Lian Li PC-A58B
Lian Li has been at the very top of the computer chassis industry for the past seven years, and they have a tradition of releasing well designed products. Just as popular for their design, the Lian Li company has a history of ingenious application of aluminum in their products. Benchmark Reviews has inspected the all new PC-A58B Black Aluminum Alloy Mid-Tower ATX Case, and we won't be pulling any punches when we state our results.
It has been exactly one year now since Benchmark Reviews was impressed with the Lian Li PC-B20A Aluminum ATX Case we reviewed at the time. Lian Li doesn't put out a new product just because the competition does, and they certainly don't follow trends. For as long as I have known the name Lian Li, their company has earned the image of high-performance and high-quality computer chassis. This time around, they have released the PC-A58B, which is the newest member to their Classical series or products. Offered in both silver and black aluminum alloy, this mid-tower ATX case is poised to capture the middle-market with its affordable features and excellent value.
After building hundreds of systems over the past few years, I have developed a sense of what is manufacturers consider to be an acceptable product for distribution. While my experiences have ranged from products which were absolutely horrible in concept and production, to products which were carefully thought-out and produced, in the end the product is always less then satisfying. Very rarely have I seen a manufacturer take as much into consideration as I am pleased to see in the Lian Li products.
About the company: Lian Li Industrial Co., Ltd. 
Lian Li Industrial Co., LTD was founded in 1983. We are the one of the largest and most reputable manufacturer of aluminum PC case in Taiwan. With over twenty years of experience in the computer products field, our dedicated team of engineers, production specialists and administrative staff provide the finest quality accessories available on the market.
In 1993, Lian-Li Introduced the new lines of computer hardware, including bracket (for case & interfaces), Mobile rack (for H.D.D.), mounting kit (for FDD & HDD), aluminum PC cases, IPC, external cases, server cases and more. We also provide OEM & ODM services, you are assured of designs that will meet your exact specifications, and innovative ideas in manufacturing that will give your products an essential market edge.
Our outstanding quality has earned us ISO 9001 certification for all of our products. In addition, we back up our quality assurance with a two-year guarantee on most of our products. R&D is one of the reasons why Lian Li is able to offer quality products to the market. Whether it is for OEM or ODM projects, our experienced mechanical and electrical engineers are capable of providing our customers with the best solutions in product design.
Lian Li PC-A58B Specifications:
Closer Look: PC-A58B Exterior
When it comes to computer cases, everyone is a critic. Nobody can claim to make the perfect case for everyone, since we as consumers seem to change our minds every time we go shopping for hardware. Lian Li has a vast array of products to fit almost every need, and the PC-A58B Black Aluminum Alloy Mid-Tower ATX Case is among the few that will likely fulfill the needs of the majority.
To begin with, it is offered in only two colors: black (PC-A58B) and silver (PC-A58A). This keeps things pretty easy for the consumer, since black is also presently the most popular optical drive bezel color. In this review, I have kept my focus on the everyman (and woman, if any women happen to read my reviews), and compare and contrast the PC-A58B against some of the other alternatives available on the present market.
Lian Li finally delivered something I have wanted for years: simple front access. The PC-A58 series finally does away with the front bezel door, and offers a very clean and simplified interface for consumers. Although the black aluminum alloy is void of any colorful accents, the anodized finish gives this mid-tower ATX case more than enough prestige to make it desirable to everyone across the consumer spectrum.
For quite some time now I have been using the Lian Li PC-B20A Aluminum ATX Case to house the components in my home office. It has served me very well, but there are certain things about it that I see have been improved where needed or kept despite my plea's.
Lian Li has already captured my attention by dropping the worthless front bezel cover. But the one feature I really like about the PC-A58B is how simple the front panel layout is. I am not a fan of searching the corners for the status lights and power/reset buttons, so it's convenient to have them in just one central location.
Like most busy people who work from sun up to sun set, I sometimes like to set things on top of the computer chassis. While it is still no problem to do so, I wish Lian Li would relocate the I/O panel to the front bezel (perhaps under the fan). The PC-A58B keeps the I/O panel atop the chassis, which make it an unbearable place for plugging in just about everything. Really though, who wants their microphone/speaker wire pointing straight up out of the mid-tower ATX case? Not me.
The Lian Li PC-A58B Black Aluminum Alloy Mid-Tower ATX case has smooth rounded corners on the front bezel, which make it much friendlier to people like me who are constantly reaching around their computer. Additionally, there are ventilation holes at the top and bottom of the service side panel which aid in cooling the GPU and CPU components. With a little craftsmanship, a novice case modder could make these vents the home of a nice pair of 140mm cooling fans.
Detailed Exterior Features
Lian Li has always made cooling one of their key design strengths in every product they make. In past reviews I have seen very sophisticated fan duct system or cowl channels, but in the PC-A58B the aspect of cooling is kept very simple. At the top of the black aluminum alloy mid-tower ATX case is a single 80mm sleeve bearing fan colored in black plastic.
