Lian Li PC-A77 Full Tower
There are times when you can tell the manufacturer of a casing with a single glance and the Lian Li PC-A77 just happens to be one. From its light but sturdy chassis to its sleek minimalistic design, this PC-A77 strikes us as having all the right moves.
Love at First Sight
It's something of an urban legend that you will instinctively recognize your soul mate when you meet him/her; your heart starts fluttering, your eyes start glazing in desire and you start asking how much the casing costs.
How much it costs, you ask, confused. What?
We're referring to, of course, Lian Li's newest casing, the PC-A77. It's so spanking new that it's not even on their website, nor could we reliably get the pricing details from Lian Li. What we do know is that this full tower casing comes all ready and raring for some serious DIY setup. As the usual characteristic with Lian Li's chassis, the PC-A77 is lightweight but sturdy thanks to the aluminum used in its construction.
Furthermore, the PC-A77's clean lines and looks are a hallmark of Lian Li's top notch design aesthetics which as always, left us wanting for more. But enough gushing from us, let's take a look at the specifications of this fine chassis before we start inspecting this beauty all over.
The Lian Li PC-A77 full tower casing stands tall with its clean lines and minimalistic style.
The Exterior
While the last Lian Li casing we reviewed, the Armorsuit PC-P60, departed somewhat from the usual clean lines mostly due to its aim to appeal to gamers, the PC-A77 goes back to the usual Lian Li style we've all come to know and love. This time around, the clean and flat lines, despite being very ordinary, give the casing a simplistic yet elegant feel that's sure to please Lian Li devotees.
Behold the PC-A77: clean lines, flat surface, and elegant finish - the hallmark traits of a traditional Lian Li casing.
Under the Lian Li logo lies the standard array of connectivity ports from USB, FireWire, eSATA and audio ports, similar to the Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P60 that we previously reviewed.
You may have noticed the fan control from the earlier pic, here's a close up shot. The front frame housing the control is actually removable, which you will see in our subsequent shots.
Removing the front panel revealed a very bare and stark casing.
Note the clips that secure the front panel to the casing are semi-loose, so lifting the casing by gripping the front panel is not advised.
With nine 5.25-inch expansion bays to choose from, there's no need to worry on where to put your DVD drives. The brackets are also pretty secure, but are easily removable.
The Exterior Again
For a full tower casing, we know that the PC-A77 will have plenty of space, so we were expecting to see more expansion slots than normal. Little did we expect that instead of putting more expansion slots or a bigger fan, Lian Li decided to do a little something special...
There's plenty of space on the PC-A77, and the back of the casing is proof with its layout, which includes a space for a HDD cage and fan.
While most normal casings place their PSUs on top, higher end casings have been relocating the PSU to the bottom for better heat management and the PC-A77 is sticking to the trend. Well, with the extra space leftover, why not put another HDD cage and a fan?
The plastic grommets for water cooling are a questionable choice for the PC-A77 as they emit a cheap feel, which the PC-A77 doesn't deserve.
Seven expansion slots are more than sufficient for most people, and the vents at the side also help with cooling for the video card.
The Interior
Opening the interior of the PC-A77 was like unwrapping a birthday present, you probably know what you will most likely get, but you still get surprised anyway. The first thing that caught our eyes was the removable expansion card support strut located right smack in the middle, intended for additional support for very long graphics cards or other high-end devices of today. The casing also sports three hard drive cages that can hold up to a total of nine hard drives for times when you require a 9TB raid array set up.
The spacious interior of the Lian Li PC-A77 just begs to be filled up. The bar in the middle there is our previously mentioned removable expansion card support.
A close-up look of the expansion card support. The little grooves there allow for plastic supports to be inserted, which swing out allowing for the bigger cards to rest on. However in our trial, this was woefully inadequate and it wasn't as easy or straightforward as one would expect in this class of casings. For those who don't find any use, we would gladly recommend dismantling it.
The 120mm fan seen here spins at 1500RPM and it is also the same type used for the three HDD cages the casing houses.
Here's the PSU bay up close. The two black strips are padding for the PSU to rest upon and helps dampen any vibration it might pose.
Shown here is the sound dampening material located on the underside of the casing's 'roof'.
The material hindered the removal of the top HDD cage somewhat and we were afraid of damaging the material by forcibly removing the cage. Note that our review unit is an early engineering build, so this problem may be rectified upon release. Alternatively, you can remove the entire roof, though there's plenty of space to install the HDD drives without even removing the cage.
In terms of actually removing the HDD cage, we had an easier time removing them as compared to those on the Armorsuit PC-P60, even though both cages use the same easy to install mounting. Note that there are actually three HDD cages inside the PC-A77, all with a 120mm fan each.
The Interior Again
As you probably have noticed by now, the PC-A77 casing paints a picture of large open spaces and wide open tracts of 'land'. While we're obviously exaggerating it a wee bit, the casing is spacious enough that should please both the hardcore crowd and mainstream crowd looking for something easy to set up and not having to mess around with a cramped chassis (and probably even great for posers wanting to look like a pro).
The motherboard tray is removable and a simple slide to the left does the trick. There's also plenty of space at the back for routing your cables.
Oh and before we forget, here's a look at the expansion slots, which uses the same big thumb screws as the Armorsuit PC-P60.
The PC-A77 loaded up with plenty of space left over. The size of the casing will definitely make cable management that much easier. But at the same time, do ensure all your cables are long enough to reach all the required areas of the case. This could be a tough call even before buying the case, but hopefully this would prompt you to be more aware on this aspect.
Zen Style
The Lian Li PC-A77 is indeed a sweet casing, given the spacious interior, the extras that it has, such as the three supplied hard drive cages and the sound dampening material located on the underside of the top part of the chassis. Other extras such as the sliding motherboard tray and the fan controls are but more icing to a great casing. Even the initial packaging for the screws was also a nice touch with the different screws all neatly kept in separate packets.
While we like to say the PC-A77 is perfect, and it is as close to a perfect casing as you can get, there are some minor things that make us shy away slightly. Things that could be improved would be a better quality grommet for the liquid tubing ports and a slightly better choice of materials for some parts of the interior that tend to get scratched rather easily. The problem encountered with removing the top hard drive cage without damaging the sound dampening material was also a small let down. Yet another was the removable support strut for huge expansion cards (high-end/workstation class graphics cards), but as it didn't seem to work positively in our trials, you might probably be better off without it.
In the long run it doesn't really matter, as the casing really hits the sweet spot as far as construction, build and design are concerned. Doing away with flashy lights, outlandish designs and going back to basics is something of a win-win for us and many users who prefer neutral designs. While there's nothing stopping enthusiasts from adding some bling in the form of neon lights or other modifications, the Lian Li PC-A77 is a dish best eaten raw. For an all-aluminum construction full tower casing, don't be surprised by its S$489 price tag and that too from Lian Li.
The Lian Li PC-A77 is a simple casing in a more advanced era, yet it's the simple but functional design that makes the PC-A77 a perfect casing for all.
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