Introduction: Lian Li PC-B25B
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-B25B, which is the newest member to their Classical Silent series or products. Conincidentally, I was told that this mid-tower ATX case is intended to replace the PC-B20A that was very well received last year.
There's a good reason as to why Lian Li has been at the very top of the computer chassis industry for the past seven years; they have upheld a tradition of producing well designed products. Just as popular for their craftsmanship, the Lian Li company has a history of ingenious application of aluminum in their products. Benchmark Reviews has inspected the all new PC-B25B Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case, and we offer a public view of our results.
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-B25B Specifications:
Closer Look: PC-B25B Exterior
From the onset, the artistic design used in the B25B is something I have yet to see from anyone else in the industry. Presently only available in black aluminum, this keeps things pretty easy for the consumer; especially since this color is also the most popular optical drive bezel color for the moment. In this review, I have kept my focus on comparing the PC-B25B against the upper-class segment of the case spectrum; and I have certainly kept its older sibling very much in mind as well.
Although the black aluminum alloy bezel door is complimented by a single back-lit blue ring, the black 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 at my home office. It has served me very well, but there are certain things about it which I see have either been improved where needed or kept despite my plea's. Lian Li delivers something in their other products which I have wanted in all of my cases: simple front access. But that's not in the design for the PC-B25B. This new case not only keeps the front bezel door, it adds a double-locking double hinge position design.
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 nearly every time we go shopping for hardware. One minute black is our favorite, and the next it's silver. Lian Li has a vast array of products to fit almost every need, and the PC-B25B Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case is among the few that will likely fulfill the needs of the majority: performance without the noise. By now you have noticed the unique design of the side panel doors, and we will later see why they hold more function than fashion.
In past reviews I have seen very sophisticated fan duct system or cowl channels, but in the PC-B25B the aspect of cooling is kept very simple. With the bezel door open the aluminum alloy case exposes the tall grill to two 120mm sleeve bearing fans offering ample cool intake air. Many of the cases we see here at Benchmark Reviews are very well designed, but often times fall short when it comes to cooling the most critical component of the computer system: the hard disk drive. Lian Li has earned my praise for addressing the issue and offering an exceptional hard drive cooling design in the PC-B25B.
There are no LED's to illuminate this fan, which is in my opinion a nice comfort away from the distracting laser light show which seems to emanate from several new designs other manufacturers have released. One standout (non) feature on the PC-B25B is the very simple front panel ergonomics. 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.
On the other hand, I am not a fan of opening a front bezel door to turn on my computer. Since every panel is colored black, the PC-B25B would become very difficult to locate in a dark room without the blue circle glowing from in front of the bezel; which means the door stays.
From this top angled view of the PC-B25B you can see that black and flat or two things the Lian Li soaked deep into every corner of the design; each and every sharp right-angle corner. At this point, I think the only sign shape is the circular item at the front of the bezel. No top fan vent is present, which almost makes sense for a full-sized mid-tower case with liquid cooling aspirations in mind.
I am relieved that Lian Li did not position the I/O panel on top of the case, as they have done with some of their past designs. Instead, the Firewire and USB ports are easily accessible from the right-hand side of the PC-B25B, which works out perfectly for people who position the computer to their left.
Around the back of the PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case you will find your first signs of a non-black finish. There's a lot of new design built into this portion of the case, most of which I will discuss in our next section which outlines the detailed exterior features.
Detailed Exterior Features
Lian Li usually maintains design focus around interior system cooling, but this PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case strays a little into the waters of silent computing. As we dig into the detailed exterior features, expect discover a moderate blend of function, fashion, and convenience built into Lian Li's premium case.
One convenience item is the front bezel door hinge configuration. By default the hinge is located on the left-hand side, allowing for a clockwise opening. With very minor adjustment, the door can be fitted to open counter-clockwise with a right-hand hinge. The wiring for the front illuminated circle can be run through to the other side, too. Additionally, Lian Li has fit the PC-B25B with locks on both sides of the door; allowing you to lock-down the system regardless of the doors direction, or double-lock both for added protection.
Lian Li designed the PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case with a few refinement 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 the first four inches of air that carries the most debris from the ground.
One convenience to having the I/O port on the right side of the case is that anything plugged into one of these ports will be less likely to cause an obstruction. I remember when Lian Li included this I/O panel at the top of their PC-B20A, I knew I would never use them and simply never connected the cables.
At the rear of the PC-B25B Black Aluminum 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 the tiny number of users who swap out power supply units often (like me), I still feel the PSU mounting plate is a bit unnecessary.
