Evolution of Lian Li's SOHO Server Cases
by Joshua Buss on May 16, 2006 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
PC-V2000 - Interior
Both the V1000 and V2000 allow you to open up both sides of the case with identical ease for very unrestricted access to the internals. |
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With the reversed motherboard orientation, the main side for getting at internals is the right side of the case. Right away we can recognize typical server-style design choices. Perhaps the most prominent is the expansion card support bar, which of course is removable.
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After removing the few screws holding it in place, the bar slides easily out. There are two main sections to the inside of the V2000: the upper portion for the motherboard, expansion cards, and 5.25" drives; and the lower portion for the hard drives and power supply. Large cutouts sit between the various areas for cable management.
Here's the support bar from the other side. The plastic clips can individually swing into place to help hold the far end of longer expansion cards firmly in place during transport.
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The rear of the case pretty much offers everything expected from seeing it from the outside. A 120mm fan takes on the bulk of the cooling duty, pulling air through the ventilated front top part of the case, and the bottom portion relies on the power supply and the 120mm fan mounted in the front, unless a user installs additional 80mm fans over the two grills. Extra holes are punched in the visible plate in the above picture, most likely to keep airflow restrictions and overall weight as low as possible.
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Turning our attention back to the front, one can get a better sense of how these hard drive holders actually work. Four special screws go into each drive and serve as 'pegs' for the drive to slide along these plastic rails. Once slid into place horizontally, two plastic clips slide down vertically behind the peg to hold the drive in all the way. It's easy and secure, and doesn't take very long either.
Also notice how in this picture air is discouraged from leaking around the fan from the backside - the fan shroud keeps entry air coming primarily through the front bezel. The fan can be pulled out to clean it and the filter as well.
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Overall, the horizontal slide-in hard drive design works very well, and there's enough space between drives for adequate airflow even if the case is completely filled. It takes a lot of cabling to connect 12 hard drives, but thankfully Lian Li has already planned for the potentially extreme cabling accommodation needs.
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The large cutout is big enough for several IDE cables of course, but more importantly it's big enough to make the actual act of routing cables through it painless. The smaller cutout is for the motherboard power connector, and is just big enough to pass that through.
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cgaspar - Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - link
The V2100B is just the V2000B with a door, and no silly side window.Be careful with which power supply you buy for this case - the PC Power & Cooling 850W unit I got didn't fit, because it was too long.
Also be careful with which CPU coolers you use if your motherboard has a CPU on the bottom edge, as there is almost _no_ clearance between the motherboard and the case. I had to replace the Zalman CNPS7000B I was using. On the other hand, this is the first case where my Extended ATA montherboard didn't feel cramped (this thing is _huge_!)
Other than those minor issues, I've been extremely happy with the case. My 8 500G SATA drive array is running along quite nicely.
Missing Ghost - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
Who would use IDE for this.....And with a lot of 2 port expansion card?Also, the cables that you used are out of spec. (40 cm max I think)
This case is meant for SCSI.
JoshuaBuss - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I used IDE 'cause it's all I have on hand. More importnatly though, it takes up significantly more space than SATA cables, making it apparant how well the case can handle that much cabling.ohnnyj - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I love my PC-V2100, been a wonderful home to my AMD SLI system for over a year now. Build quality is excellent but I have but one gripe. The USB cables for the front panel are not nearly long enough to reach my motherboard. Perhaps they have fixed this in an updated model.JoshuaBuss - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
the front panel cords in the PC-201 are very long.. you'd have to route them all over the place for them not to reach pretty much anywhere on a motherboard.rowcroft - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I liked the article, always fascinated with cases. One thing I would have liked to see was an E-ATX motherboard though- it would give a better idea of the case flexibility. I would think most people buying this case would be putting a workstation class mobo in it. I've been looking for a good box to build a dual opteron rig around and this looks like a contender. Thanks again!Xenoid - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
Would have been nice to see some temperatures on the cpu/video between the cases and other popular enthusiast cases. Overall, nice article and quite a nice case.JoshuaBuss - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I'm hoping to follow this look up with a more in-depth comparison of performance once I have some real sever-style equipment.mkruer - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I have this case. Never had an issue with it other then the rubber wheels not staying on when moving the system around. The only thing I would like to comment on, is that if you are building a “quite system” there are a few things you can do to improve that subjective score of 3.0/3.5 of 10 to 7.5 to 8.5. first remove the drive mounting (you can unscrew it) and suspend the drives is a harness. This will eliminate 99% of the reverb from the case while the drives are on. Next replace the 120mm fan. I don’t know why but the fans that are included with the case are not that grate for making a quite system.Finally at the front of the case where you would mount CD Rom drives. Place it some foam. It really doesn’t effect the air flow but it will deaden any sound that my be coming from the mother board.
I have very sensitive herring and if I can leave the system on full boar and still go to sleep then I know that its pretty dang quite.
Lifted - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
That reverb has been driving me nuts lately. I replaced a drive and moved a couple to different places, and it seems to have gotten a bit better, but still shows up now and then.