Yewen looks at: Lian Li S80b

[Yewen]

Ordered by phone, 9am OcUK 05/07, delivered 9:05 Citylink 06/07.

BUILD PICTURES A FEW PAGES IN (4th page for me)

Arrived this morning, and I am quite literally blown away by it.

Lian Li have outdone themselves this time, this case makes my v1000+ look like a coke can made pile of junk, almost.

Up until now the v1000+ has been the best made case available, and quite honestly I would by lying if I ever said that again. The door opens when you pull it gently, but does not when tilted forward, with a nice click.

The lock is smooth on the door.

The side panel mounting mechanism is a refinement of the v1000+'s which sometimes sticks, but this one does not after 20 panel changes.

Attention to detail is amazing, I was taking the pictures, and noticing more things when I looked again, the prime example is the interior sound proofing panels.

Wow, I am blown away by this, but enough talking lets get some porn going I think:

 

[Yewen]

 

[Yewen]

The brushed aluminium looks REALLY good in person, it actually shows in a picture its that good!

As you can see the door is two panels with padding in between, the foam around the edges is mounted on aluminium holders, so it is not going anywhere.

 

[Yewen]

Bad picture, but the power button is one of the nicest I have seen, feels good with a very satisfying click to it.

Case in its underwear here, got the side panel off and was met by that, a wall of high quality aluminium.

The thing in the middle I thought was there from behind, so didn't touch it, but when I took the panel off, I noticed it was a handle! Yes Lian Li put two handles on the panels so you can take them off very easyily, same on the other side of the case.

 

[Yewen]

 

[Yewen]

v1000+ hard drive style mounting, but this time with heatsinks!

Rubber on the internal pannel, so you dont scratch another INTERNAL panel. The attention to detail is just out of this world.

Oh and that foam bit, by the looks of it its pupose is to stop the CPU ducting and panel meeting, which would make a nasty noise when taking the panel of. Nice one Lian Li, anal attention to detail.

The side panels are about the same thickness of the v1000+ and show no signs of any flex at all.

So, what do you think, and in no way do pictures do this case any justice.

£180, yes, money well spent, most certainly!

 

[Yewen]

I lied, it can take watercooling.

Would need to think it through though, but there are two places you could fit a 120.2 so far. (I THINK)

 

[Yewen]

Its bigger.

Its quite a step up from anything I have seen build quality wise.

The cooling could be non existant for all I care now, I WILL work out how to cool this case!

Phenominally well built, just noticing more areas where they really have thought about this.

The lump on the back is removeable acording to the instruction sheet.

 

[Yewen]

This is basically the P180 done Lian Li style.

Looking at it, cross a Windy spirits of japan case with a Antec P180 SPCR and add in the v1100+ as the basis for the design and you get a S80, but its much more than that!

Does not look as nice as the v1000+ though, but its just built to a different standard, which to me is hugely important as this is my 3rd favourite looking case now.

 

[Yewen]

Looks lovely mate especially the inside. I don't think you have posted enouth pics of it though.
Maybe just one more of the underside would complete the haynes manual requirements.

This is the cutdown version.

It has HiFi style feet, but I am not risking putting it on its roof! The finnish is just to good.

I know nobody else will buy them, but if you want an example of the pinacle of case build quality then this is it.

I can not really see a production case getting better than this.

 

[Yewen]

I'm impressed with mine but I don't think the build quality matches that of my CM201B or my brothers PC-75.

I do.

The panels fit perfectly, nothing really flexes.

Only weak point of it is the mesh on the side panels.

Would certainly say its better than the PC75 and on a par with the ATCs cases, but better than Prae's and wavemasters.

Depends what your after, complicated but well done so far.

Got to build in it, my opinion may still change.

I don't know what I plan, I will probably try every configuartion possible to see which is the best route to take.

 

[Yewen]

There we go.

Had'nt thought about filtering, although it should be an issue as I do not imagine much airflow in this case at all, as I doubt it will need it.

 

[Yewen]

Looks way too small for me. I would rather get the G70, better suited for watercooling.

To small, it dwarfs the v1000+!

If you had to be at the insides regularly would removing the double side panels be too much of a pain

Nope, the first panel comes off with 1 screw, in about 2 seconds.

put a system in it and found temps / noise yet? or still hugging it in a corner somewhere

Im waiting for my mate to come over to give me a hand getting the v1000+ out from under my desk. The reserator 1+ means I need 2 people to get the PC out.

in theory the air flow looks awesomely fantastic yet i just dont see it working, its overcomplicated, report back to us if you can when you have everything set up, and if it doesnt work then this air flow system takes up a awefull lot of space.

