Who said PCs have to be ugly? After all, Apple has successfully redefined computer industry style with its bright, stylish machines, so why are most PC's still cream-colored and visually boring? Whether it's a conscious choice of substance over style, or some manufacturers conspiracy to hold back innovation in design, the bottom line is that PCs are just plain u-g-l-y.
On the other hand, major PC manufacturers would probably disagree. Tell them their computers look boring and they all point indignantly to their Net-appliances, saying: "This is not a boring PC." Okay, it's certainly true that some of these net-PCs are stylish. But ask those same manufacturers to throw a Pentium 4 1.5GHz, a GeForce 3 and 512Mbs of RAM into that cute little bugger and you'll be able to hear them laughing even without your pathetic soundcard. Face it, those cutesy PCs are barely PCs at all.
Why, you wonder? Simple: until now attractive cases have not been available for high-end systems. Do-It-Yourselfers have taken to dicing, slicing, cutting, and painting their steel cases to give their PCs some flair to meet their functionality. No one wants to spend $2000 on the latest gear just to stick it into an ugly vanilla case that's an eyesore under the desk. Hence the Lian-Li PC-60, a simple work of innovative architecture, introducing PC functionality to the brave new world of computer couture.
I've spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours making my case perform to a certain cooling standard, look decent, and work how any damned good case should. Most cases don't have everything that we power-users desire, so we make it ourselves. Lian-Li has set out to actually offer cases that come with what we want. One of the biggest advantages this case provides over others is its all aluminum design - making it lighter, but also cooler. The result is two lines of cases that succeed in improving the cooling environment AND look sleek in the office.
From here on in, we will focus on the PC-60, the standard aluminum mid-tower case from Lian-Li. Lian-Li also makes a larger, full tower model (PC-70), a smaller micro-tower (PC-30, PC-31 in black) and mid-tower cases in black and silver (PC-12). The PC-60, though, is the only one of the bunch that uses aluminum for the faceplate, making it the only all aluminum case from Lian-Li.
Since adding the PC-60 to our High-End Buyer's Guide, we have received several e-mails asking for more information about the case. The aim of this review is to answer all of those questions, while chronicling one user's experience using the case for a high-end system.