Hmm, wow... Was Lian Li behind the Mac Pro cases?

I just found these computer cases on NewEgg, with all the holes, and the rounded edges, as well as the compartmentalized bays and mobo tray, and such, and I'm wondering... Could Lian Li be the manufacturer behind Apple's Mac Pro's casing? This just looks very similar to that. It seems like it'll get far better airflow for the higher-end rigs, not too sure, tho:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112057
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112065

I'd say they're borrowing some attributes of the Apple design. Looks pretty good for a PC case.

If they were the actual manufacturer of the Apple design, Apple would probably have a contract with them that would prevent them from selling such a similar style elsewhere.

there have been a lot of nice cases around for a while. It's just that the branded manufacturers go for cheap ugly ones in bulk and arent winning to pay extra for the nicer boxes out there.

I particularly like the home theater type cases like this Zalman that costs about 300 quid $599. People are starting to see computers as more than beige boxes or silly lumps of plastic. You can even get sexy keyboards for $300, as much as most people spend of vid cards, so why not a case :)






http://www.xoxide.com/hometheater.html

Some other good brands and cases are shown in the links below:

http://www.xoxide.com/silverstone1.html

http://www.xoxide.com/koolance3.html

http://www.xoxide.com/zalmancase.html

http://www.xoxide.com/nexthermcase.html

http://www.xoxide.com/lianli2.html

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake2.html

Mine I got for half price for $70 has silicon grommets that hold the HD and PSU in place to dampen vibration, composite tripple laminate panels to dampen sound, seperate chambers like you mentioned.

Been around for several years now:

I like its relative better: the Antec Solo.

- No annoying door covering the optical drives
- Slightly smaller (the P180 you show above can be a tad problematic with many power supplies since the PSU gets positioned at the bottom of the case and the power connector on most motherboards ends up at the top -- wiring can often be too short)
- In addition to the silicon grommets, the Solo also has optional suspension mounts for the HD's.

I can't hear my PC anymore. :-?

I can't hear mine either unless the GPU is being really stressed.

I really like the door covering the drives, one of the things that attracted me to the case was its simple elegant design. The door is not as bad as you might think. it actually opens 270 flush to the case to not be annoying, and I use optical drives very selfom. When closed it has narrow ventin on the sides so it can still draw in air.

Here's xlsiors Antec Solo , Is pretty similar in design.



The system is a little louder with the door open because the front has 2x 120mm filtered vents. Leaving it open does allow it to run a couple of degrees cooler but I havent had a need for that even when its 90f in the house.

Didn't have a problem with the PSU, but it is quite a large case. The PSU and HD's are located in a seperate isolation chamber from the motherboard, so no heat from those reaches the CPU and GPU. I didn't use the VGA cooler or the top fan, just a single 120mm fan keeps the 7600GS in the low 40's so the GPU fan only comes on at all when playing 3D games.