System Build, Performance, and Conclusion
The PC-Q33 is remarkably easy to build in for a small system, and really for any system regardless of size. Once open there is nothing in the way of the build process, and the PC-Q33 is exactly as open and easy to build in as these photos indicate.
Installing the motherboard and main components will be easy with this much room
Getting right into it I mounted my mini-ITX motherboard using the preinstalled standoffs and started adding components. While I only used the stock Intel cooler for testing there’s a ton of space for a huge CPU cooler in here, considering all of the extra room available in this upper part of the enclosure.
But as much space as there is for a large CPU cooler, there really isn’t going to be room for a very long graphics card.
Pushing the limits of the PC-Q33’s GPU support
While my ASUS R7 260X card technically fit, this represents the longest card that still allows the front panel to close. My card was actually resting lightly against the front of the enclosure, so I didn’t complete my build with this card. The “mini” versions of some GPUs (such as the recently released GTX 960 Mini) would fit perfectly, and there are plenty of smaller R7 series AMD graphics cards as well. The only smaller card I had on hand was a reference GTX 750 Ti, so that went into our build.
As an aside, I didn’t start out to make this a “budget” build, and the PC-Q33 certainly supports higher-end components within the shorter GPU limitation. Based on the mini-ITX components on hand it just ended up that way, and a setup like this with an H81 motherboard, Pentium G3258 processor, and GTX 750 Ti graphics card still makes a great 1080p gamer (or at least did until quad-core CPU’s became a requirement for many new release PC games, but I’ll have a lot more to say on that in a future article).
Storage
A standard 3.5” drive caddy is positioned on the bottom of the case, and is removed easily with 3 thumbscrews. This supports a pair of 3.5” drives, as well as an SSD mounted to the bottom with the included screws.
Need more storage space? Look no further than that folding case front, which features multiple 3.5” and 2.5” mounting points for drives. Attaching them is extremely easy using a system that I’d like to see more cases use.
Four rubber guides are screwed to the bottom of each drive, and then the drive slides into place and remains secure with the case closed.
Using the additional drive bays can further reduce space for a GPU
The mounts prevent vibration, and though firmly in place once installed they are still very easy to remove if desired by simply pulling them back out along the track in the front panel.
Finished Build
Managing cable mess is going to require some finesse unless you’re using a short, flat cable set like I am (the SilverStone PP05-E short cable kit, $30 on Amazon). I could have used more finesse, but the sample PC-Q33 was not the windowed version so I left it as is. The stacked component layout prevents cables from inhibiting airflow, and thanks to the hinged design getting to components is still very easy.
The front panel connections at first seemed like they would be an issue considering the hinged design, but it didn’t end up that way at all. There was plenty of slack to allow the front connectors to be remain in place on the motherboard with case fully open, and keeping the cables in place when closing the case was simple as both sides are open during the process. I simply held the cables in place in the lower section when swinging the front back up, and the final build looked fairly tidy without any effort.
With the system completed I ran some quick benchmarks with the admittedly low-end hardware I had installed for this build. It will still give you an idea of what the case can do, but going in I already knew one important thing from my own experience: with perforated side panels this case would provide excellent cooling and poor noise dampening. Truly, you’ll get exactly what you put into it if you’re looking for a quiet enclosure. Louder fans will be, well, loud. There’s nothing preventing you from hearing just about everything, but the solid front and top make it a little quieter than an open-air setup would be.
Temperatures and Noise
CPU temps were measured using RealTemp software, and I use Prime95 to create CPU load temps (which is the very worst-case scenario for heat). The Unigine Valley benchmark was used for GPU load testing. Room temperature was 18 C for all testing, and the noise floor in the room was 34 dB.
Please note, there is no comparative data for this one-off build (I have not done any other enclosure builds with a GTX 750 Ti), but these are the actual results for the components as installed. To sum up the following charts, you won't have any thermal issues with this enclosure, and it does very little to dampen the sound of your components. With enclosures like this with fully ventilated side panels you will have this tradeoff, but it's a good one if you choose quiet components since they have nearly the same advantage of an open-air setup.
