Lepa's New LPC501 Lacking Newer Features
Lepa's new LPC501 doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it is reasonably priced.
We first saw Lepa's new LPC501 mid-tower enclosure at Computex, and now the company is following with the official release. The LPC501 is a simple, albeit slightly out-of-date case, which arrives at a relatively friendly price point.
Inside, you'll be able to house up to ATX motherboards, graphics cards up to 294 mm long -- or if you remove a drive cage, 414 mm long. There is also room for CPU coolers up to 174 mm tall, along with six 3.5" or 2.5" drives. Although the feature is perhaps a bit out of date, the case can also fit three 5.25" optical drives.
The enclosure also has room for up to six fans, all of which are 120 mm units. One of these is a standard fan installed as rear exhaust, and two others are Enerflo TA fans, which are LED-lit and mounted in the front. The top of the case has room for two more 120 mm fans, and the bottom of the case can also hold one. Despite the top of the case holding two 120 mm fans, motherboards with large VRM heatsinks on top might not leave enough clearance for a water cooling radiator. The rear 120 mm fan mount will hold a 120 mm radiator, although that might not be enough to satisfy all potential buyers.
The LPC501 will come in two flavors, the LPC501A and the LPC501B, where "A" stands for Advances and "B" for Basic. The advanced variant comes with an acrylic side window, two USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 3.0 ports. The Basic variant won't have a side window, and it gives up a USB 3.0 port in exchange for a USB 2.0 port. It won't be sold in the US.
All things considered, there's not really anything new about this case. We would have liked to see dedicated 2.5" slots, fewer optical drive bays, and better all-in-one liquid cooling support. You'll be able to build a perfectly good system in this case, but it may feel like you're dealing with something from a few years ago. The advanced version of the case is available for $64.99, which despite the somewhat outdated design, is still a relatively friendly price tag.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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iam2thecrowe ReplyNot bad , good looking case.
Looks much like the corsair spec 01/02/03. Even the power/reset/usb are positioned in the same spot. The only diff is the 3rd 5.25" bay and front grill design. Looks ok, but doesnt look very original. -
Dark Lord of Tech Spec series is useless because you can't fit a decent Air cooler in them.Reply
This case you can fit a decent sized AIR cooler in. -
rishiswaz This is a decent case and for a budget builder it is something that looks nice (not tacky), has decent features, and can support optical drives. I think 3 drives bays are a good idea because other things can go in there besides the obvious optical drives, fan controllers, reservoirs, hotswap bays, other accessories (the NZXT Hue is a great example). They really need to work on the editing though, there were a few typos and some parts with ambiguous wording.Reply -
iam2thecrowe Reply14396801 said:Spec series is useless because you can't fit a decent Air cooler in them.
This case you can fit a decent sized AIR cooler in.
i have the spec 01 and dont find it useless, and it was cheap. I knew i couldnt fit an oversized air cooler in it so i put in a water cooler that was only a few more $$ than the hyper 212. I'm not a big fan of big air coolers, look unsightly and makes everything too cluttered imo.