There are no LED's to illuminate this fan, which is really nice in my opinion because a laser light show beaming from the top of the computer would be a little distracting. On the other hand, this design effectively ruins my ability to stack paperwork on top of the computer.
The underside of the PC-A58B is comprised of the aluminum-alloy chassis finished with four black hard-rubber feet at each corner. While they are enough to meet necessity, they are far from anything special. Essentially, they fit the purpose and nothing more, which is all that is ever really needed of these components.
Additionally, there are four screws which are exposed from the underside of the chassis. These four screws allow you to alter the direction of the hard drive cage; which is the focus of the next section.
Lian Li designed the PC-A58B with a few refined twists. Unlike most cases, which often use an intake port at the underside of the front bezel, the PC-A58 series keeps the intake air coming from the front grill. Some of you might be thinking that this is no big deal, which would be somewhat correct, but what the design really does is allow less lint and dust into the system chassis. If you set your computer on the floor, it's that first inch of air that carries the most debris from the ground.
At the rear of the PC-A58B black aluminum alloy mid-tower ATX case is the power supply mounting plate. Lian Li has included this component in nearly all of their chassis designs for some time now. While it may add some level of convenience for users who swap out power supply units often (like me), I still feel it is a bit unnecessary.
Wouldn't it be just as easy to use the same exact thumb-screws to fasten the PSU onto the rear of a one-piece chassis? I do it all of the time on other cases, so I know it works; and it is exactly as convenient, if not more so. With Lian Li's design, you still have to screw the PSU to the mounting plate, and use thumb-screws to mount the plate to the chassis. I think that if I was a price-conscious consumer, than I certainly would prefer that Lian Li leave the PSU mounting area alone and instead shave off some of the product cost.
At first glance you might not even notice the biggest change in the Lian Li PC-A58 series. Then, once you realize that there is no place for a rear cooling fan, you realize the change: the power supply is rotated 90° and it has been moved close to the service side door.
So what does this mean to you? Well, chances are good that if you are looking at this case for your system that you probably don't use liquid-cooling or some other expensive aftermarket setup. But even if you just use an aftermarket CPU cooler it could mean that your cooler may not fit since the PSU would limit the rise from the motherboard to less than four inches. High-rise coolers like the Ultra ULT33186 Chilltec TEC CPU Cooler are a no-go, but most other low-rise solutions should be fine. Our recently reviewed Thermaltake MaxOrb CL-P0369 CPU Cooler was able to fit, but it was very tight and only advisable with the fan set to lower speeds.
Closer Look: Interior
Now that we are familiar with everything on the outside of the PC-A58B Black Aluminum Alloy Mid-Tower ATX case, it's time that we become acquainted with the interior features. You always hear about how it's what is on the inside that matters most, so we shall see if Lian Li has kept this in mind when they set out to design the PC-A58 series.
Lian Li has done a very good job keeping the PC-A58B affordable while still offering top-level features. At the top of the aluminum alloy mid-tower ATX case is the 80mm exhaust fan I mentioned earlier. This fan is located exactly over the CPU mounting location for any Intel 965/975/G33/G35 motherboard, making up for the inability to contain a high-rise cooler.
It may not look like it, but the PC-A58B chassis is made of aluminum-alloy. Considering how shiny the surface is, Lian Li has certainly learned that a little dedication to the craft can go a long way. Without the side panels on, the unit (in the image above) weighed a mere seven pounds; that's not much more than just two hard drives. Even when you consider the total weight to be almost eleven pounds, the PC-A58 series could easily double for a LAN party system without the compromise.
Lian Li understands how picky some of us are when it comes to our computers. The hard drive rack in the PC-A58 series, much like almost all of the Lian Li cases, is able to be removed and rotated in any direction. This is really one of the few catch-22's you will find while building a computer: keep the cage in-line with the length of the case and you get better cooling, turn it perpendicular (default) and you have better cable management. Decisions, decisions.
From the image above you can see how the front panel wires could be easily channeled along with any hard drive cables. The PC-A58B doesn't offer a removable motherboard tray or slide-out mounting panel like some of the other models, but then again you aren't going to pay for something you may never use.
In the next section we will probe a bit deeper into the interior details which make up the PC-A58 series.
Detailed Interior Features
Seeing the image below helps explain why the Lian Li PC-A58B Black Aluminum Alloy Mid-Tower ATX case still gets the top-mounted I/O ports. It all starts with the power supply. Since the PSU was relocated, an exhaust fan was designed into the top of the case above the CPU. Since this fan created a small plane of unused space it only makes sense that Lian Li utilized this space for the I/O ports.
I still contend that the upper portion of the PC-A58 series could have been designed differently; and the fan could have stayed exactly where it is now and the I/O ports could be located within the front bezel. I have seen this idea in other Lian Li case designs, such as the new PC-PC-A09B.
The hard drive rack inside the Lian Li PC-A58B is designed to allow for a tool-less installation. Essentially the mechanism is a tray, which supports the hard drive by grommet-laden screws in the disk.