After all, this plate essentially replaces four screws with another four thumbscrews. 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. In the long run, you could just have easily used thumbscrews to mount the PSU to the chassis; I do it all of the time on other cases because it's more convenient and saves a step during installation. I think that if I was a price-conscious consumer, I would certainly prefer that Lian Li leave the PSU mounting area alone and instead reduce product cost by streamlining production.
Conversely, Lian Li made a great choice when it joined the function of double-wall panels with the fashion of a raised square design. These side panels make a difference in the noise level, and add a very unique shape to the PC-B25B side panels when everyone else offers flat. I removed more than a dozen screws and still I could not separate the two parts, but I was able to see inside and learn that the inner cavity is hollow (no additional sound dampening material).
At first glance you might not even notice one the newest features from Lian Li, introduced in this PC-B25B Lian Li PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case. Look closely at the expansion card filler blanks, and you see that they offer excellent ventilation. Previously I have only seen this in the set included with the Arctic Cooling Silencer products, and have reused them on every case because of the additional cooling performance they offer.
To the right of the expansion card slots, there is a ventilation grill for any one of the three the add-on patent cooling slot kits. The BS-03 kit came with the PC-B20A Aluminum ATX Case, but it doesnt come with the PC-B25B.
Lian Li has decided to use the premium circular screw-in pad with a round foam rubber cushion at each corner of the PC-B25B. Additionally, there are four screws which are exposed from the underside of the chassis used for the drive cage. These four screws allow you to alter the direction of the hard drive cage; which is discussed more into the next section covering the interior features.
Closer Look: PC-B25B Interior
Now that we are familiar with everything on the outside of the PC-B25B Black Aluminum 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.
To begin our journey, we must remove the side panels from the chassis. Like most of Lian Li's Classical series of cases, and just as it was on the PC-B20A, you must slide the panel back about two inches and then lift it directly up and out to remove it from the PC-B25B chassis. Once removed, the black aluminum exterior gives way to a very contrasting bright aluminum interior.
Lian Li has done a very good job keeping the premium-level PC-B25B affordable while still offering top-level features. It may not look like it, but the PC-B25B chassis is made entirely 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, this case (in the image above) weighed nine pounds; that's not much more than just three hard drives. Even when you consider the total weight to be almost thirteen pounds, the PC-B25B series could still be transported without much hassle.
At the top of the Lian Li PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX chassis is a layer of sound dampening foam. Unlike the NZXT HUSH Silent Mid-Tower ATX Case, which applied this sound dampening material on every conceivable part of the case, the PC-B25B only supplies this material at the top of the chassis, going it very little good to silence other problem areas (such as the bottom of the case).
Lian Li has designed the motherboard tray to work in an unconventional fashion on the PC-B25B. From the image above you can see how the tray slides towards the front of the case and pulls out through the shallow side of the case. The PC-B25B may not have reused the popular slide-out mounting panel like some of their past models, but then again you aren't going to pay for something you may not use very often.
Attached to the backside of the motherboard tray are two pivoting wire-arm cable retaining arms. Although very simple in design, this cable management feature is a effective as I have ever seen. Pull the wire-arm away from the post, and you are free to load as many cables as you like underneath it before clipping it back down. Even if you overload the clip, as soon as you put the side panel back on the clip will have done its job.
In the next section we will probe a bit deeper into the interior details which make up the PC-B25B series.
Detailed Interior Features
Seeing the image below helps explain why the Lian Li PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case did not receive a top mounted exhaust fan. Notice that the PSU is "boxed in" with a wall of aluminum, and with this unique design rising heat is channelled through the power supply. If the heated air becomes too much for the PSU to move, a large 120mm exhaust fan is positioned just high enough to assist evacuating heated air from the upper portion of the case, and any radiant air nearby to the CPU.
The two liquid cooling hose grommets are far from the best I have seen, as they are very rigid hard plastic with a plastic knife feel to the inner edges. I am unclear as to why Lian Li hasn't followed the popular trend of using soft rubber grommets, so consider removing these parts or replacing them if you plan to run hose through these ports.
The hard drive rack inside the Lian Li PC-B25B 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.
Lian Li understands how picky some of us are when it comes to our computers. The hard drive rack in the PC-B25B series, much like many of the Lian Li cases, is able to be removed and rotated in any direction. This is really one of the few tough decisions you will be forced to make 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. With two 120mm fans blowing on the drives, it shouldn't make much of a difference, but still; decisions, decisions.
