Lian Li “Silent” PC-6070 PC Case Review

Supplied by lianli

To own a Lian Li PC Case is to own the Cadillac of PC cases. Lian Li have taken
the average and boring beige PC case and met it a work of aluminum art. Lian
Li PC cases are tool-less, innovative and practical in their design. Now Lian
Li jumps on the the silent road with the “Silent” PC-6070 mid-tower
aluminum case.

“Silent” is a subjective word for the PC or rather it is a comparative
word. Compared to 40 or 50 dB(A)fan a 20 dB(A) fan is very quiet; almost “silent”.
Lian Li

Specifications

• Dimension: 210x460x525mm. (W,H,D).
• Drive bays: 4×5.25″,3×3.5″,5×3.5″ internal.
• Fan: 3 x low noise ball bearing fans included.
• M/B type: ATX & pentium 4. (MAX SIZE: 12″x9.6″).
• Front USB: 2 ports. (support USB 2.0).

Product Features:

• Removable motherboard tray.
• Horizontal converter kit for HDD inner rack.
• Super bright HDD and PWR LED.
• Tool-less detachable Aluminum Door with sound insulating rubber.
• Top, front and Side panels with sound insulating foam.

Touring the PC-6070

The PC6070 is a mid-tower aluminum PC case with most of the popular design
features Lian Li is known for.

Gone is the naked bezel face.

The door snaps into place over two spring loaded posts top and bottom. The
door itself is thick by Lian Li standards and is trimmed by sound insulating
rubber.

The door is easily removed by a spring loaded latch located
on the undeside of the top bezel lip.

On the lower bezel lip are two USB ports.

The PC-6070 features four external 5.25″ bays and three
3.5″ external bays.

Brighter LEDs are used to ensure that the power LED and HDD activity LED light
will transfer through the clear plastic posts to be visible when the door is
closed; blue for power and red for HDD activity. They are quite visible.

The PC6070 is not a totally new case. It is based on a tried and tested design.
Lian Li does provide for unique features in each of their cases but the base
chassis within the size groups are more or less the same. A PC67 is identical
in size to the PC6070 with the exception of the door and mounts.

A major difference is how the bezel is affixed to the main chassis.

The top of the Lian Li PC6070 extends over top of the bezel
and is rolled back under itself.

Normally the bezel would be visibly separate from the main chassis as Lian
Li bezels simply “snap off”. They are held in place by friction posts.
The PC-6070 bezel is held in place by four tiny screws; two each side top and
bottom on the side edges. This is a disappointment. Lian Li snap-on bezels are
very convenient and could easily support the additional weight of a door. The
four screws are small and could be easily stripped. One of the four screws can
be seen in the previous image. (The wider shot of the previous two.)

The bezel removes and sound insulating foam strips line strategic points around
the case to aid in sound leakage.

Extending out the bottom of the image are the two USB connector wires. Each
of the wires has a separate 2-wire plugs to easily be accommodated on any motherboard.

Once the bezel has been removed the naked face is exposed. Lian Li cases often
come with a three position switch for low, medium and high. This feature is
missing from the PC6070 but is not needed.

The 3.5″ and 5.25″ drive bay doors are snap in/out. The floppy bay
is also held in by three thumbscrews. (Shown half-out.)

The entire 3.5″ drive bay does remove for easy mounting of floppy, zip
or other 3.5″ devices but isn’t as easily accessible as with the snap-on
bezels that Lian Li is well known for.

The lower part of the front face is for the dual intake fans.

Since the door blocks direct flow of air to these fans it has been routed up
from the underside of the bezel area. The ladder-like grills cna be seen at
the bottom portion of the front of the case. Lian Li cases typically had a large
porous foam filter over the fan area. It has been replaced by a smaller version
to cover the outer bottom of the intake vent. It is held in by thumbscrews.
The filter can be easily cleaned.

The foam has been parially pulled back to reveal the intake holes in the plate.

The door panels are held on by thumbscrews. They are also lined with a sound
insulating foam.

The foam is only 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick. The foam can be easily gouged
or ripped in careless hands. This foam lines the inner side of both door panels
and the top inside surface of the case. It is the same foam that lines the leakage
areas on the inside of the front bezel.

Lian Li cases
have a very accessable interior.

