Upside-Down And Backwards, Lian Li’s PC-O12 Design Allows For Dual Vertically Mounted GPUs

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Lian Li announced its new PC-O12 compact mid-tower chassis, not to be confused with the PC-O11 WGX we looked at here or the PC-O11 WGX RoG announced here. This dual-chambered case features a steel frame with tempered glass and aluminum panels and a unique GPU mounting system.

The press release seems to put an emphasis on the "benefits" of tempered glass:  

The PC-O12’s flawless tempered glass front and side panels make it a sleek and sophisticated showcase for the latest cutting edge computing technologies. Tempered glass is tough, safe and very durable, providing a ‘fresh from the showroom’ appearance indefinitely. The PC-O12’s alluring black aluminum outer body and panels complete the picture. Internally, a rigid steel frame provides a firm foundation for state of the art features.

In addition to the PC-O12 being a dual-chamber case, it also features an inverted, reversed design. This means the primary compartment for your main system components is on the opposite side of the motherboard tray, facing the right hand side of the case. The inverted design positions the CPU socket area at the bottom of the case with support for coolers up to 75mm. There is no support for graphics cards on this side of the case.

With that said, you will find mounting locations for two vertically positioned graphics cards on the left hand side of the chassis that connect to the motherboard via the included PCI-E riser cable. Although the PC-O12 is designed for multi-GPU use, Nvidia graphics card owners will be unable to take advantage of SLI due to the lack of a flexible bridge connector long enough to span the distance between both video cards. Radeon owners are unaffected by this issue because the connection between graphics cards is made through the PCI-Express bus without the need for an external bridge connector.

The PC-O12 measures 508 x 203 x 550mm (HxWxD) and weighs in at 8.6kg. This chassis has mounting locations for 4x 3.5” and 4x 2.5” drives, graphics cards up to 340mm,  PSUs up to 230mm in length, CPU coolers as tall as 75mm, and support for up to E-ATX motherboards. There are no expansion slot openings in the rear of this chassis aside from the GPU mounting locations.

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Although the PC-012 supports up to five 120mm fans and two 140mm fans, the company does not include any fans with the chassis. The top and bottom panels also include magnetic mesh dust filters. A 240mm radiator or all-in-one cooler can be mounted in both the front and top of the case.

The PC-O12 is available now for $400.

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ProductLian Li PC-O12
Motherboard TypeUp to E-ATX
Expansion Slots4 (GPU Only)
Dimensions (HxWxD)508 x 203 x 550mm
Weight8.6kg
Drive Bays4 x 3.5” 4 x 2.5"
PSUStandard PS2 PSU
Front I/O2 x USB 3.0 1 x HD Audio 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C
Radiator Support2x 240mm
Fan Support120mm / 140mm fan x2 (front) / 120mm fan x3 (Top)
CPU Cooler Max Height75mm
VGA Cooler Max Length340mm
PSU Cooler Max Length230mm
Price$400
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Steven Lynch
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • drwho1
    Useless.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    Talk about a solution in need of a problem...
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    Lian Li really needs to step back to the basics. Have there designers stare at some Phanteks cases for a few hours for inspiration.
    Reply
  • Pompompaihn
    Makes more sense than the enclosed open air test bench....
    Reply
  • David_the_Bruce
    I think it looks nice and would love to build a system with it, to each their own. ¯\_(?)_/¯
    Reply
  • whaletail
    I think it looks great, but at $400, it needs to offer more than tempered glass and PCI-E riser cables.

    Is the mobo tray even removable?
    Reply
  • Virtual_Singularity
    19707305 said:
    Lian Li really needs to step back to the basics.

    Couldn't agree more. The PC-012 will earn LL some sales. ditto for their latest tempered glass & other uniquely designed cases/desks. Good for them if so. I just hope Lian Li doesn't abandon making quality aluminum cases altogether. The last all aluminum case (iirc) LL released was PC-J60B, a mid-sized ATX affair, with a PSU shroud, no bays, adequate storage, airflow & water cooling potential. If LL released a bigger EATX version, with, say, 3x 5.25" external bays, & with the same elegant all aluminum build & quality construction that Lian Li was known for not long ago, even if it was the last enclosure of that sort they released, it'd still be much appreciated by some of us.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    19707792 said:
    19707305 said:
    Lian Li really needs to step back to the basics.

    Couldn't agree more. The PC-012 will earn LL some sales. ditto for their latest tempered glass & other uniquely designed cases/desks. Good for them if so. I just hope Lian Li doesn't abandon making quality aluminum cases altogether. The last all aluminum case (iirc) LL released was PC-J60B, a mid-sized ATX affair, with a PSU shroud, no bays, adequate storage, airflow & water cooling potential. If LL released a bigger EATX version, with, say, 3x 5.25" external bays, & with the same elegant all aluminum build & quality construction that Lian Li was known for not long ago, even if it was the last enclosure of that sort they released, it'd still be much appreciated by some of us.

    I own a Lian Li PC-B25SB from 6-7 years ago. At the time it was one of the nicer cases for a quite pc. I just wish they would stop with the whole vanity craze and focus back on innovation. They really should come out with there own version of a Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV. What I mean is a nice clean case with 140mm fans all around for better cooling and noise, front and top baffles for noise, and a clean layout inside with options to mount hidden SSD's etc. They can do it in there style but this is the bar now and they are not even reaching for it .
    Reply
  • synphul
    Seems a bit steep for so few options. $400 case, restricted to cpu coolers 75mm tall or shorter so basically water cooling or nothing for upper end or oc'd cpu's. No included fans (even sub $200 cases generally offer 2-3 high quality fans such as phanteks, bequiet etc).

    The one main feature that sets it apart from others is the layout for the gpu's and the support for dual gpu's then making it in such a way that it only works with amd gpu's. Fail.

    This amounts to a car company building a sport coupe but making the wheel wells so small that only 14" wheels and economy tires will fit it, not enough room for 16-17" wheels and low pro or wider touring tires will be compatible with it like every other sport coupe out there.

    I'd expect more from lian li to step up their game, realize what's out there and design around it rather than come up with designs that basically fit one type of build in such an expensive case. People expect compromises on a $40 case, not a $400 case. Innovative designs that literally shut out 50% of the gpu market (for multi gpu use) come off as blunders. Not sure 'the worlds most expensive SLI-less case' is a great marketing angle.
    Reply
  • Zanarini Nicola
    I would like to point out that this is not an original idea by Lian Li, but that t's copied off the crowdfunded case by the Italian company Hydra, which has already manufactured a number of cases with this design and the revised version of their case (the Defcon One) is awaiting manufacturing after having been unveiled in renders a few month back.
    Reply