PC-TU200 Overview
When you first take a look at the PC-TU200 you can tell it is a Lian Li case. The nice brushed aluminum is an instant giveaway. The PC-TU200 is entirely made of aluminum unlike many cases that have an aluminum front bezel but that rest is made of steel. We received the silver version but it also does come in black. On thing that is a little weird at first glance is all the rivets on the case especially on the corners, but you will see why Lian Li has done this. This look does make it look like a briefcase a little bit.
Starting at the front of the case you have a single 5.25-inch drive bay. This drive bay does have an optical bay cover on it. This makes sure the front of your case will stay nice and clean. Below that are the power and reset buttons and the large 140mm fan. At the center of the fan is a Lian Li logo. Below the intake fan are your front panel connections which from left to right are eSATA, 2x USB 3.0 and audio.
On the top of the case is the handle. It is very sturdy and you should have no problem carrying the case from the handle even when it is packed with hardware. Both side panels are completely plain. Wait a second where are the thumbscrews for the side panel? There are none! You will see how the side panel comes off the case in just a little bit.
Taking a look at the back of the case you can see how things inside will be laid out. On the left you have the opening for your I/O shield and on the right is where your power supply will go. This case does fix normal sized ATX power supplies. Towards the bottom of the case there are 2 expansion slots. At the top of the case you will notice 2 levels on each side. These are used to release the side panels. There is a thumbscrew that locks the levers in place so when you are moving the case around or traveling you don’t pop the side panel off.
On the bottom of the case there are 4 large metal feet that will lift the case off the ground for airflow. There is also a large dust filter on the bottom of the case.
is it better than this one? http://www.amazon.com/Dell-iO2320-111ELS-Desktop/dp/B005KP7O0Y?tag=emjay2d-20
I built a gaming computer in this case mid-December 2011.
Here’s what’s in the box…
Zotac Z68ITX-A-E mobo
Core i7 2600K
Mushkin Enhanced Redline (2x4GB) DDR3 2133
Cooler Master GX Series RS650
Pioneer Blu-ray BDR-206DBKS
EVGA GTX 560 Ti 448 Core FTW
OCZ Agility 3 240GB
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000
Themaltake Slim X2 CPU Cooler
I originally tried a Zalman CNPS 8000A CPU Cooler, based on someone’s blog post. While the cooler fit heightwise, it was too big left to right and could not be mounted without interfering with the video card. That’s why I settled on the Thermaltake.
After taking the hard drive cage in and out, in and out, over and over, I finally realized that it would be possible to mount my 3.5 rotating drive in the top of case holes used to mount the entire drive cage. Since my SSD mounted on the floor of the case in the 2.5 mounting spot provided., I was able to just leave the hard drive cage out. All that empty space, has made me consider putting in a liquid CPU cooler. ( A project for later this month).
My video card was not a full length card, but it was quite clear to me that a single full length card would not be a problem in this case. None the less, even with my shortened card, the video card slices the case into 2 cooling zones. 1 for the mobo, power supply and any hard drives not mounted on the floor of the case. The other zone is the video card and the SSD. The first zone (the 1 with the mobo) uses the case’s front mounted 140mm fan to blow air into the case. I have the PSU mounted so that it’s fan (which blows air out of the case) is just above the CPU cooler fan.
However, the second zone has only the video card fan(s) for air circulation. Holes in the bottom of the cage supply all the air for this second zone. Therefore if you place the case on carpeting you may find your video card over heating very quickly. A smooth hardish surface between the case and the carpet – say a piece of poster board eliminates the problem. (It only had to crash Skyrim once for me to learn this lesson)
The cable the case provided for the case power LED used a three pin connector that did not match my motherboard. A lot of cases know this can be a problem so they don’t group the 2 LED wires into a single multi-pin connector, instead they provide each LED wire with its own 1 pin connector. I wish Lian had done that for my case. As it was, I had to re-pin the connector using a safety pin to carefully remove the crimped on contacts from the plastic housing. Finally, re-inserting the contacts into a the same connector but in a configuration that allowed 1 of the 3 pins to hang over the edge of the mobo pins. FYI, the power light and disk light are very attractive and worth the trouble.
I got the black case. But fit and finish is not perfect. As a result, I think the aluminum finish might actually look better, since you would never notice a little sliver of silver showing in a gap between the case and removable panels. These tiny little imperfections shine out like a laser on the black finish case.
If you want to e-mail about my build experience with this case, write me at [email protected]
help,
I’ve purchased this case, using it for gaming i5 3570k and gtx 680. What cpu cooler would you recommend?