The Lian Li PC-A16B Gets Hacked (dialup users beware)

[Blacktree]

Last week, a new Lian Li PC-A16B arrived on my doorstep. I bought this case to replace the mnpctech SC135 case that I've had for about 3 years. My object (naturally) is to make the computer as unobtrusive as possible, but within reason. I don't want the case to look like a hack job. So I have to make the mods appear to be stock.

When I removed the case from the shipping box, one of the first things I noticed was the mesh grille behind the rear exhaust fan. I don't see the sense in filtering the air as it's exiting the back of the case (to keep dust inside?!). There was just some glue holding it in place. So I ripped it out. There was also a stamped aluminum grille on the other side of the rear exhaust fan (inside of the case). It looked pretty restrictive, so it went bye-bye. The rear exhaust fan is now unobstructed.

The PC-A16B also has a side exhaust fan, which is ducted out the back. The grille for the duct (in the rear panel of the case) was just a grid of holes drilled in the panel... very restrictive. So I played "connect the dots" with my Dremel tool, resulting in a big rectangular hole in the rear panel. The duct fan is now unobstructed.

While the HDD and side duct fans have rubber grommets, the rear case fan does not. This seems odd. So I enlarged the screw holes and installed grommets.

Below, you see a photo of the unobstructed exhaust fans, and the added grommets.



You can also see the felt pads I put on the case feet. The case feet have rubber padding on the bottom. But I like the extra vibration damping.

One of my reasons for buying the PC-A16B is the perforated drive bay covers. Those covers, combined with the perforated HDD bay cover, should provide lots of open vent area. It should also allow me to install filter material without stifling airflow.

I bought some A/C filter foam from the local hardware store, and glued pieces of it into the drive bay covers and HDD bay cover. I used black silicone to glue in the the foam, so it wouldn't be visible.

Below, you see the filtered drive bay covers.



And here is a photo of the filtered HDD bay cover. In the foreground is the original HDD filter foam. Notice how coarse it is. I don't think it would be very effective as a filter. It's also too small to cover the whole HDD bay. It's like the original HDD bay filter was added as an afterthought.



With the large vent space in the front of the case, I decided that a front intake fan was unnecessary. This should help to reduce noise.

Speaking of noise, it's time for one of my time-honored traditions, finding rattles. I like to tap on the computer case with my fingers, all over the place, and listen for any rattles. With the PC-A16B, I found two sources of rattles: the expansion slot covers, and the side panels.

The ends of the expansion slot covers were rattling against the case frame. So I put some duct tape on there to insulate them. See photo below.



Also, the side panels don't fit very tightly, which allows them to rattle against the case frame. I applied some duct tape to the case frame, to make the side panels fit tighter. See photo below.



edit to add...

• ** SYSTEM SPECS **
• Asus M2N-E
• Athlon X2 3800 @ 2.4GHz / 1.3V
• 2GB PC2-6400 RAM
• Geforce 7900GS
• WD Caviar SE 160GB

That's it for now. I'll add more info soon.

[jaldridge6]

so are the rattles all gone now? What about with the optical drive running? I was going to get a similar lian-li pc7 series but I read tons of reviews on newegg about rattling side panels so I opted to stay the hell away from lian li......

I had a v1000 about a year ago and it rattled like a bitch!

[S.SubZero]

The PC-A16B looks really slick and I wanted one, but I keep stuff on top of my PC so the top-mounted power and reset buttons wouldn't really work out that well. I ended up getting a PC7B last week to replace a PC60.

The rattling is inherent due to the total aluminum design. The material is alot lighter than steel and tends to move around easier. As the OP showed, resolving rattling problems is as easy as a little duct tape. On the old PC60 I had some rattling, I used some electrical tape and that went away completely.

[jaldridge6]

S.SubZero: is that in regards to the optical drive being in use or just the system being on?

[Blacktree]

Now the case has no rattles. However, the side panels are made of thin aluminum (maybe 1mm?). If I tap on them just right, they resonate like a drum. I may have to install some mass-loading material.

I haven't put any discs into the optical drives yet. So I'm unsure of the noise/vibration from them. But I will test that soon.

Now, for some more photos!

Here you can see that I really like heatpipes. The CPU heatsink is a Ninja Plus. The video card heatsink is an Evercool passive heatpipe (similar in performance to the Zalman ZM-80, but half the price). And the motherboard (Asus M2N-E) comes with a passive heatpipe cooler for the chipset.



In the next photo, you're looking into the 4 empty optical drive bays. The perforated bay covers will allow air to flow directly into the CPU heatsink.



It looks like the PSU/IDE cables are blocking the CPU fan. But that's just because you're looking at a flat picture. In the photo below, you can see the distance between them.



Here are a few more shots of the interior. You can see I spent some effort to keep the cables/wires nice and tidy. Some of them are hidden in the top, and some beside the drive bays.





