I’ve finally retired¹ my Lian-li PC-75 and reassembled my computer with the new case – and I’m here to do a mini-review on it.

It’s a Lian-li Tyr PC-X2000 which I had ordered last April – which finally arrived today… along with their T7 workbench – which I won’t be talking about.²

Lian-li, to me, is the brand to beat as far as desktop casing goes. If there’s one company that can rival Apple in the chassis department for their desktop computers – it would be them. If Apple focuses on the user-experience of their software/UI, these guys focus on the mechanical aspects of desktop casing.

I started out with a PC-60. I got it for a couple of reasons:

1. It was the first all-aluminum case available for DIY builders – much lighter than the regular steel cases.
2. It had a removable motherboard tray
3. It had front-panel USB ports – which at that time, wasn’t standard issue with any case.
4. It had a bunch of huge built-in fans – which again, at the time, wasn’t standard issue like the cases we see today.
5. It used “thumb-screws” – which allowed you to open up the case without having any screwdriver.

Simply put, if you like building computers, working with a case like this was, is, and will be a real joy.

I eventually realized that I needed a bigger case. Constantly accessing the innards became tedious as the cabling would get too cramped on a mid-sized tower. I upgraded to a full-tower PC-75.

I remember even having it modified (adding a handle and caster wheels) before transferring the components to it. It had a lot of improvements on the PC-60 apart from the size – but for some reason it did lose the removable motherboard tray.³

It was a good case and served me well – and has been the case I’ve been using until now.

The reason I felt like upgrading was when I came across the PC-X2000; it had a lot of features which solved a lot of sources of frustrations I had with the PC-75.

Take note of the wheels on the PC-75,
it’s really not that tall ;)

Fan Filter

The fan filter of the PC-75 has long since “decomposed” it’s just some special type of foam, so continuous washing, etc. eventually just made it brittle till it was unusable – and the “replacement” foam I’ve been using just isn’t up to par. This new case now has a more industrial type filter (the one to the right of the front-cover in the picture below) just like with air conditioners, which I imagine would be much easier to clean/maintain.

Black Anodized Aluminum

Speaking of maintenance, it was getting tedious to clean/maintain a gray aluminum case. The new case was black appealed to me very much because no matter how dirty it gets, it won’t be an eyesore.

Hot Swappable SATA drive bays

When I started migrating my drives to SATA, having hot swappable bays for them would be easier to work with. This new case had excactly that. In fact the feature isn’t common with the newer Lian-li models themselves, so at the time I bought it, the feature was specific to the Tyr PC-X2000.

Side mounted CD-ROM drive bay, Top access to controls/panels

These are more more of cosmetic things. The ugliest thing I always notice with computers is the CD drives – so much so that I end up buying Lian-li drive covers to “unify” the look of the case and exposed components. Given I personally don’t use the drives a lot, it was nice to relocate them to an area that isn’t immediately visible, yet still easily accessible.

The PC-75′s front panel, just like with the PC-60, was at the bottom. The power/reset switches was in the typical places (lower middle). Which is very annoying for a full tower case which is usually set on the floor. The new case fixes that by putting all main controls and panels on top.

Simply put, this allows the case to have a very minimalist front. Even the LED indicators are carefully placed as to not be so intrusive

Removable Motherboard Tray

The feature I love is back! ‘Nuff said

Narrower

I usually put the computer on the floor inside the table, so the PC-75 used to stick out quite a way lest the wires and connectors on the back would hit the table’s back. Now, the X2000 is narrower; so I could afford to push it inward more while still having space at the rear.

Pros

Apart from what I’ve already mentioned above, of course.

• Its really quiet – which is a feat in and of itself given the huge-assed fans it comes with.
• It comes with so many accessories to simplify the PC build.
  
  • All the screws and extra screws you will ever need: (30 drive/motherboard screws, 16 stand off bolts, 26 SATA HDD screws,⁴ 8 CD-ROM screws, 6 PSU screws, and 6 spare thumb-screws)
  • 6 regular SATA cables, and 2 extra long ones (to reach the CD-ROM)
  • PCI-Card holders of various sizes for extra long GPUs⁵
  • Special mounting bracket for SSI CEB/EEB type boards.
  • 6 HDD rail handles (for use with the HDD/SATA mounts)
  • Buzzer: the speaker isn’t built-in to the case anymore, it now comes as a cute detachable piezo thingie.
  • Cable ties and clamps for cable management

Cons

There are only 3 issues I have with this case.

• It’s too tall. I would’ve wanted to put the same modifications on the case as I did with my PC-75 (wheels and handlebars) but the case alone is taller than my modified PC-75, and anything taller than that wouldn’t fit under the table.

• While Lian-li has been thoughtful enough to provide all the cabling necessary, it wouldn’t hurt to having black shrink-wrapped cables. You’ll still have to do some cable management if you want to tidy everything up – including the use of cable-wrappers. Just compare the image below to the one above; the one above is after I’ve made all cables black.

• The fan-speed switch is covered by the fan filter. So you’ll have to take the filter off if you want to change fan speeds. Not that you’ll really need to adjust it often, I just set it to the highest (given how quiet it is) and leave it there forever. But still, it would’ve been nice to put it in the front-panel instead right?

Conclusion

All in all, I’m very happy with my new case. I don’t see the need of changing it anymore… but then again, that’s what I said when I got the PC-75 – so only time will tell ;)

Visit the official product page which describes all the features in detail.