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.
.jpg)
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.
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
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.
.jpg)
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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
23 Comments
View All Comments
ronmccord - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
I think you are being hard on this very small and unique case. First off 50-65 celcius under load is not bad at all considering the case. and 35db not bad at all either. I am coming from laptops that run that and dbs can be higher so I am not as picky. The temps are well under specs and this is a much smaller case the prodigy or sg08 that you speak so highly of. In fact this is one of the smallest itx cases you can buy with a real 450 watt power supply and 760 asus small video card. The prodigy is downright huge and is really an mini atx case. Not only can you pick this up and go easily but it will fit in a backpack or in carry on luggage like a waterproof pelican 1510 which only a couple of other cases will do. The look is quality and unique and you can put it behind a monitor whereas the prodigy and shoebox style cases can take up too much room especially the wobbly plastic prodigy. This is a quality specialist case and My plan is to ditch the optical drive, get a silverstone gold 450 sft modular, one ssd and the new Asus 760 mini. I wll just udate the mini video card every couple of years and be good to go! Would of been nice to have someone really review this with a modular powersupply and getting rid of any excess cables with the new 760.Haravikk - Saturday, April 12, 2014 - link
The review mentions the 120mm fan mount, but would they take a 140mm fan with 120mm mounting holes? I often use the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 for that purpose; although it's really a CPU cooler it makes a great case fan thanks to being only 15mm thick, provided you're okay with only having a PWM connection.Personally I think this case looks pretty sweet, but I can understand the reviewers issues with it. But assuming you have a video card that is single height, perhaps you could use one of those single-slot GPU cooler blower fans to help keep the heat down? Personally I was thinking of maybe cutting a piece of plastic to direct some of the airflow down towards the GPU.
I'm also hoping Lian-Li may just ditch the optical drive in a future model, as it's a better place to put your 2.5" drive(s), and you could probably do it now if you wanted to keep them away from the GPU. Plus it may open up room for a second 120mm fan on the front; I suppose technically you could even do that yourself on a TU100 right now if you're willing to drill into it, which is one of the hidden benefits of aluminium (it's a lot easier than even thin steel).
You're right though that the attention to detail is a bit lacking, as this could otherwise be a perfect case for small form factor computer, without sacrificing (much) component choice.
n13L5 - Thursday, September 10, 2015 - link
This is a great design, but silly and obvious mistakes being made in the allocation of space.Lian Li's designers have not paid attention to recent component trends (last 5-7 years are wholly ignored). When they do build smaller boxes, space is usually misallocated, leading to limitations that end up sending even Lian Li fans to purchase lower quality Silverstone cases with better layout and cooling strategies.