 5-1/4” drive bay covers, which are silver in color to match the rest of the case’s aluminum construction. They are easily removable; they are not held on by screws or anything that requires tools, but instead, can be punched out from the inside of the PC-60 Plus.
Below those bays we see two more bays - this time, they are the 3-1/2” kind, which are aligned vertically to the left. The original PC-60 case had three of these bays instead of two. We will see how this affects the internal layout of the case when we open up the “Plus” model. These covers can also be removed by pushing them out from inside the case. To the right of the 3-1/2” drive bays, we see the large power button with a smaller reset button positioned below as well as the power and HDD activity LEDs side by side at the bottom of that section. The reset button may be a bit difficult to press for anyone with wide fingers, but the small size does provide protection from any accidental resets.
At the bottom of the bezel, we see the large 120mm fan vent with the Lian Li logo at the center, whereas the original PC-60 model had a set of two 60mm vents in its place. Under the vent, we also notice a sturdy fold-down door made of the same aluminum that the bezel is made of, which hides a full set of auxiliary ports that include audio in/out, dual USB 2.0, and one FireWire port. Though the auxiliary ports are placed at the standard location in typical cases, we enjoyed how Antec positioned their auxiliary ports in a module at the top of the bezel, which could easily be accessed when the case was either sitting on the ground or on a desk. The module isn’t at all necessary, but the location of the ports can make a world of difference.
At the top of the case, we notice another vent for what seems to be an 80mm fan mounted at the roof of the PC-60 Plus. Because of the small size of the case, we are waiting to see what effect the placement of that top mounted fan will have on a power supply as large as our OCZ PowerStream.
The side panels are simple and very similar to those on the PC-6070 that we looked at in March of 2004. Both side panels are secured to the PC-60 Plus by thumbscrews. To remove the panels, we pull the panel back about an inch, then lift up to release it from the track at the bottom.
43 Comments
View All Comments
cHodAXUK - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
Something that doesn't look like a Morphy Richards chrome toaster, sadly half of the Lian Li product line is afflicted with dreary looks. It looks like a silver box and looks no different than cases that have been sold for the last 20 years, infact it looks almost exactly like an old case that Brother used to use on their 386 line back in 1988 apart from the Aluminium finish. Plain can be good but Lian Li do plain almost to point of generic. Construction wise the case is first class, no complaints there at all.ProviaFan - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
So what's your idea of a non-ugly case, #10? Something that has a huge-ass window in the side, with spinning blinkenlichten in all of the fans, and some god-awful combination of colors in the huge other-worldly logo?danidentity - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
Will that CPU duct interfere with larger heatsinks like the Thermalright XP-120?cHodAXUK - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
F'ugly case, always has been and always will be.WW2Planes1 - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
Nice case definately. I actually prefer the older layout for the most part though. I would like to see the newer front connector though, and the screw in standoffs.Incedentally, I've got a PC-65B (Same layout as the PC-60, for the most part), and didn't the original PC-60s have dual 80mm fans? not 60mm?
ProviaFan - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
I have an older kind of PC-60 (from looking at pictures, it seems these things went through several revisions at least - mine has the front fan speed control switch actually sticking through, while from some pictures it seems that this switch was behind the bezel), which has two 80mm fans up front.Anyway, the review was good, and if I were doing it over today, I would get the new version instead. However, there's not much point in "upgrading," IMHO.
pbrain - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
While I don't know if at some point they used 60mm, the PC-60 I have uses 2x 80mm fans.Da3dalus - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
I'm buying a PC-6070 when they get back in stock here (next week hopefully). It's more ezpensive than this one, but it has sound-dampening (big reason for choosing it, my comp is a bit too noisy now) and looks nicer :)mattsaccount - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
The message is clear: Lian Li makes great cases :)Bonesdad - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
Nice features inside...a bit dull looking on the outside. MUCH better than those silly little boy cases reviewed in the past.