Lian Li's PC-O Series Are Showy, Sport Tempered Glass

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Lian Li's new O-series cases are made of aluminum with tempered glass panels, and they look stunning. A bit pricey, though.

Today, Lian Li announced not one, not two, not even three, but four new cases. These are the PC-O5, the PC-O5S, the PC06S, and the PC-O7S, and they're hardly run-of-the-mill.

All the enclosures feature almost the same design, and they're built around the same concepts. They are open-air cases with a full aluminum design. The only part that's not made of aluminum is the side panel, which is made of tempered glass and covers the entire side – no partial glass opening here. You can see the full guts of the PC through this panel, so you better manage your cables well!

Of the lot, the PC-O5 is the smallest, whereas the PC-O7S is the largest. The first two, the PC-O5 and the PC-O5S, are Mini-ITX cases with support for a single graphics card. The PC-O6S is a Micro-ATX case, and the PC-O7S is an ATX case. All of the cases with an "S" in the name support a 240 mm liquid cooling radiator. Hard drives and SSDs are mounted behind or on the motherboard tray, and all the cases have room for a single slim optical drive. They all have room for only one graphics card, thanks to the flattened internal layout. This graphics card is installed with a ribbon-style PCI-Express riser.

Front I/O connectivity consists of two USB 3.0 ports and the standard set of HD audio jacks. The larger PC-O6S and PC-O7S have an additional two USB 3.0 ports on their front I/O.

These are very pretty cases, and you'd think that their simple design makes them perfect for just about anyone, but you'd be wrong. The open-air design will lead to higher dust buildup, meaning you'll have to clean it out more often, and the glass and aluminum finishes will be very prone to fingerprints and oil smudges. If you take good care of it, though, you'll be rewarded with a very fine-looking case. It's showy, but not styled like those flashy plastic cases.

All that being said, time and love aren't the only things the PC-O series will cost you if you want one, because they're not what you'd call affordable. The PC-O5 will sell for $289, the PC-O5S for $319, the PC-O6S for $379, and the PC-O7S will cost you a hefty $419. For a case that supports only one graphics card, that's a lot of dough. All the cases will be available in February 2015.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

Topics
Cases
Components
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SkyBill40
    I saw a tempered glass and aluminum case at Fry's made by In Win. It looks pretty stellar but weighs a ton. Tempered glass does add a nice look.
    Reply
  • thefiend1
    I saw a tempered glass and aluminum case at Fry's made by In Win. It looks pretty stellar but weighs a ton. Tempered glass does add a nice look.

    Good thing you dont have to carry it around too often ;)
    Reply
  • redgarl
    It's a beautiful case.
    Reply
  • chicofehr
    I want one in full size please with wheels and some one to help me load it in back of my vehicle. This looks like an old Pentium 4 office towers but with glass.
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    Those.... are GORGEOUS.

    Absolutely going to be getting one to run my watercooling out the back of to the mahogany tower-radbox that I'm building. That's going to be quite the pairing.
    Reply
  • Darkk
    I have a glass desk so this would be a perfect fit! Yeah it's expensive but looks like it's very high quality and well made. So should last for several years if properly taken care of.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Pretty cool, however it kind of defeats the purpose of ATX and micro atx builds (besides mini itx), which is flexibility. I don't see a way to add more than 1 GPU or network card or what ever card to put in those extra pcie express lanes.
    Reply
  • Haravikk
    I'm not sure why the models supporting radiators should be open-air; if you can only fit one CPU and one GPU, then you don't really need a 240mm single radiator, you should be able to fit two 120mm ones instead, at which point you shouldn't need much air cooling for other components at all.


    The smallest case is pretty neat though, but it's expensive to begin with, and you'll need to spend extra to get components that look good together, plus any extras you squeeze in like lighting and such. Also you'll probably want to only do this if you're someone with a heap of spare cables, otherwise you'll be building the system part-way then ordering a bunch of replacement cables for anything that can't be routed neatly.


    That said, I do think a well design internal layout can look great, but yeah, you'll have to pay quite the premium to really make the most of it.
    Reply
  • virtualban
    I lost my attraction to see the internals of my computer. Had that for a long while, lights and neat cables and all, but my last built was a closed one, intentionally, and I liked it much better, other than finding it easier on the eyes now. Nothing fancy on the outside, only inside. And I will probably do so again on my next built. Maybe it is just a phase and I will get back to wanting to see the intestines of my computer again on the nextnext computer. After all, it was still me who liked that and went out of my way to get that.
    Reply
  • SkyBill40
    No doubt, Fiend1. This is the specific case I was speaking about:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108456&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Computer+Cases-_-N82E16811108456&ds_e_ad_type=pla&gclid=COT9u7ag0sICFasRMwodPVUA2Q&gclsrc=aw.ds
    Reply