Post
by jbheller » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:35 pm
Thanks for the review. I seriously considered this case for my LAN party computer system.
I eventually chose the Lian Li PC-Q08 (red). They offer a lot of similar features, but in the end the Lian Li offered two features that the silverstone didn't.
I wanted to cool my system with a corsair closed loop water cooler, and this needs a suitably place 120mm fan hole. The Lian Li had such a fan position and the Silverstone didn't. Also I wanted front panel USB 3.0 ports as the Zotac Z68 motherboard provided them, and again the silverstone didn't. I have bought usb 3.0 external hard drives and memory keys, and the extra speed is great.
The silverstone looks a bit roomier and the included power suppply puts it at a better price point that the Lian Li PCQ-08. The Lian Li was a difficult build, quite fidly.
A modular power supply is not always that much of a benefit. Apart from being longer in most cases than a non-managed power supply there is often little advantage. I ended up using a thermalte non managed 700w power supply in my build and only one cable was unused. There would be virtually no difference in the number of cables that has to be tied up and tucked away if i went for something managed.
If you are looking for modular power supplies for smaller builds you should be looking at units with 120mm fans, not 130 or 140 as this makes the whole power supply longer. Be aware that the length of the power supply as quoted on newegg or the manufacturers site do not show how far the modular connectors and cables protrude, so you need to add about 20mm. In the case of the pc-q08 lian li case, this meant the the cosair hx-650 would barely fit, and almost nothing else would,
I accidently ordered a hx-850 and there is no way it would fit. Ended up giving it to my son rather than waste money paying freight back to the supplier.
After a few swaps and changes from the original build, this is my current system. It is very quick and totally silent.
“Red Cube” PC – Mini-ITX Gaming Rig
• Lian Li PC-Q08R Case
• Zotac Z68-A-E Wifi ITX motherboard
• Intel i5-2500K CPU
• MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozer III
• 8 Gigs of Corsair 1600 Meg DDR3 RAM
• Corsair 120GB Force 3 GT SSD SATA III
• 2 Tb WD Hard Drive SATA III
• Corsair H60 Water Cooler with Noctua NF-P12 High pressure fan
• Corsair HX-650 Power Supply
• Samsung Blu-Ray Combo Drive
• BitFenix Spectre Pro 140mm Black Tinted Red LED Fan
• Windows 7 Professional 64-bit