Installation/Performance
Installing our test system in Lian Li cases in the past has always been interesting. Lian Li always takes a different approach than you see from most other manufactures. Its not a bad thing at all, but when you build systems all day it is a pleasant change of pace. The PC-7HX was fairly simple when it comes to Lian Li standards really. The power supply is mounted on the bottom, there is actually a normal hard drive cage, and the case is oriented in the traditional way. See our last Lian Li experience included an odd design that was able to fit an e-atx motherboard into a mid tower case. The PC-7HX is a lot more mainstream.
Installing our motherboard and power supply went smoothly. I was actually surprised that our Noctua heatsink didn’t cause any clearance issues with the top of the case but there was actually a little room left. But with that in mind, the two fan mounts up top wouldn’t work with this heatsink installed unless you had very low profile fans.
When it came to installing our GTX 580 we still had extra room left over for a longer video card if we needed it. The hard drive cage was a little different than what we have seen in the past. There are four 3.5 inch hard drive mounts that use the screws with rubber mounts that slide into the hard drive cage. This won’t work with SSD’s though so they did include a single SSD mount on top of the drive cage, those looking to install more than one 2.5 inch drive will be left wanting though. The 5.25 inch bays sport the easy to use tool-less mounts as well.
It wasn’t until I got into wiring that I found any issues at all with the PC-7HX really but even then it wasn’t anything more than what we would see on every case a few years ago. The space between the motherboard tray and the back panel was a little tighter than I would prefer leaving me to keep some things on the front half of the case, effecting how clean the install looked.
With everything installed and up and running I had a chance to look at the cooling in the PC-7HX. With the two 140mm fans up front pushing air in and the one fan on the rear blowing air out there is without a doubt a positive air pressure in the case meaning extra air will vent out of the side panel ventilation and PCI slot vents. I wish the two fan mounts up top were mesh as I think this would make for even better cooling. Considering it all it was still not too bad and with the use of fairly large fans the noise levels were reasonable.