Reviews so far, well CustomPC say its a load of rubbish for cooling, which gives me faith that in fact with a bit of thinking the case can cool more than adequately.

 

[Yewen]

Well, running a Athlon XP system in it as we speak.

Cooling wise for this rig its quite good really, along the lines of a slightly hotter v1000+. Hybrid on this though shows such potential which I should setup tommorrow with my X2.

The thing I noticed though, raptor was inaudable through both panels but could hear it with the door open or the side panel off.

Quite impressed by that, no fancy padding just another panel to get through, it seems to work quite well.

The case temp was higher than a v1000+, motherboard temperature was considerably lower though.

This is showing potential, not tweaked or even looked into the fans yet. That is coming shortly with my main rig.

 

[Yewen]

If your rig is noisey in a P180 the S80 will be no quieter, you need to eliminate the source of noise really.

It muffles delta's though, best case ever for dealing with noise as it muffles everything so you get a very low hummmmmmm, and thats it. (Xp2400+ running on suicide volts for temperature testing)

I will post up some pictures of it with my main rig in soon, just want to get some time with it before I start glancing at a review of it or posting my opinions on the cooling.

Need some time with it just to get a feel for what this beast is about. First impressions of this case is its the pinacle of case design and its all down hill from here chaps.

 

[Yewen]

The P180 is a quiet low noise case, worshipped by silent pc review. Do not expect miracles from this case, best at changing the noise outputted I have ever used (delta 60mm screamer, with worn bearings) but not a miracle worker.

I used to say ATCs cases were the pinacle we had gotten to, but taking the 110 which is basically the top of the range ATCs case made for the home user / overclocker and putting it next to the S80.

Well, S80, just wins out on about everything.

Depending what it is to live with this may top the ATCs 110 from my favourite case ever spot.

For £175 this is a bargain in build quality terms, really is hard to stomach saying that.

Comparing it to the Sugo Evolution, it made me dismiss the Sugo as a cheap throwaway when I picked it up and moved it after building in the S80.

It really is leaps and bounds ahead in terms of quality, also seems if you ever broke anything you could repair it easily too.

Give me a week mind, I may change my opinion like I did with the v1000, thank god the v1000+ fixed that one.

I am hoping there will be no need for a S80+, but you never know if Lian Li can IMPROVE on this I will have a huge grin on my face.

What I am now looking foreward to is Silverstones response to this case, as bar Windy nothing is even in the same league as this. Not even the V series of cases.

I urge all of you to have a play with one of these, the panels, attention to detail just takes the Lian Li ideals and takes them to the next level.

 

[Yewen]

Sure:

Coolermaster ATCs 110
Coolermaster ATCs 201 / Lian Li v1000+
Lian Li S80b

Overall cases for build quality I would go.

Lian Li S80b
ATCs 110 / 201
=========== (big gap)
Lian Li v1000+

What I think personally anyway.

Me loving this case does not mean I would recommend it to many people at the moment though. Its cooling seems a little on the complicated side, managed to drop the temps by 5 deg on the XP rig, with a room temp drop of only 1.

Once I get my head around it will be a decent cooler too I recon, just worse than the v1000+ for finding the optimum configuration.

The case works well with backwards airflow aswell.

 

[Yewen]

This is not a review, just me posting pictures.

I will be doing the review after about a week, giving me enough time to live with the case and see its ins and outs, if it develops a resonation issue in hot / cold weather and the like.

My main rig is going in it tonight hopefully, I will then go about posting up some pictures of everything, but may wait for the review to avoiding confusion.

On a note, this case is cooling my Athlon XP 2400+ and Geforce 4 ti4800 rig 2 deg cooler than a v1000+ would now, using the top 80mm fan (don't think its 92, ill check!) as an intake, and the rest as normal.

So many possibilities for cooling in this case, using the stock fans I have managed to drop 4deg of the temps of everything, and thats with the same room temperature aswell.

Moreso than a v1000+ I think this case will be depending on your rig to what fan configuration you have.

I will clear up the filter situation in a bit.

The front is deffinately not plastic, but brushed aluminium, some foam, then another sheet of aluminium screwed on the back.

Cracking built case though, its ok to build in, a little worse than the v1000+ as you have less room to position the motherboard.

Everyone may also like to know it looks like Lian Li have a S80 without door in the works, the instruction sheet shows one.

 

[Yewen]

What do you think?

 

[Yewen]

The bit that sticks out the back - whats that all about? for a rad i presume?

Nah its venting to direct the air away from the side intakes, and stop the one exahust interfering with the PSU temperatures. (I think at this moment in time.

It is removeable, but its brushed aluminium and looks really good, you cant see it looking straight on unless your right up close, or from the side.