Conclusion
The Lian Li PC-Q33 is a well made, thoughtfully designed enclosure that fits the bill for a premium mini-ITX build. The only caveat is limited GPU length, but many several shorter graphics options – including a few specifically catering to the small form-factor market – are available to help mitigate the space limitation. There is ample room for storage and room for the biggest air coolers and 120mm AIO liquid coolers, and even bigger ATX power supplies are supported. The overall fit and finish is very high, and I was surprised at how low the relative price is considering this is a premium aluminum enclosure.
Bottom line: A well made, thoughtfully designed enclosure that's worth the $95 to $105 price tag for a premium mini-ITX build.
Strengths
- High quality materials and construction
- Hinged design makes working inside case very easy
- Full size ATX PSU support
- Excellent storage support for a small enclosure
Weaknesses
- Limited room for graphics cards
So many great looking mITX
So many great looking mITX cases, so few mATX cases that can hold a half dozen drives. 🙁
That’s definately been the
That’s definately been the trend. Last few smaller mid-tower designs I’ve looked at only support 2-3 HDDs… Curious to see what’s out there with that kind of storage support for mATX
I just did a build in the
I just did a build in the Lian-Li PC-V359. Its a nice MATX case.
Try my world at the moment. I
Try my world at the moment. I want one that can do 12 drives for a FreeNAS box upgrade. With the move to SSDs, it seems case manufacturers are seeing that the space is better suited to 240mm radiators than drive bays. The search continues.
12 drives? Then this is the
12 drives? Then this is the case you want 😉
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1245336-new-build-2x-2620v3-supermicro-x10dri-t/
The NCASE M1 is superior to
The NCASE M1 is superior to this in basically every way save for maybe ease of building, long psu support, and tower fan support.
The M1 can handle more hard drives, longer graphics cards, and is way way smaller (the Q33 takes up roughly 50% more volume).
except that you can’t buy
except that you can’t buy one.
i’d really like to find a
i’d really like to find a nice matx case that isn’t less case for more $$$$
small mid towers are plenty cheap..so why is a smaller case more cash?
These smaller cases should
These smaller cases should cost less, not more than a larger case. With things like laptops and other sff systems you are paying more for low power CPUs and such, but none of this applies to just a small case. The only thing that should increase the price is that it may be a lower volume part.
Similar thing annoys me about water blocks. I would rather build a custom loop, but they want as much for a super simple, tiny water block as a large heat pipe air cooler. There isn’t much to a water block. Tempting to buy a cheap air cooler and machine it into s water block myself.
With a case like this you
With a case like this you arent paying for raw materials you are paying for innovation. Everything had to be carefully planned out, lotsa math, lotsa models, prototypes, feedback, rinse and repeat.
The we look at the actual product. This isn;t just pressed aluminum cheaply soldered together (like every case I own) this is well thought out smooth edged custom made parts with very specific screw placements very solidly assembled. That means more-expensive machinery AND labor.
And finally they are well aware of the limited demand so they need to recoup those extra costs on as few sales as possible.
Basic economics, you get what you pay for, and with this case you are getting alot of thought, innovation and convenience “We work harder so you don’t have to”
i’d really like to find a
i’d really like to find a nice matx case that isn’t less case for more $$$$
small mid towers are plenty cheap..so why is a smaller case more cash?
Only video card with external
Only video card with external exhaust should be considered for such a small box, trust me.
It looks to my eyes that The
It looks to my eyes that The way it’s setup the GPU exaust is right next to a mesh wall, should blow right out without ever affecting other parts. Actualy now that I think about that you could probably ramp up your fans and create a little air flow around your desk
Totally. Vented side panels
Totally. Vented side panels are convenient for desk cooling – sweaty hands are a thing of the past!
hahaha
hahaha
Good job with the review.
I
Good job with the review.
I really don’t see the point of having a full size ATX power supply in mITX cases. There are up to 650W SFX PSUs on the market, and I don’t think you could fit hardware that would require more than that in an mITX and short GPUs.
