Lian Li PC-P50 Review

Interior

It becomes immediately apparent when looking at the internals that a lot of thought has gone into their layout. The chassis is strewn with retention clips, cable management holes and other curious additions. Lian Li has opted for an entirely tool-less installation system, something that it uses as a pitching angle for the product, touting the benefits of such an approach allowing faster component swapping.

Let’s start from the ground up. The case is designed for the PSU to be housed at the bottom with its intake fan facing downwards, towards the floor (or desk). Although on paper this sounds like a bad idea, Lian Li has implemented some features to accommodate it successfully. For starters the case is elevated about 15mm from the floor by case feet, allowing a little breathing room. Then, the base of the case has had long ventilation holes cut into it which have been covered in a dust filter so your PSU won’t be acting like a Dyson. Furthermore, the mounting brackets for the PSU are raised from the floor of the case, allowing even more breathing room.


The retention bracket for the power supply is a large metal clip with a dense foam layer where it comes into contact with the PSU. It attaches in a similar way to the kinds of clips used on flight cases. The whole shebang provides a very cosy home for this most important piece of hardware. Just in front is a cable tidier that lets you run your cables neatly from your PSU before routing them elsewhere out of sight. This is a nice touch, but if you don’t have a modular PSU with sockets that roughly line up with the clips, you won’t find it useful.


Next up, expansion slots. There are many cheap and flaky tool-less expansion slot systems around, most of which get thrown in the bin in favour of a good old fashioned screw. However, the system in the PC-P50 is excellent. One part of the clip hooks in where the screw normally would, while a second part of the mechanism holds the bracket firmly in place. It’s easy to use and most importantly, holds the card firmly in place.


The PC-P50 doesn't feature a huge number of internal 3.5in bays, with just three being provided. The method of hard disk installation is well thought out and between the bays and the chassis are rubber mounts which should - along with some more dense foam padding, help dampen some hard disk noise. The only intake fan in the case can be found in front of the 3.5in bays - unlike the Antec Nine Hundred Two which has 120mm fans at the front. Sitting above the 3.5in bays are the six 5.25in bays which also use an intuitive and effective bracket system for drive installation, involving clips that hold neatly onto the side of the bays and any inserted devices.