As you can see from the image above, the airflow path is somewhat restricted by the perpendicular mounting direction of the cage. If this were the case holding my components, it would get turned so that the cooling fan could better pass the air over the disks. Even with it turned, the wiring is not that big of a problem unless you have SLi 8800 GTX/Ultra's, and even then you can position the hard drive at the lowest position if you operate with a single disk.
At the rear of the PC-A58B Aluminum Alloy Mid-Tower ATX case you will find a rare untouched canvas. There are a few ventilation slots between the power supply and the motherboards I/O panel, but that's where it ends. There are no liquid cooling grommets, which should be standard equipment these days; especially in a mini mid-tower case.
The determined case modder or hardware enthusiast on a tight budget could easily drill a nice hole though the aluminum alloy. My advice would be to also consider taking a path through the empty space above the PSU and I/O panel as well.
Lian Li Final Thoughts
Hopefully by now I have imposed the idea that Lian Li has meant for the PC-A58B to be a mid-level case. Lian Li makes a lot of products, so if mid-level doesn't have what you need, than take a look at any of their other three dozen computer cases and you will probably find what you are looking for. For everyone else on a budget however, the PC-A58 series is ideal.
Even though it offers premium materials and a very stylish design, this is the perfect case for both home and office. Now that I think about it, this really is the perfect case for upscale office environments; which makes the PC-A58B a great product for system builders who cater to this type of client.
Addendum: This may have seemed like an otherwise normal case review up to this point. When I received this item for review in late July 2007, there was no mention of any special plan. I requested the PC-A58B from Lian Li after seeing it on their website, and they kindly obliged my sponsorship request. Like every other product that is sent here to Benchmark Reviews, we test it with the understanding that we have received the same product you would receive if you bought it from a retailer. Unfortunately, this was not the case (no pun intended). It turns out there was a catch to receiving this product, and the unbelievable soon occurred.
The day before this review was to be published, which was originally supposed to be 08/28/07, I sent an email to my contact at Lian Li with the final link for their early preview. Shortly later, I received a reply stating that this product was not going to be produced after all, and that I should not publish the review. I was stunned, and a bit confused. Who sends a review site their product and then tells them it was only a test run? This would be a real painful decision, since I spent weeks preparing the article and editing images. It was like planting a tree and watering it everyday, only to chop it down once it's fully grown. The entire situation did not make any sense to me.
But now things have changed. The marketing rep which I worked closely with at Lian Li has moved on to another company, and the PC-A58B black aluminum alloy mid-tower ATX case review is being published. You see, I don't write reviews for the product I get to keep; I already own a computer company with a very large inventory and one more case at the end of the day doesnt make me any better off. I write these reviews for you, the reader. While my writing and photography skills are decent, I appreciate the rare occasions when I receive positive feedback from a reader. So ultimately this review was going to be published one way or the other, because that's why I request product sponsorship in the first place. With that, I conclude this review with my (irrelevant) ratings of a product which I am told will never see store shelves.
PC-A58B Conclusion
Lian Li shipped me the PC-A58B is a brown cardboard box similar to most of the Dell packages I receive: light color text and line art graphics. This was unusual for Lian Li, since some of my past cases from them arrived in glossy full-color boxes. However, of the past two cases I have received from them one has been full-color glossy and the other was line art cardboard. At any rate, line art is not flashy, and the presentation was sub-par for a premium product.
When it comes to the appearance, I really think that the PC-A58B offers a whole lot more than the average budget consumer would expect. The black aluminum alloy mid-tower ATX case really does keep the Lian Li tradition.
Like everything I have ever seen from Lian Li, the construction is bullet-proof. Not one construction flaw was discovered during this review, and that's a pretty rare thing. Although owners of the PC-A58B will probably never put this chassis through hard or abusive handling, it was built to handle it.
Don't think that just because this is a mini mid-tower case that cooling performance and functionality are compromised. With two intake fans (on 80mm and the other 120mm) the Lian Li PC-A58B offers above average ventilation for enthusiasts. Additionally, the passive ventilation also helps to allow video cards to draw cool air into them.
Unfortunately, the Lian Li PC-A58B product line was killed before it ever began. This means that I cannot determine a value rating for a product which won't be for sale any time soon. Perhaps this makes mine a collectors item? Do I hear any bids on this pristine mint limited edition case?
Sadly, my final words and recommendation will be for naught. Lian Li scrapped the PC-A58B, despite the beautiful black aluminum alloy mid-tower design. Can you beg them to make it? Sure, I suppose you could try. In all honesty, without a price basis I cannot give a reasonable recommendation. I do have some final words for manufacturers though: don't send review sites an unfinished product.
Pros:
+ Extremely lightweight
+ Excellent cooling
+ Attractive design
+ Convenient HDD rack
+ High-quality construction
Cons:
- Poor top fan positioning
- Relocate I/O panel
- Needs tool-less treatment
Ratings:
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