This is why I think the NCASE M1 is such a nice case for an enthusiast who wants to put a high end gaming system in a small enclosure (you could put up to a Titan X, a 4790K with a 240mm AIO liquid cooler and 16GB of RAM, a high capacity HDD and an M.2 PCIe SSD for boot and you got a very high end system in a tiny enclosure).
The Q33 isn’t trying to compete with it. It’s designed for people who are looking for a good build quality case for lower end systems (although you could still fit some high end components like a mini GTX 970 and upto a 4790K with a large tower cooler (although not sure how tall).
If you wanted to put a larger cooler like the noctua D15 you would have a problem with the graphics card, but if you rotate it 90 degrees it could possibly work if there’s enough room on the top, Maybe it will require a slight mod).Edit: I’m dumb, didn’t realize from the photos that the fan was 120mm and there’s no chance in hell the D15 would fit unless you mod it and replace the full-size ATX power supply with an SFX one.
Also, I absolutely agree about buying short cable kits for the power supply if they are available. Maybe even custom cut the cables to the right length to make it nice and tidy. Good opportunity to sleeve them if you want.
There’s so much wasted space
There’s so much wasted space in this case, I wish I could be a case designer, this case is beautiful but there’s many areas I could help improve.
For example, they should’ve made the HDD either hot swappable or vertical so you could fit another tray.
The front panel should have had vents near the top and bottom with a bumped out hollowed face for front fans, they should have also vented the top for a top mounted fan.
Instead of just venting the sides, they should have made screw cut outs, for 2x140mm on the sides, if you removed the HDD cage you could fit a vertical h110/kraken x61 by the looks of it.
This case IS bigger than it
This case IS bigger than it needs to be .. but the access and build quality is 2nd to none. I sort of agree about the PSU, but SFF PSU are quite expensiive and the ability to re-use an existing PSU is a great cost saver. I wanted this case but bought an antec isk600, cos it was 1/3 of the price. You should only really need ?room for one SSD and One HDD, everything else goes on a NAS, No? The fan in the antec is nice and quiet and intel stock cooler is fine. Will fit m-itx 960 soon. reat htpc..
I am considering this case
I am considering this case for my ITX build, but I am concerned about the air flow and dust. The lack of air filters and the lack of an intake fan – are something that I consider a weakness.
I could imagine the AsRock
I could imagine the AsRock X99E-ITX/ac with the AMD Fury card in a build. I’d like Lian Li to bring out a line of PC-Q33 based cases. One with a mounting for a slot in optical drive, and, possibly, water cooling. In addition, during development they got the suggestion to include dust filters, but didn’t. Should at least sell as an add on.
What is the motherboard that
What is the motherboard that was used I can not see it mentioned.
I have this case. It is
I have this case. It is superb. I used a full atx power supply because at the time no smaller psu met my list of psu needs. The psu I have is criticized for too much cabling (FSP 400w gold rated). The routing was very easy. Everything was easy about this build. The case can’t be any smaller without compromising features. It allows for excellent air cooling for mini-itx and moderate sized graphics cards. I wouldn’t go for anything greater than a GTX970 and Intel 84 watt processor because I like quiet cases. I believe it can cool 300 watts of processor and video card without blinking. I’ll find out soon as I am ordering an Asus small 970 card to replace a 750ti.
I will be purchasing this
I will be purchasing this case in the next few weeks.
It was a choice between the Chiliblast Nano (Raijintek)
Or the Lian Li Q33, do not want to go down the liquid
cooling route, and want to install a Noctua air cooler.
Although I particularly like the Chiliblast set up it
Would mean setting up the air cooler so that it
directly into the PSU, which would then exit the warm
along with the warm air produced along by the operation
of the PSU.
I think I prefer going with the Q33 firing the warm
air directly into the exhaust fan.Mind you the Q33
Case will operate on purely negative air pressure
with all the problems that brings.
So I suppose it’s a toss up between positive air
Pressure from the Chiliblast or Negative air pressure
from the Lian Li.
Which one would you lot choose?