Lian Li has announced the impending availability of its latest mATX chassis, the PC-V358, which features an interesting design with front-hinge flip-open casing and dual heat-zone compartments.
Due to arrive in the channel any day now, the PC-V358 supports mITX and mATX motherboards, and despite its compact 324mm x 390mm footprint and 286mm height can pack a surprising amount of hardware: Lian Li claims support for 240mm water-cooling radiators, six 3.5" drives and two 2.5" drives, and graphics cards of up to 330mm in length. Additionally, the case supports CPU coolers up to 130mm tall, and power supplies up to 200mm in length, along with an optional slim optical drive.
The brushed-aluminium casing is hinged at the front, allowing the entire top and front panels to swing forward for quick access to internal components. This easy-access theme continues with the radiator bracket - also suitable, Lian Li points out, for sealed-loop coolers - featuring a hinged bracket secured by thumbscrews for tool-free cleaning and access to the components hidden beyond.
The internals of the case are split into two compartments, with the top section holding the motherboard, graphics card and 2.5" drives and the bottom housing the power supply and 3.5" drives. Two 120mm fans mounted at the front pull air into the chassis through dust filters, with a single 120mm fan at the rear exhausting the hot air.
Side panels on the case pop-off, and the tool-free theme continues right through to the hard drives which are mounted with thumbscrews and rubber suspensions - and for those who don't need masses of storage, either or both hard drive cages can be fully removed. An IO panel, found at the front of the right side, features two USB 3.0 ports and HD audio.
At the time of writing, no UK retailer had provided pricing for the PC-V358, with Lian Li setting a manufacturer's recommended retail price of £118 ahead of its availability this month. If you're curious, the company's product overview video is reproduced below with more details available on the
official website.
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