Lian-Li O7S review

PC Cases and Modding 227 Page 12 of 12 Published by

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Final Words & Conclusion

The Verdict

Lian-Li offers one of the most gorgeous looking chassis available on the market. Luxurious looks, the materials and I am confident in saying that this is one of the most elite builds I have ever made. It was bit of a pain to install though. I think I have removed every little screw, stud, nut and bolt in order to be able to house the components. So where typically you'd be ready in half an hour, you need to reserve the entire afternoon and go step by step. We had to remove and re-seat the extended PCIe slot connector for example, the motherboard standoffs needed to be relocated for our EATX motherboard, installation of the liquid cooler was even a little annoying and hey, you better use liquid cooling or a low profile CPU cooler, as otherwise a regular heat-pipe cooler will not fit. Yeah with a build like this you need to plan your PC carefully. In the end though, the result is all worth it, once finished, you'll certainly appreciate all the hard work as the build as shown like today sits like a piece of art in my office. Each time I pass by it, I smile a little.

Aesthetics

Well, this is a little obligatory I guess, but with Lian Li cases often you dislike or love them. Often I found that Lian Li was standing still in time and is refreshing their product line way too often, but their signature is aluminum, and there's only so much you can do with that. The O series however has changed that with features like being wall-mountable, the overall looks and then mixing up components position inside the chassis whilst offering good airflow and cooling. The innovation and creativity that went into the this chassis is nothing short of amazing, sometimes the compass lines up north, and with the O series, it lines up perfectly. What finishes the chassis is that extraordinary 5mm tempered glass and the open feel combined with an all black / dark design -- that does the trick. Every little LED on your motherboard suddenly becomes interesting and fascinating. The best thing ever was deciding to remove the graphics card from the motherboard PCIe slot and make it look like it is floating inside the chassis. That's just gorgeous to look at. Overall if you zoom in at say the power buttons etc, that all a little plain, but really in the grand scheme of things not even worth mentioning. Fantastic looks, period.


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Features

Then there's the sheer amount of details and features that Lian Li put into this mid-tower chassis. The unique VGA mount (one card recommended at most BTW), the strange but so interesting position of the PSU which is hanging there like a bat, heck even large size ATX PSUs can be mounted that way. Then there are the HDD/SDD mounting options at the front and rear side, the grommet holes for managing your cable routing, than spacious wire management options on the backside of the PC you can tuck your SSDs away. Then one slim 5.25" optical mount multiple 3.5" bays and weird floating PCI expansion slots for your graphics card make this product fascinating. Cooling capacity of this case is okay, not superb, but not really an issue either. The airflow will be sucked out through the top mounted fans, or radiator fans if you are mounting liquid cooling (and you really should). A nice detail is the dust filter on the top side. For the liquid cooling fanatics, you can fit multiple radiators sizes in the chassis including an up-to 360 mm radiator, without the need for any nasty modifications. Installation however is not handy as you need to take out and disassemble the entire top compartment, however you will hide the entire radiator that way and as such that benefits the overall aesthetics again.


Final Words

Truthfully, I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Lian Li O7S, I really dind't like the installation very much as it is a lot of seating, re-seating assembling and disassembling. Honestly at then end of the build, that experience flipped around in pure positiveness. I've never spent this much time building a PC. But the truth remains that after an afternoon of messing about, the end-result is downright amazing. So yes, we can squander about the installation, intricate little details, but overall the O7S is offering enough room to work in, offers enough storage space, comes with USB 3.0 connectors, decent enough ventilation (three fans included) and really all you'll ever need to build an enthusiast class PC. It houses ATX up-to EATX motherboards and even a 360mm radiator. Graphics cards wise one card is supported though as physically Lian-Li delivers just one set of VGA mounts. Installation aside, this product is a sheer thing of beauty. We just LOVE the way it looks, and then add to that the intricate things like that hanging power supply, or the fact that you can actually see your graphics card through that gorgeous tempered glass, well yeah as you can probably tell, in the end I fell a little in love with this chassis. Now up-to writing this conclusion I had not looked up the price of this chassis. So I'll just mention it and then crawl under a rock. Ready? It is selling for roughly 400 EURO. I kid you not. I'll refrain from discussing that price-tag and leave that all up to you.

It's time to end this article, for pure looks and design I will grant it our hard to get "Top Pick" award, as this chassis should not be rated on pricing alone. We can see where the money is spent, whether or not that price-tag is worth it or not will not influence our decision in award choice. For those that like the looks this will be an amazing chassis that offers all the functionality and features you may expect from a Lian-Li chassis. The chassis currently sits in our office as demonstrated on the photos, and it is the eye-catcher of anything and for everybody. It truly is a top pick.

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