Current Cost: $238
Months on list: New
A brand spanking-new addition to our High-End Buyer's Guide, the Lian Li PC-60 case is really something special. For more than a year now the SE crew has been telling you to buy the 3DCool Tornado 1000. When Pentium 4 came about, the lack of a 12V ATX connector on the PSU forced the Tornado 1000 to be used only for our Athlon based systems. In it's place, SE offered up the Inwin IW-S508-IW for your P4 needs.
This month we have taken a different approach. There is simply no reason why all your wonderful gear has to be packed into a plain vanilla case. We think that's just about as boring as lemonade at Uncle Bob's house. The Lian Li PC-60 is anything but boring, even Uncle Bob will agree. For starters, the PC-60 is aluminum, not steel, which makes it lighter. Trust me, you will appreciate that fact the first time you go to haul your new machine to a LAN party on a steamy spring day. The brushed silver finish on the case makes it as attractive as it is functional. The case is a mid-tower, but offers the same internal space as most full tower cases, boasting four 5.25 inch external bays, and six 3.5 inch bays, three external, three internal.
Let's talk about details though, details that most case makers overlook. Details like rubber guards on sharp metal edges and thumbscrews on everything from case panels to PCI slots. Not enough? How about removable Hard Drive cages that clip in and slide out effortlessly? Still not impressed? We can add that the PC-60 has a slide out motherboard tray and the wires from the front of the case have a connector that will let you detach the bundle as a whole. That's right, you don't have to disconnect your power, reset and LED cables to work on your rig.
As for cooling, the Lian Li PC-60 is one of the coolest cases around. It comes with three 80mm fans standard, and even provides a fan bus that will let you throttle the speeds of the front two 80mm fans to meet your needs. There is plenty of room for additional cooling, and if you like to take cooling to the extreme, you'll find that your dremel cuts through the aluminum PC-60 like butter.
Coupled with an Enermax 330W PSU, the Lian Li PC-60 is the perfect mid-tower case for both the Pentium 4 and the Athlon Thunderbird, so we no longer have to suggest different cases for different CPUs. The Enermax has two 80mm fans, one for draws air from the CPU area and another as an exhaust out of the back of the case. With 330W of power, you should have enough overhead for future expansion.
See our Value Gaming PC case recommendation here.