Lian Li PC-TU100 Mini-ITX Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on May 29, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- Lian Li
Assembling the Lian Li PC-TU100
One of the perks of testing a case this small is that sometimes there's just so little you can actually do that the whole thing just kind of blows by. With the Lian Li PC-TU100, there's only so much that can be installed, even by our Mini-ITX testing standards.
Since there's really only one form factor supported by this case, motherboard standoffs come pre-installed in the frame. Popping in the I/O shield is a little trickier than usual due to the pliance of the aluminum Lian Li uses, but getting the board itself in was fairly simple. The case headers included by Lian Li are a little on the long side for a case this small, but they get the job done. Note that the intake fan is 3-pin and will need to be connected to the motherboard.
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Mounting 2.5" drives involves inserting screws surrounded by rubber runners into the sides of the drives, then slotting them down into the drive trays. The friction caused by the rubber runners allows the drives to be held in surprisingly securely. This is pretty typical Lian Li, but it's also one place where their persistence in using this design pays off.
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Expansion cards are a bit trickier for two reasons. There's a cover plate held on by two screws in the back of the case that just keeps the design looking clean, but will need to be removed. There's also the matter of clearance, though. Our GeForce GTX 560 Ti didn't fit in the PC-TU100. That 200mm clearance works out to about 7.8", making the most powerful card you can fit into the case the extra-short GTX 670 ASUS produces. Even then I'm not sure I'd go that far; the graphics card slot receives very little fresh air due to the way airflow is directed through the PC-TU100. Really what you want is a blower-style cooler, but the case isn't deep enough for one. You can fit a decent graphics card inside, but you'll have to choose with care.
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Finally, installing the power supply and getting everything wired is always going to be tricky, and that continues to be an issue here. It's really just a matter of space; cables inevitably get compressed between the power supply and the CPU cooler, and you have to be very careful to keep them out of the cooler's fan blades. Once you have everything in order, though, the case is pretty painless to snap shut again, and the doors themselves are nice and secure.
While it's not a total picnic, assembling the PC-TU100 is about as easy as it's going to get in this form factor barring the suggestions I made on the previous page. You'll see when we get to the test results, though, that any build using the PC-TU100 is going to need special attention paid to component choices. Anything more than a modest overclock won't be an option, and you should probably keep the wattage on the video card fairly low.
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Travis² - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Hey Dustin,Great review!
I would really like to see all the benchmarks re-run with the sides off.
I could see myself (and other people) bringing it to LAN-party's all buttoned up but taking the sides off once the gaming begins.
I imagine that the noise would increase but it might the increased airflow might make using a more powerful CPU/GPU combo possible.
-Travis
1d107 - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Seems very similar to PC-Q11. That one is larger, but it takes full-sized power supply, full-sized optical drive, has 140mm fan and mounts for 2x3.5" and 2x2.5" disk drives.Lian-Li has two new cases: PC-Q27 and PC-Q28. Would be nice to get reviews for them.
Overall though it seems that Lian-Li has a few well-designed modules and then tries to throw them together in different combinations. Unfortunately, the success rate is very low. PC-Q11 was a nice exception, if you disregarded tiny side panel screws and lack of internal USB 3 connector.
Alan G - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
"Lian-Li has two new cases: PC-Q27 and PC-Q28. Would be nice to get reviews for them."I'm considering the PC-Q27 for an office computer for my wife. I'll use an i3 chip with integrated graphics so it will not have a cumbersome GPU (which she wouldn't need). Concern is about passive cooling since the case doesn't have a fan.
Grok42 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Be sure to checkout the PC-Q25 as well. It's $20 off right now and only $99.Chriz - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
I miss the Lian Li of old, when they had nice features like slide out motherboard trays and the cases were made out of stronger aluminum. They are concentrating too much on making their cases lightweight and visually different, which is sacrificing quality and features. Their innovations of late may look "cool" to some people, but hardly have any functional value. They really need to learn from Fractal Design and Silverstone.Memristor - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
They have smaller cases too which are of excellent quality like the PC-Q12 or even smaller PC-Q05.Dentons - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Too large. Too expensive.Meh
PatriciaBau42 - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Aria. even though Phyllis`s report is astonishing, last friday I got a gorgeous Citroλn 2CV since getting a cheque for $7974 this munth and just over ten/k last-month. it's by-far the nicest-work Ive had. I actually started 6 months ago and practically straight away got me over $78, per-hr. I use details from here,, Exit35.comCHECK IT OUTlwatcdr - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Dustin it would be cool if you would include links to the cases that you compair it. I assume that all of those have been reviewed here so links to those would be ideal.stlouis1 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
The moment I looked at the pictures and saw where the PSU was mounted I stopped reading and looked at the temp/noise charts. I don't know how Dustin was even bothered to finish reviewing the case from that point. I don't understand how an engineer in the year 2013 re-use a psu mounting design that failed already a decade ago. I thought we had stopped mounting PSU's above the cpu after the Pentium II's?