A brand spanking-new addition to our High-End Buyer's Guide, the Lian Li PC-68 + USB case is really something special. When you go all out spending this much money on a High-End gaming system you at least want the darn thing to look good! That's where this case comes in, it's made out of total aluminum allowing for a very shiny and eye pleasing visual effect as well as very light weight. The last thing you need is to make this computer so heavy that you drop it while transporting it somewhere; smashing your precious baby to bits. We want to make it easy to look at so people can go "ooooh ahhhh" and we want to make it to where you can carry it off to LAN parties to impress all your friends.
We had to be careful choosing the case here though; we wanted to make sure it would work fully in a Pentium 4 system and an AMD Athlon Thunderbird system. This way you can be confident in purchasing one case that can be used on either the Intel platform or the AMD platform, so that you can switch with little effort if needed between platforms. We had to also make sure it has the correct screw holes in the motherboard tray for the Pentium 4, which it does. The fact that it does not come with a power supply means we have to pair it up with a good Pentium 4 compatible and AMD Athlon Thunderbird compatible power supply, that's why we chose the Enermax EG365P-VE 350W power supply which has the required 12V ATX connector for the P4 as well as being Athlon certified.
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. It has 4 external USB ports located on the front bezel for easy access to USB peripherals. 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-68+USB 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-68+USB 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. The included fan filter in the front dramatically reduces dust and foreign objects from entering your precious rig. 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-68+USB like butter.
Coupled with an Enermax EG365P-VE 350W PSU, the Lian Li PC-68+USB 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 which draws air from the CPU area and another as an exhaust out of the back of the case. With 350W of power, you should have enough over head for future expansion.