I've seen people complain about the length (or lack thereof) of the switch/LED cable. I found that if I re-route it beside the drive bays (instead of behind them), the cable can reach the bottom of the mobo easier. That cable now has a few inches of slack, whereas before it was stretched tight. In the photo below, it's the multicolored ribbon cable.



That's all I have for now. But I'll add updates when available.

[jaldridge6]

I bet the DVD drive shakes the hell out of it

[Blacktree]

Nope! I tested both optical drives today. They don't create as much vibration as I had feared.

[colin2]

Thanks for the great pictures and writeup. Any more experience to report?

I'm comparing this with an Antec Solo, and the PC-A16B's intake airflow really does look a lot better. Otherwise the two look roughly comparable in size shape and layout. The Solo has the cable-management features and the separation of the upper compartment, but both would be easy to improvise on your own.

The only drawback to the ample front airflow, as noted on another thread on this, would be HD noise -- I'm thinking in terms of a couple of Samsung spinpoint 500GB drives, and while I'll suspend them, the Solo would probably be better at muffling remaining noise from them.

[Blacktree]

You're right about the hard drives. With the PC-A16, you will need quiet hard drives. Otherwise, the HDD noise will be right in your face. And while the rubber grommets in the PC-A16 seem to be pretty effective, they still allow a small amount of seek noise to transfer to the case frame.

The computer is so quiet now that if someone is talking in the next room, I have trouble hearing the computer. If the hard drive is idle, I have to concentrate in order to hear the computer.

When the computer is running, I can feel a tiny bit of vibration in the side panels. The vibration isn't strong enough to generate any audible noise. But I'm going to try to eliminate it anyway. I'm working on that now.

Also, the Power/HDD LEDs are insanely bright. And ironically, most of the light shines through all the cracks and crevices, rather than the lenses in front. I'm working on that, too.

[[F]bernZ]

Blacktree I've applied the same tape to my A-05B and wow it does make a difference.

Before, if you tap the edges of the side panel they'd rattle like a drum but now it is much more solid. No more rattling, but it does need mass damping just like you said.

Thanks for the inspiration mate.

[Blacktree]

Hey, no problem.

Today, I dealt with those super-bright power / HDD LEDs. This next photo should give you an idea how insanely bright they are. You're looking at the light shining through the side of the front bezel.



My solution was to replace them with a couple standard green LEDs that I had on hand. In the photo below, you see one of the LED pig-tails I made for this project.



The green LEDs are nowhere near as bright as the original ones, which brings the "eye pollution" down to tolerable levels. Besides, I like the green color better.

[Blacktree]

I decided to use an unconventional method to eliminate the vibration in the side panels. Instead of adding mass, I instead decided to strengthen them. The material of choice is wood, specifically 1/4" (6mm) hardwood plywood.

I attached it to the side panels using Liquid Nails. And I painted it with stain and varnish to make it look nice. I also decided to add some wood pieces to the drive bays and fan duct, to round out the look.



Attaching the wood to the side panels was very effective. Before, the side panels would make a metallic "ping" noise when I rapped on them with my knuckles. Now, they make a dull "thunk" noise.

Now it's time for the torture test!

[jaldridge6]

me scared.

[Blacktree]

Don't worry. The computer isn't going to eat you.

Last night, I played a few hours of Half-Life 2. I had Speedfan and the video properties running in the background to monitor temperature. Click on the links below to see images.

CHART #1

For some reason, when Speedfan is recording HDD temperature, it shoves the CPU temperature data over to the right. Here's what the chart looks like with the HDD temperature removed.

CHART #2

And in case you missed it, here are the system specs again:

• MOBO -- Asus M2N-E
  CPU -- Athlon X2 3800 @ 2.4GHz / 1.3V
  RAM -- 2GB PC2-6400
  VIDEO -- Geforce 7900GS
  HDD -- WD Caviar SE 160GB

[ryboto]

did you install a different fan on the CPU?

[amjedm]

Looks very nice IMO.

Well done.

[kittle]

very nice looking.

the wood panels inside give it a whole new look.

[walle]

yep; that wood sure do complement that shiny aluminium. It looks great, its also nice to hear that you have been able to "tame" that aluminium chassis... not the easiest task to make them discrete

[Blacktree]

Thanks to everyone for the compliments.

To Ryboto: Yes, I did. I noticed that the Scythe fan made a slight ticking noise when the speed was reduced using Asus Q-Fan. And I didn't want to run it at full speed (not quiet enough). So I replaced it with an Enermax Marathon fan, which is nice and quiet at full speed.

By the way, the case came with 3 Lian Li 120mm fans. I installed those in the rear exhaust, side duct, and PSU. They have a mellow noise characteristic, and are very quiet at reduced speed.

