Page 3 of 3
Case Reviews
Lian-Li PC-V2000B: Tomorrow's Case Today!

Build Day

I speced out a new system for a customer and began ordering parts. With The V2000B I had plenty of room for the OCZ 520W ModStream PSU along with up to 12 HDD's, up to 7 5¼ in bays and lots of room to work!

Build day arrived and I assembled the new Asus P5AD2-E Premium on the bench mounting the RAM, CPU and the new Zalman CNPS 7700 ALCU on the board. Laid out a towel to lay the case on (Don't want to scratch this beauty) and started to mount the board. Quickly discovered that due to the divider wall between the Motherboard compartment and the lower compartments was very much in the way of mounting the board because of the Zalman's size! I Researched some more and determined that the Termalright XP120 will not fit either without modifying the divider between the motherboard and PSU compartments. I called Cooler Master and discussed this with a rep there. He had a solution…the Cooler Master Hyper48 Heatsink would fit and works well. I ordered one.

Cooler Master Hyper48 Heatsink
Fig. 6 ... Cooler Master Hyper48 Heatsink

I installed the Stock Intel HS/F assembly on the Pentium 640 CPU until the Hyper48 arrives and installed the motherboard with ease and loads of room to work. First thing that I found after the board was in was that the 24 Pin connector from the PSU would not reach the board's connector. This is not OCZ's fault but more the layout of this new style case. Same for the P4 connector. I spoke with Tony from OCZ and was told that I could turn the PSU's mounting bracket upside down (Leaving the fan against the divider) and it would be fine and not affect the warranty on the PSU. Once I did that I was able to connect the PSU just fine but could not live with the gut feeling that this was not the way it's meant to be. I ordered a 24-24 Pin Extender (6in) and a P4-P4 extender (12in) and turned the PSU over like it's supposed to be. Much better and now everything reaches.

Next, I went about wiring the case connectors for front audio, firewire and USB ports. I quickly discovered that the cables for the front USB would reach but barely. The cables for front audio and firewire would NOT reach! I found an extension kit for the front panel online and ordered one. Once I received and installed the longer cables and front panel connecters everything was fine.

If you are going to build a system based on the new design of the Lian-Li V series cases….Do your homework first! You will not regret a decision to use one of these fine cases if you do the research first! If you just blindly order the things you want you may find that when "build day" arrives you are stuck with parts that won't fit properly and have to order other things that will fit making you wait longer.

Conclusion

The Lian-Li V series cases are a collection of new designs that appear well thought out. Despite the few problems I ran into the build went well. With a little research ahead of time you can avoid all of the issues I had. The V2000 cases in particular are extremely roomy and there is plenty of room to work and even to mod your case or install a watercooling system completely inside the case. The usual Lian-Li quality shows through on the V2000B and the finish is smooth and blemish free.

Pros:


Cons: