Lian Li PC-Q11 review

Lian Li PC-Q11 Conclusion

Following on squarely from its roots, Lian Li has another case that is simply but efficiently designed, with high build quality. The curved edges and brushed aluminium is, as usual, extremely well executed although the thin, 'soft' metal flexes somewhat when the heavy PSU is installed.

Inside, the build needs thinking and planning beforehand, but it's simply executed as long as you're conservative with the cables used. SATA use is an absolute must, as is a modular power supply.

The Q11's tower shape and small form lends itself to saving a surprising amount of desk space, which is certainly an advantage over the Silverstone Sugo SG07 and the Lian Li PC-Q08, but at the expense of handling higher performance hardware.


The additional front fan is a clear upgrade over the Q07, allowing proper desktop CPUs, rather than just low powered Atom's, but we still feel Lian Li has crammed too much into a small space. If the hard drives were on the side panel and the PSU in the base it would make the cooling fan more efficient and allow slightly taller CPU coolers. Unfortunately, that would also make it slightly wider or taller (and more expensive) to accommodate.

That said, with an Intel Clarkdale CPU in socket and even a GeForce GTX 460 in the PCI-Express slot, you'd be very hard pressed to find another case this small to make a similarly stable and capable gaming machine. That comes at the expense of keeping noise low (but thank the Intel reference cooler, not the Lian Li fan) and using 3.5in hard drives thouh, so certainly be aware of these very notable limitations before you buy.

If you don't need a high power (hot) graphics card and instead use the onboard GPU or a low-end PCI-E card, then pack the PC-Q11 with 4TB of space and make a beautiful HTPC.

At £85 for the black model it's a good price if you're prepared to accept the cost of aluminium over steel, although finding an appreciably good looking, cheaper steel alternative is a difficult endeavour. If you're directly comparing the Q11 to the longer Silverstone Sugo SG07 then make sure to factor in the cost of a modular PSU on top, as the SG07 comes with a 600W PSU pre-fitted and compared to its brother the Q08, there's not a huge difference in price either. It comes down to whether you want something smaller, neater and of average performance/HTPC orientation, or a slightly longer case that sacrifices some of the elegance for more power, more graphics card and more storage.

The Lian Li PC-Q11 is a good buy, but only if you really need good desktop performance and want one of the smallest mini-ITX cases available.

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Ease of Use
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

Score Guide