Lian Li PC-C36 MUSE home theater case

GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
edited June 2009 in Science & Tech
Lian Li has been known for years as a designer of quality aluminum PC enclosures. Many an enthusiast has built a performance rig inside a Lian Li tower case. This summer, Lian Li released two new HTPC enclosures that follow the company's design principles of simplicity and efficiency. These offerings, the Lian Li PC-C36 MUSE and PC-C37 MUSE, offer similar layouts with slightly different feature s... Continue reading

Comments

  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Nice - if bluray support wasn't so crappy in the HTPC scene I wouldn't mind grabbing one of these. The case is very sleek :D
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2008
    Great review. Those HDD temperatures are a little concerning. Heats a killer. Looks great though. In the last picture, that DVD player with the yellow and orange label is wrecking the perfection of your setup.lol
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2008
    Oh the HDD light and the CPU light... is it detracting while in operation? Sometimes those little LED lights seem to flash straight at ya.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Komete wrote:
    Great review. Those HDD temperatures are a little concerning. Heats a killer. Looks great though. In the last picture, that DVD player with the yellow and orange label is wrecking the perfection of your setup.lol

    Yes, that's my parents' cheapo progressive scan player that I threw in the media center when mine bit the dust. I've been meaning to take that sticker off of there... I should have for this photo op!
    Komete wrote:
    Oh the HDD light and the CPU light... is it detracting while in operation? Sometimes those little LED lights seem to flash straight at ya.

    They can get a bit distracting. I'd personally unplug them for regular use in the media center if they were in line of sight.
    Gargoyle wrote:
    I'm not sure I like the way the optical bay looks on the front. I know it would limit choices, but I think the case would look a lot better if it just had a slot for slot-loading drives.

    I don't actually have a photo in the review that's a good representation of the drive door. It looks better than you'd think, just matching piece of aluminum that can be attached to the drive door with double stick tape. I didn't stick it on because I was only performing a temporary installation for the review. The pic of the front of the case shows it with the fastening tape that was used for packing still affixed, making it appear a bit odd.
    jared wrote:
    Nice - if bluray support wasn't so crappy in the HTPC scene I wouldn't mind grabbing one of these. The case is very sleek :D

    It definitely captures Lian Li's design philosophy, leading to a nice sleek front panel.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Nice review, GH.

    I'm not sure I like the way the optical bay looks on the front. I know it would limit choices, but I think the case would look a lot better if it just had a slot for slot-loading drives.
  • BobNel
    edited December 2008
    Would a full atx motherboard fit ?, there looks to be some space between the edge of the micro atx board and the psu.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    No, although there is definitely some space there, it is not enough to fit a full-size ATX motherboard.
  • Jim
    edited June 2009
    is it possible to use this with a PCI (not express) riser card? i was thinking of getting this case but i wondered since the riser is "all in one" and has pciex1 and x16, i wondered if i got a standard PCIe x1 riser card and a stanard PCI riser card, if it would work, since those riser cards only "rise" by 1 unit, or slot. if i were to have the x1 on teh bottom slot and a PCI on the top slot, how would i go about doing that? do they make risers on flexible ribbon cables so you can adjust where they are?

    thanks. good review. pics and descrips were very helpful.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited June 2009
    I would assume you can indeed use a full-height PCI card, provided you use a different riser card, if you can find it. Keep in mind that my fitment troubles came from a discrepancy between the motherboard and the provided riser card.

    If your Micro-ATX motherboard has a 1x PCI-E slot and a normal PCI slot, I'd recommend seeing if you can get your PCI-E and PCI cards with half-height bracket.

    Or, if you can't find them and your cards' PCBs are not full width, you can take the attachment bracket off the back of the card and fashion a new one using the blank out of the back of the case. I've done it before using a drill and a dremel for a PCI video card I once owned.
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