Computex 2014 - Day 3

Computex 2014 - Lian Li

Lian Li is a company notorious for two things: aluminium cases and product names that are hard to remember. Both were on show in full force at Computex 2014.

First up was a series of desks that also function as computer cases – each one has a slide out draw to give you ultimate ease of access to hardware. They also featured tempered glass tops with maximum loads of 80kg, so you can see everything inside, as well as aluminium bodies and iron supports.


First up was the monstrous DK-02X that can house two entire systems. As people who benchmark systems for a living, this had us rather excited, although having two PCs right next to each other probably has limited appeal for most. As you'd expect given its size, the DK-02X has ample room for all sorts of hardware. That said, the support for water-cooling is more limited than you might like (without modifications), as there is only one 240mm mount for each system. We also saw the single system DK-01X as well as the smaller coffee table-esque DK-Q1X. All three desks come with a fixture on the side that provides a handy place to stash keyboards and peripherals that aren't in use. The DK-02X and DK-01X will have retail prices of $1,189 and $989; pricing for the DK-Q1X hasn't been finalised.


We then saw the PC-Q07N, which is estimated to be released in Autumn this year but doesn't yet have a price attached to it. It's a cuboid mini-ITX chassis available in black or silver. As you can see on the spec sheet, hardware support is fairly limited, and no fan is included either, so hopefully the price won't be too high.


Next was the PC-Q36 along with the PC-V359, which are mini-ITX and micro-ATX enclosures respectively. Lian Li is apparently aiming for a summer release for these cases, although the colours are yet to be confirmed – we're unsure about the champagne gold PC-Q36, but we really like the red and black PC-V359, so hopefully it makes it to market.


Both cases feature a full windowed top panel and partially windowed front panel, and with the PSU hidden beneath the motherboard area this makes for some nice internal views. The cases are also fully modular, with pictures demonstrating this on Lian Li's Facebook page. We particularly like the way you can simply lift the roof panel off, before sliding each of the vertical panels out along rails.


The last case of interest we saw was the mini-ITX PC-Q12L, which is aimed at lifestyle users with its tall vertical design. It's currently a prototype only, so a release window or price estimate couldn't be provided. It's capable of housing three SSDs and one regular HDD, although fan options are limited so airflow will be too. A PCI-E riser card is used so that the GPU can be fitted directly above the motherboard rather than protruding from its side, which would make the vertical design impossible.

What do you think of Lian Li's upcoming desks and chassis?