Lian-Li case mod using bottom intake.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 4:35 am

Take a look at this commercial mod of a Lian-Li case using the bottom of the case as the intake area. This gives you a large area for a filter, and removes a noise source from the front of the case.

I've been using a similar mod successfully on my last several case projects. My improvement on this design involves locating the intake hole further farward, and mounting the hard drives directly in the airflow path. Done correctly with a properly sealed case, this is an excellent mod that could be applied to many different cases.....

engseng · Post by **engseng** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 10:30 pm

The Lian Li PC6077 case has a bottom intake grill. And it comes with a dust filter too. Maybe the surface area is smaller than your mod, but it's standard with this case.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 6:28 am

How do you get the filter out from the bottom for cleaning?

Does that case have other intake areas?

engseng · Post by **engseng** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 5:18 pm

If I understand correctly, you push the whole block and lift it up to remove it. It is not screwed in.

The case has one front exhaust, two back exhaust and a blowhole at the top.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Sat Dec 27, 2003 6:48 am

engseng wrote:If I understand correctly, you push the whole block and lift it up to remove it. It is not screwed in.

The case has one front exhaust, two back exhaust and a blowhole at the top.

I think it's an interesting idea to have the fresh air intake on the bottom and even better with filtration. Seems like a nice case. My only concerns would be how much noise is emitted from that blowhole and the effect of aluminum as opposed to steel. I am surprised there's no front door like on the 6070 - that one has a real snazzy-looking front door and appears solidly built.

engseng · Post by **engseng** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 7:39 pm

I did post my friend's comments in another 6077 thread here in this board. Noise does escape from the blowhole, I think it'd be better to remove the 80mm fan. My friend used washers to get rid of the vibration from his Zalman FB123 bracket.

For some reason, SPCR didn't review the PC6070 case, which is marketed by Lian Li as a quiet case. I read in a review that says the door does shut off some of the noise, and the 80mm fans spin slower in order to be more quiet.

Fife · Post by **Fife** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 12:21 pm

I wonder if adding an 80mm fan on the bottom intake on the LL-6077 where the holes are will have a positive effect as it sucks in more cool air rather than just a passive intake?

Any thoughts on whether this will disrupt the airflow?

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 3:18 pm

engseng wrote:I did post my friend's comments in another 6077 thread here in this board. Noise does escape from the blowhole, I think it'd be better to remove the 80mm fan. My friend used washers to get rid of the vibration from his Zalman FB123 bracket.

For some reason, SPCR didn't review the PC6070 case, which is marketed by Lian Li as a quiet case. I read in a review that says the door does shut off some of the noise, and the 80mm fans spin slower in order to be more quiet.

I'm interested in the 6070 case. There are a few things that sort of bug me like having 2 80mm fans in the front may be creating unwanted noise. Another thing is that stamped rear exhaust grill. On a case costing about $180 dollars, couldn't they design that rear fan exhaust with a better grill?

Otherwise, the case looks very positive without knowing any other cons that might be revealed by a review here. I certainly agree it would be nice to see MikeC or someone else review that case. As you say, it's billed as a quiet case which fits right in with our interests.

Thomc · Post by **Thomc** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 2:22 am

I have a PC-6070 case, and I like it. I am, however, disappointed with the "quietness" of the case.

You are right about the rear fan grill - I cut mine out before I started building the system. The intake is also too small and restricted - I haven't addressed that yet.

The scheme of having two intakes and one exhaust is stupid. Actually, you are better off with two exhaust and NO intakes - just a nice large, unrestricted intake.

The fans that come with the PC-6070 are only quiet because they are slow - in other words, for the noise they make, they don't produce sufficient CFM. Better replaced with Panaflo - haven't tacked that yet either.

The factory installed sound "insulation" is not very thick - and it is only on the top and the two sides. They didn't do the front, the back or the bottom. The hard drive cage doesn't have any provisions for isolating drive vibration/noise. There is no provision for a second exhaust fan.

In other words, despite the fact that I think this case is well built and beautiful, and that the front door is awesome (for looks and for cutting down noise), this is not the case to start with if you are seriously looking for a low or no noise computer - not unless you are in to some fairly significant case mods, or you are willing to run relatively low powered (and therefore, low heat producing) components.

I'm running a P4 2.8c w/512MB, 3 hard drive (all fluid bearings) and a Radeon 9700 PRO. I put a Zalman ZM80A-HP passive heatsink on the GPU and a Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu active heatsink on the CPU. These, along with my "relatively" quiet power supply give me a system that is very nearly as quiet as I would like. The problem is, when I tax the video card, the system runs out of cooling. So I need more cooling - even though I still want the system to be a little quieter!

MikeC has provided me with many good suggestions, and I have hopes I will get to where I want to be before it's all over - but as the case came from the factory it was not quite as quiet as I would like - and it was considerably short of having sufficient airflow for the Zalman passive GPU heatsink.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 7:22 am

Thanks for the info. I found another thread about this case and someone said there was lots of vibration due to the thin aluminum panels used. I plan on using a Samsung HDD that in certain cases does produce vibration (Sonata and BQE) and so this 6070 is most likely going to do the same. There is a Zalman HDD cooler that mounts in a 5.25" bay and that might eliminate the vibration problem but it needs to be mounted with screws on both sides. Some cases only have screws mounted on one side. Does the 6070 mount drives in the 5.25" bays with screws on both sides?

Do you have any particular problem with vibrational noise?

Does the rear exhaust fan mount with screws or plastic fan mounts? Can you use the EAR isolators to mount the fans?

I also like that door on the 6070. In fact, there are two things that really impress me and that's the door and intake being on the bottom. Problem seems to be bottom intake should have been made larger. The door looks very well designed and not at all flimsy like the Sonata's door. Same material is used as opposed to plastic on the Sonata and better mechanism for operation.

I absolutely agree that two intake fans seems excessive. I guess their thinking was with such a small intake area, two intake fans would be better able to bring in fresh air?

I found a place that sells this case with modifications and they will cut out the rear exhaust grill for $15 dollars which seems reasonable considering they would make a clean cut and I don't have to buy any tools. I am still considering but need more info to determine if it's worth the investment. So far it seems like the airflow might be even worse than a stock Sonata.

But that Lian-Li 6070 is one beautiful looking case with a solid door that operates better than that plastic one on the Sonata. The air filter looks easier to get at than on the Sonata. There are more external bays allowing for more things to stick in there and that's another plus. But I am somewhat concerned about the aluminum and thinness of the side panels causing vibration. I would love to see this case made with steel instead of aluminum.

As for the intake fans, I think the Nexus 80mm fan would be an even better choice than the Panaflo. According to one thread here, the Nexus is quieter than the Panaflo. The question is how much CFM do you need to get fresh air into that case? It would seem that two Nexus fans running at 7 volts would be extremely quiet, and perhaps even up to 8 or 9 volts.

What kind of PSU are you using and do you notice any revving up and down due to the restricted airflow?