Lian Li cases now have removable hard drive bays which is an improvement from
the days where Short-Media first reviewed the PC67 chassis.

Two thumbscrews are all that hold the bay securely in place.

The two 80mm. ADDA intake fans are clearly visible. These fans are 80x80x25mm.
and spin at 1600 RPM generating 20.5 CFM at a very quiet 15 dB(A).

These are what gives the “Silent” to the PC-6070. 15 dB(A) is less
than human whisper level and about as audible as an ant sneezing.

Included in the parts box is an aluminum divider.

It inserts into the hard drive bay and allows a change to horizontal mounting
of hard drives from the default vertical orientation.

Note that 5 drives can be mounted vertically while only 3 drives can be mounted
horizontally. Lian Li also adds the customary plastic edge guards. These a common
to most Lian Li chassis of this style.

Looking into the case from the rear PSU area forward more foam can be seen
lining the top inside of the case. Both door panels have been removed for the
following image.

The PSU area features short but handy support posts for the
PSU itself.

Below are the 7 PCI slots with thumbscrews and the rear ADDA fan which is the
same model as the two front intakes.

The rear of the case is standard but the preference would be for less airflow
restriction for the rear exhaust fan. It is a better design than most cases
and a compromise must be made in the width of the slots vs. structural integrity.

The side door panel can be locked closed with a buyer supplied
lock.

The Lian Li cases are famous for removable motherboard trays. They are a joy
to work with. No more fiddling with installing or mounting in tight spaces.

Lian Li also has a detachable motherboard-front panel connector assembly. This
too is very convenient but the case side of this connection could be another
6 inches longer as connecting them two halves is a little bit awkward.

Lian Li has added swingout feet to the PC6070 for additional stability. Note
how the air intake filter grill is attached to the bottom of the bezel.

Lastly the parts bag comes with screws, extra thumbscrews, cable ties and a
self-adhesive wiring clip.

Installation

Installation is a breeze with a removable motherboard tray.

Everything can be mounted including PCI devices outside of the case. This is
extremely convenient.

The Lian Li
cases are easy to work in and installation is always a breeze.

Testing

The ASUS A7N8X Deluxe test system.

• AMD 2600+ 333 FSB
  Processor
• ASUS A7N8X motherboard
• ATI 9700 PRO Video Card Catalyst 2.3 & 3.2 drivers (Default settings
  w/VSYNC disabled)
• 2 x 256 MB Corsair PC3200 DDR RAM
• Sony 52x CD
• LG 40x CDRW
• 60 GB Maxtor ATA133 Hard Drive
• Samsung 950p 19″ Monitors
• USB Keyboard and Logitech USB wireless Optical Mouse
• Globalwin CAK4-76T heatsink (24.7-35 dB(A))
• Enermax 465 Watt FC PSU
• Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1

All tests were run at default video card settings with VSYNC disabled. Bios
was optimized for system but not tweaked for any performance settings requiring
specialized knowledge of overclocking. In other words the BIOS settings were
standard as far as anyone can set the time and date, ensure the ram is 2 or
4 way interleave and at CAS 2 and AGP is chosen as the first boot video card
(8x). The BIOS settings were kept as close to conservative or default value
or as otherwise specified. The ASUS A7N8X memory settings were set to OPTIMAL
and AGGRESSIVE as disclosed. Memory was kept at DDR333 settings for synchronous
timing with the 2600+ 333FSB processor. Individual performance will vary with
any particular or specific timings or tweaks enabled by you.

1024 MB page file moved to D: partition. Temporary Internet files moved to
K: partition at end of drive. OS installed to C: and programs installed to
E:. All programs were benchmarked at 1024×768@75Hz with the exception of SoftimageXSI
which requires 1280×1024 resolution.

All motherboards are tested “right out of the box”. No special
BIOS timings were set except for the time and date, boot order and health monitor
features. The BIOS was purposely kept to the factory conservative settings to
provide a base comparison. From there is only up.

For all tests an AMD 2600+ 333FSB processor and two sticks of Corsair memory
were used.

These may result in lesser or greater scores. Void where prohibited by law.
Don’t run with scissors. Chew each bite 32 times and always floss between meals.
Batteries not included. Wait one hour after a meal before swimming and use tonic
water to get stains out. Immerse a piece of tinfoil in a tray of warm water,
a tablespoon of water softener powder and a tablespoon of salt and dip silverware
in for instant cleaning.