Although not pictured, with the drive cage turned so that the opening faces the side panel there was enough room for the 8800 GTS, and just enough room to accommodate the 8800 GTX and Ultra. However, with the opening facing towards the rear of the case the extending disk drives and cables will interfere with these larger video cards; and even then you can position the hard drive at the lowest position if you operate with a single disk.
The component in the image above is a converter for the blue LED circle at the front of the bezel. Perhaps I missed something when I was setting it all up, because the LED didn't do anything other than glow with a constant blue color. I realize that LED lights would burn out if plugged directly into a 3.3 or 5V power connection, which is why the adapter is necessary, but I think that it would have been nice to add a few extra features to this device; such as the ability to control the LED's intensity or rhythm. Personally I think the round circle would be very cool if it faded in and out very slowly.
Although I have recently become very impressed with the idea ASUS has made popular with their header pre-connectors found in the P5K3 Deluxe motherboard kit, It's still nice to see the individual component connectors assembled in blocks. Believe it or not, I still occasionally see high-end computer cases with the connection pins individually seperated. It's worth noting that in addition to the standard USB, Firewire, and stereo audio connectors, Lian Li has updated their series with the HD audio connection as well.
Final Thoughts: Lian Li PC-B25B
I approached the review of Lian Li's PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case with absolutely no expectations. Then after learning that this was the case designed to replace the PC-B20A as the crown jewel of the Classical Silent series I began to form opinions. While in many ways the PC-B25B is better than the older PC-B20A/B, but I would consider this case an improvement more than a replacement. I still really like the PC-B20A because it has been a centerpiece of my home office for so long, but the new PC-B25B has all of the same features and then a few.
In the long run I can always remove the entire door assembly and put it back into the box, but I can't reposition the hard drive rack or add two 120mm cooling fans to the front of my old PC-B20A. All of this means that the Lian Li PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case has found a new home, and my girlfriend just got a computer upgrade.
Conclusion
Lian Li has offered the consumer with plenty of incentive to buy with a very informative package giving excellent product presentation. Lately I have seen Lian Li cases arrive in either a low-frills cardboard box with colored lettering, or in a nice glossy image package such as what the PC-B25B arrived in.
Black is always in style, and when it's wrapped around one of the most elegant yet simple designs it becomes even more timeless. I am not always a fan of plain appearances, but I believe that Lian Li pulled off a tough task by adding just enough fashion to the PC-B25B with an artfully illuminated blue circle up front.
Lian Li had certainly refined their product with every new release, and the near-flawless construction in the PC-B25B proves it. Aside from a few tiny faults (hard plastic hose grommets), the PC-B25B is among the very best cases I have ever tested. It level of quality even matches the extremely high-dollar Zalman Z-Machine GT1000 Black Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case which is priced almost three times higher.
I wouldn't go so fair as to say the PC-B25B has perfected each and every facet of performance, but it does extremely well and offers a collective feature-set and functionality which is hard to get anywhere else. It may not be the coolest running case, or the most silent, or even the best looking; but it ranks very high at every level.
Based on predicted pricing in-line with other models in the series, the Lian Li PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case is going to be a premium product for the demanding enthusiast. Expected to sell at the $155-$175 price point, there aren't very many competitors offering the same convenience and functionality to match an equally stunning style and appearance.
In conclusion I can proudly offer the my recommendation for the Lian Li PC-B25B black aluminum mid-tower ATX case to any computer enthusiast who has elevated themselves past flashing lights and see-through windows and demand only the best from their equipment. There are plenty of manufacturers making decent products with ample features, but only Lian Li make a top-class product with every single model they release. With the PC-B25B you will never have to second guess quality or performance, as they are proven assets to this product line.
Pros:
+ Uncompromising quality control
+ Research & development shine through
+ Excellent hard drive cooling
+ High strength full-aluminum construction
+ Plenty of working room
+ Sound-dampening material on top
+ Double-wall side panels absorb noise
+ Sliding removable motherboard assembly
+ Hard drive rack can be repositioned
+ Liquid-cooling friendly
+ Cable management clips are convenient
+ Double-hinge bezel door
+ Vented expansion slot blanks
+ Elegant design is beautifully finished
Cons:
- Premium price for a premium product.
- Functionally limited front bezel LED adapter is bulky
- Hard plastic hose grommets are sharp
- PSU mounting plate is unnecessary
Ratings:
-
Presentation: 8.75
-
Appearance: 9.25
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Construction: 9.5
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Functionality: 9.25
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Value: 8.25
Final Score: 9.0 out of 10.
Award: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.
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