Lian Li PC-C301

As with most Lian Li cases it’s sturdy, minimalist, and attractive with a pocket-pouncing price tag.

Home theatre machines are insuperable, but if there’s to be one glaring problem with acquiring one, it generally involves the inherent ugly nature of an upright computer case and your mutual denizen, significant other
or otherwise.

Sure, the laser show you have going behind that Perspex window is totally cool, but such blinding displays of retina-melting awesomeness doesn’t always fit the often slightly more laid-back and, perhaps, less deadly lounge or family room.

That’s where a slick, professional-looking case such as this can come in handy. This black, brushed-metal box blends right in among the usual home cinema gear.

Measuring 43.5x44.3x16.7cm, this is no small lunch box. In fact, equipped with seven expansion slots and handling full ATX-sized motherboards, it’s effectively a medium tower on its side with a smidgen of ‘case’ trimmed from the sides.

There are no intake fans on this thing – in fact the only fans it sports are the two 80mm exhaust fans at the back. Luckily, there is a reasonable amount of ventilation, the top and front of the case the only sides going without. On either side of the case are two large air vents and underneath are three more, two of which are directly beneath their respective drive bays.

For air filtration, there is a mesh covering all major openings to protect the innards from the evils of dust. So, sadly, no potato farm for you.

To install or replace a motherboard, both drive bays have to come out, as there’s an aluminium support beam that sits right across the top of where the mobo rests.

It is otherwise quite large and spacious inside, and it wouldn’t be too challenging to install within it a water-cooling system, as long as one of the drive bays permanently goes. Attaching a radiator would likely demand a small modification, unless you can screw it onto the power supply.

With two stealth optical drive bays to hide the generally snot-ugly fronts of such drives, we assume Lian Li looked ahead and saw the Blu-ray and HD-DVD turd-storm brewing.

Most human-hungry corners have either been rounded-off or kept at bay behind protective strips. As a testament to modern-day case design, using the case as a painful, albeit reliable flesh-grater is merely a fond memory. There are a few corners that feel nippy, but drawing blood with these… well, it proved challenging.

You can only officially fit two 3.5” hard drives in the case, however the front IO panel can be removed from its drive bay. This leaves screw points all ready for a third hard drive with full-frontal access for those rare times you need a warm slot.

Where the official two hard drives are intended to go you’ll find two sets of channels. Drives can be slid into these as long as they are equipped with four fashioned screws and shock-absorbing rubber rings. The ease of installation and the vibration-dampening that this system provides is mostly mooted, as you still need to apply a standard HDD screw to both sides of the drive so it won’t fall out when travelling.

If you purchase three 5.25” to 3.5” bay convertors, this case could easily swallow a total of six hard drives.

The PC-C301 takes in a standard ATX power supply. If you have a particularly deep PSU, you can actually remove the top support beam and the rear exhaust assembly.

Ordinarily, lacking a PSU wouldn’t be an issue, however when a fairly bare case demands such a level of bling from the wallet, one then needs to justify spending an extra couple of hundred on a decent power supply.

As with most Lian Li cases it’s sturdy, minimalist, and attractive with a pocket-pouncing price tag. We can see it perfectly at home in the lounge.