Hot or cold?

It’s pretty simple. Did the Silent PC6070 run cool as well as silent? In a
24.5 degree Celsius room idle temperature was 47 degrees Celsius and load, after
30 minutes of Sandra CPU Burn In was 51 degrees Celsius. Motherboard temperature
rose only 1 degree from 35 to 36. That doesn’t mean much does it.

The same components on a Chaintech 7NJS Zenith motherboard in an ANTEC style
case with twice as many fans turning twice as much airflow delivered an idle
temperature of 50 degrees Celsius. Is the Lian Li PC6070 that much better with
half as much airflow and fans? It is safe to say that it does a competent job
given the fact that temperature is also a variable of components used.

Temperature is such a variable that it would be unfair to say that the PC-6070
is a great performer for cooling but for everyday use the PC6070 does its job
and does it fairly well.

Conclusion; Silent or not?

“Silent” can only acheived by the total lack of sound. What is silent?
A brick sitting on the floor is silent. There are no moving parts and as long
as it is not in the process of dropping then it is safe to say a brick is silent.
Technically the Lian Li PC6070 is not silent but at 15 dB(A) for the fans it
is extremely quiet.

Here’s the catch.

Sound absorbing insulation does not block noise. It only changes it. Depending
on the material used the final overall strength of sound wave may drop a few
dB but not much. This is true for any sound insulating product on the marketplace.
(Dynamat, Magic Fleece, Akasa Pax Mat). So what does the sound insulating material
do for the PC6070?

It dampens vibration for one. Those “rattles and vibrations” generated
by fans, hard drives and other such moving parts generate movement. For example
a car door that rattles seems louder than a car door that does not even though
the outside traffic noise and inside engine noise is the same.

Any insulating material only changes sound waves. It may not block or “quiet”
them but change how they are perceived. A power saw may be loud but close the
door and it is much quieter. How quiet depend on a lot of variables but for
arguments sake the sound passing through the door is changed. How is it changed?
The easiest way to visualize this is a knife. Unobstructed sound is a knife
with a very sharp blade; it will cut through pretty good. Sound passing through
an object is like a knife with a dull blade. How dull depends on the object
the sound passes through.

It is safe to say that the insulation material in the PC6070 “takes the
edge off” but a loud heatsink fan will be just as perceptible but not as
high frequency annoying.

Pros

• Removable motherboard tray.
• Removable hard drive bay.
• Removable floppy (3.5″) bay.
• Thumbscrews.
• Stock case is extremely quiet.
• No sharp edges anywhere.
• Solid door on bezel.
• Front USB ports.
• Detachable motherboard front panel connectors,
• Aluminum style.
• Well constructed.
• Swing-out feet for added stability.
• HDD and Power LEDs are bright.
• Airflow is sufficient for normal, everyday operation.
• Door insulates some drive bay sound.
• Horizontal or vertical hard drive mounting.
• 1.2-3.0 mm. aluminum construction. (Others manufacturers us 0.6-1 mm. to
  lower cost. Thicker is better.)
• Hard brushed anondized surface for additional scratch protection. (Vs. powder
  coat.)

Cons

• Bezel is no longer clip mounted. (screws are used.)
• Bezel is not as easily removed.
• Silent rating is on base case but loud heatsink fans will still be heard.
• Airflow (cooling power) may not be up to overclocker’s expectations or desires.
• Not really needed but the three postion fan switch (Low, Medium, High) would
  have been nice.
• Pricier than most.

Final words

Lian Li stylings are definitely for the elite. It is a status symbol to own
a Lian Li case. The addition of a solid door is a great option. Essentially
the PC6070 is a PC6# chassis with a door and sound insulation material. There
are only two improvements to this case that I’d like to see and those are a
return to a higher CFM fan with the 3 postion speed switch and a snap on bezel.
It is easy enough for the fans, while set to LOW, to drop into the 15 dB(A)
range. The higher settings would allow for greater airflow and thus greater
appeal to other markets. Overall the Lian Li PC6070 and all the Lian Li cases
are the Cadillacs of PC cases.

Lastly would I reccomend a Lian
Li case? Most definitely yes.