[thejamppa]

I love how you used wood. Too bad its hidden. It looks so nice since you prepeared it well. Its really shame you can't see them but aslong they will dampen the noise, its good. Someone few years ago modded their case by glying pieces of wood on their case and slowly manage to make it nice, all-wooden and clean looking case.

Your wood-mod made me remember that.

[ryboto]

Thanks to everyone for the compliments.

To Ryboto: Yes, I did. I noticed that the Scythe fan made a slight ticking noise when the speed was reduced using Asus Q-Fan. And I didn't want to run it at full speed (not quiet enough). So I replaced it with an Enermax Marathon fan, which is nice and quiet at full speed.

nice! I noticed not many people here have tried those fans. I just installed 3 in a friends new build, and they are very quiet. They're rated for 1000rpm, but the Gigabyte monitoring software says they're running at 940rpm with 12v. With zero modifications to the case his pc is nearly as quiet as mine. Rather frustrating!

[Blacktree]

I didn't even pay attention to the RPM rating for the Enermax Marathon fan. However, the Asus Probe utility on my computer shows it running in the 915-920 RPM range.

MORE STRESS TESTING!

I was previously using the Windows Video Properties window to keep track of GPU temperature. Unfortunately, there's no data logging capability. So I had no way of knowing what the GPU temperature was during heavy video load. And I was skeptical of the mid-50s temperatures I was seeing when I alt-tabbed back to the Video Properties window.

So I installed RivaTuner. It can chart the GPU temperature, clock speed, & voltage. Room temperature was 23*C. I'm posting links instead of inline images, in accordance with the forum rules.

System at Idle

Running Orthos

3DMark03

3DMark05

In the two 3DMark charts, I highlighted the maximum GPU temperature. I found it ironic that 3DMark03 worked the GPU harder than 3DMark05.

I also played Half-Life 2 online (the Synergy Co-op mod) for a couple hours, and monitored those results. Unfortunately, the graphs only cover the last 15 minutes or so. Notice that the maximum GPU temperature is 62*C, higher than even the synthetic benchmarks!

Half-Life 2 Online

I also tried running the CPU heatsink fanless. But the results were not encouraging. After starting Orthos, the CPU temperature quickly approached 60*C, and was steadily rising. So I gave up on that.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my results. I was able to build an overclocked machine, and keep the components cool while maintaining low noise.

[Luminair]

Looking good, I like all the empty space between 120mms -> unobstructed air flow!

[Blacktree]

I finished the first round of upgrades for this computer. The memory capacity was increased to 4GB. The Athlon X2 3800 was replaced with a 5400 (overclocked to 3.2GHz). And the geforce 7900GS was replaced with a 9600GT. I also upgraded to WinXP x64 edition, so I could use all of the RAM.





I bought a fanless version of the 9600GT, made by ECS. It uses an Arctic Cooling heatpipe unit. See photo below.



Unfortunately, the heatpipe unit was too big to fit in my computer. It would interfere with the side duct. I knew this was going to happen. But I planned to replace it with my Evercool heatpipe, anyway. So you're probably wondering why I bought the one with the heatpipe unit. Here's why: it has RAM heatsinks. Most of the fan-cooled video cards don't have separate RAM heatsinks. You can see the RAM heatsinks in the photo below.



This saves me the trouble of installing RAM heatsinks when I install my Evercool heatpipe unit. Speaking of which, is the Evercool unit installed on the 9600GT.



After these upgrades, my scores in 3DMark05 have doubled. Before, I was lucky to score 8,000. Now I score almost 16,000.

Here are my updated system specs:
OS -- WinXP x64
MOBO -- Asus M2N-E
CPU -- Athlon X2 5400 @ 3.2GHz
RAM -- 4GB DDR2 800MHz
VIDEO -- Geforce 9600GT
HDD -- WD 160GB SATA
OPTICAL -- Samsung DVD+/-RW & Sony DVD-ROM

When I get a chance, I'm going to do some stress testing.

[Chris Chan]

Did you save the accelero? FS/T post! I know some of us here would like to take it off your hands.

[Blacktree]

I still have the Accelero, but plan to keep it. When I sell the 9600GT, I will re-install the Accelero. That way, I can keep my Evercool heatpipe unit. And the new owner of the 9600GT will have the original cooling unit.

I've owned the Evercool heatpipe unit for about 3 years. This 9600GT is the 4th video card to use it. The three previous video cards were a Geforce 6800GT, 7600GT, and 7900GS. Needless to say, I'm getting my money's worth from this heatpipe unit!

By the way, if you're interested in buying the 9600GT with the AC Accelero on it, you can get it from Newegg for about $150 USD.

[Blacktree]

I just realized that I haven't posted any exterior photos of the computer. So here's one with the computer in its natural habitat.



Unfortunately, I have to replace the transmission in my car. So I won't be able to play with the computer yet.