14 DAY TRIAL // Another month, another Lian Li enclosure, and it looks like the company is finally returning to its roots, that of peculiar desktop computer cases. The new product is deceptively called PC-Q33.
Sure, the other Lian Li cases revealed in the recent past weren't exactly ordinary either, in shape if not on purpose.
The design was usually that of a cube, for LAN parties or some such thing, and only some of the products were large, ATX-compatible ones.
Nevertheless, mini enclosures for HTPCs are definitely not on the same level of weird as, say, the first case the company ever made, the one shaped like an actual red spider.
So one might say it is a pleasant surprise to see that the new enclosure from Lian Li is almost as unusual as that one.
Called PC-Q33, it wouldn't, outwardly, give that impression. After all, it looks as much like a cube, an HTPC model, as most other small cases.
What is unusual about it is the hinge at the bottom of the front panel, the hinge that allows the PC-Q33 to unravel like an upside-down bench.
That's right, you can open the case, swing half of it over in order to access the hardware inside. If nothing else, it is a unique means of opening the chassis, more unique than the standard remove-the-side-panel method.
Anyway, the inside of the chassis is enough for a micro-ATX motherboard, three 2.5-inch storage drives, two 3.5-inch drives, video cards of up to 220mm in length, power supplies of up to 200mm in length, and CPU coolers of up to 180mm in height.
All in all, there's enough space for all the essentials. The only thing buyers will not be able to include is an optical drive, since there is no 5.25-inch bay available.
Fortunately, pretty much everything is available for digital download, or procurable through a USB port, and that facet is definitely covered. There are two USB 2.0 3.0 ports on the front, along with HD audio output jacks. No price known, sadly. This is still a prototype apparently.
