Lian Li XB01

Lian Li's latest brushed aluminium beauty will replace your old Xbox! We try to take a close first look...

There's not hiding it - we here at Atomic just love Lian Li. There's barely been a Lian Li case released in the last decade that we haven't liked, and even the ones we're not sure of a real cut above what everyone else is doing in case construction.

So when the announcement came down the pike that Lian Li was turning its awesome hands to making a quieter and cooler Xbox 360 enclosure, we just had to take a look.



As you can see, the enclosure is certainly a lot bigger - and plainer - than the original, but that's part of the point. The inside of an Xbox is so damn cramped that that airflow and heat management are a tough issue. Consequently, the small fans that serve to keep the 360 as cool as possible make a lot of noise. The XB01 takes a more PC-like approach, with space enough to seperate components and keep the air moving without sounding like a hurricane.



The front fascia is rather plain, but has everything you'd expect. One thing we will say about the XB01 up front is that while it's large, it's still well within the scale of a lot of high-end AV gear. On the downsidem the brushed aluminium picks up fingerprints like no one's business.



The interior is certainly as neat as you would expect, and the XB01 comes with a full - if a little... interestingly worded - guide to dismantling your Xbox. It also features all the tools you'll need, which is a plus, as the Xbox uses a rather fancy system of screws to hold itself together. And speaking of screws...



... the ones that secure the panels to the XB01 are kind of, well, crap. They are either too soft, or have been so harshly screwed into the case at construction that they have stripped their thread and become effectively welded in place. We struggled to remove them, and even then there are two that stubbornly refused to budge.

It's dremel time.

We have great plans for the XB01, so keep an eye out online and in the pages of issue 94 of the fine, fine magazine that we call Atomic.