Lian-Li A16 rebuild, back to air.

[Arcane]

It's been a couple of years since I've had the time and cash to put together a new PC, annoying admin stuff (getting married, having the house extended, major hip surgery) meant the truely important things in life had to be put aside. Thankfully, that's all sorted now and i've at last managed to get a new gaming machine built.

I've always been a big fan of the Lian Li A16 and A17, nice classic cases with plenty of room inside to tinker. I kept mine from a previous build and resurrected it from the loft to form the base of the project. Below is a pic of the old girl in her watercooled days. As you can see, nothing fancy, just functional.

What I was left with after I'd sold off the old kit (and ceremonially destroyed the 680i with a brick) was a rather sorry looking case that was in need of some TLC.

 

[Arcane]

I decided this time around to tidy things up a bit, get the inside powdercoated and have a few functional mods done. I wanted the three front intake fans so decided to have a slot loading DVD drive mounted into the top of the case and have a macbook style slot cut into the front. Once i'd sent the case off I started getting parts together for the build.
I really liked the Lian Li fan modules on the 343 cube and thought they'd work well (and up increase airflow at the same time). I had these powdercoated to match the inside of the case.

Continuing with the black theme I picked up some new noiseblocker fans,

Notice the deliberate mistake?

Whilst I was at it I got the GPU Fan Module done too.

 

[Arcane]

SSD mount.

Mega shadow and Indigo Xtreme TIM.

 

[Arcane]

The case powdercoated and the drive mount.

 

[Arcane]

Installed and nearly finished! Just some tidying and some yinyl dye for the 24 pin left to do.

 

[Arcane]

Overall I'm very happy with it, it was running hot initially until someone pointed out to me that I'd installed the fans in the wrong way, lol, since then it's been excellent, very quiet and cool running.

 

[Arcane]

Thanks!

 

[Arcane]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Very minimalist? Ultra-minimalist, more like. Where is the power/reset/eject buttons?

Looks absolutely awesome though. So clean. You get a new panel for the top, or have one made?

The power switch has been relocated underneath by the feet, the roof's new, I needed to replace it as I'd drilled a hole for a fillpot on the old one.

Looks a quality build. Really like the slot loading DVD drive. Is that a slot loading 2.5 then?

Yep, bog standard Laptop drive with a startech Laptop to SATA convertor.

 

[Arcane]

Just a single 120g OCZ Vertex SSD, I don't use my PC for anything except gaming, music, photos, movies etc all go on the Macbook.

 

[Arcane]

wanted to do the slot mod to my lian li too, just wondering how its secured (i see its sat on a bracket but?)

Good old fashion Sticky Velcro holds it onto the bracket

What's powering this beast out of curiosity?

It's in my sig, usual i7 etc.

How are you finding the Noiseblocker fans? I've just about to get a 140mm blackslientPRO for my PC-A17 as I find the stock fan is far too loud compared to the GT AP-14's I've got everywhere else. Also whats your PSU?

I went for the 900rpm ones, they're damn quiet, they come with anti vibration gaskets, swappable cables etc, very nice fans imo. PSU's a Coolermaster CM850.

 

[Arcane]

Woop

Hows the TIM too? Havent seen it for sale but have read good things about it.

It's great stuff, just a bit wierd to setup, oh and expensive.