The PC-08 is Lian Li's latest design, the PC-08, and it's an interesting take. Featuring a dual-compartment setup, the PC-08 is a large ATX case designed to showcase your best hardware while hiding away less eye-catching parts such as hard drives and the power supply. This idea isn't new and has been used in various cases in the past, but what is new is the front panel – or rather the lack thereof.
Where you would traditionally find a font bezel made of plastic or aluminum, but without the need for an optical bay, there is no longer a need for a traditional front bezel. Instead, Lian Li installed a solid piece of tempered glass across the entire front of the case. As a result, the components installed can be seen through the front panel.
The left side of the case is also made of a solid piece of tempered glass. The glass panes are not attached to an aluminum side panel; they simply have holes in all four corners that are used to attach them with thumbscrews directly to the case. Lian Li also included an RGB LED light kit that lights up the whole case. Three nobs are found on the back of the case to adjust each color independently.
Lian Li included significant water cooling support. Options for radiators include a single 120 x 120 mm rad in the rear exhaust of the motherboard compartment, and a 120 x 120 mm or a 120 x 240 mm radiator can be installed in the offset holes above the motherboard. On the right side, with the hard drives, there is support for either a 120 x 120 mm, 120 x 240 mm, or a 120 x 360 mm rad. All three spaces can be used together with no restrictions.
Lian Li also said that the component options are not restricted either. Graphics cards up to 370 mm (14.5") long will fit, CPU coolers as tall as 170 mm (6.7") are supported, and all power supply sizes can be accommodated with a maximum clearance of 298 mm (11.7").
The hard drive cage is located on the right side of the case behind the motherboard tray. Lian Li said this cage will support up to eight drives -- six 3.5" drives and two 2.5" laptop or SSD drives. There are two 120 mm fans installed inside the drive cage to help keep the drives cool. The cage itself removes with four thumb screws found in the rear of the case. This should make installing hard drives fairly simple. The power supply mount is located directly below the hard drive cage.
Lian Lis' PC-08 will be available at the end of June with a suggested retail price of $395.
Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
