Lian Li PC-V359 M-ATX Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

As with most Lian-Li chassis, the PC-V359 is pretty expensive; stock seems a little tricky to find at the moment, but our trusty friends at Overclockers UK have it in stock for £132.95 (at time of writing) and you’ll find it for around $180 in the US. This is very expensive for a small chassis, but that’s the price you pay for premium quality aluminium construction and precision engineering from a well trusted brand name.

Overview

The PC-V359 joins the wave of box-style chassis that have been hitting the market this year and while there are some incredibly good options out there from the likes of Antec, Thermaltake, Aerocool and many others, none of them look as slick as Lian-Li’s latest offering. Most chassis in this form factor feature very bland HTPC style looks, or extreme gaming system looks; but Lian-Li have created a chassis would look great on your desk, at a LAN event, as part of your home entertainment system and more. Black brushed aluminium looks superb and while I admit that style is subjective, this is one great looking chassis.

Build quality is on par with everything else Lian-Li have ever done. Everything is well made, there are no rough edges, everything fits together perfectly and the design has been well thought out to make installation, maintenance and even modding of this chassis as easy as possible; it’s very easy to get a great looking build with minimal effort. The top perspex panel and the front panel window are a welcome bonus and offer a unique perspective to show off your build that you don’t get with a side panel window. The only concern is that you’ll need to take good care of your rig; aluminium and perspex both scratch quite easily.

The chassis has a lot of space below the motherboard for cable management, the only limiting factor being that there are only four hard drive bays. There is only one dedicated 2.5″ drive bay, but you could always use a 2.5″ to 3.5″ adaptor bracket if you wanted to install more SSD drives. The top section is spacious enough for a pair of high-end graphics cards, or you can opt for a single card and take advantage the two 120mm fan mounts on each side panel. Those interested in water cooling will be happy to see that a 120mm radiator easily fits the back of the chassis, but you could also install a 240mm radiator on the right side panel if you needed extra cooling performance.

Pros

• Very high build quality
• Premium finish
• Top panel and all four side panels can be removed
• Room for long graphics cards
• 120mm/240mm radiator support
• Unique design

Cons

• Expensive
• Aluminium and perspex scratch very easily
• Only one dedicated 2.5″ drive bay

“A unique design and premium build quality make the Lian Li PC-V359 stand out from the crowd. This is one of the coolest Micro-ATX chassis’ on the market and it’s a great option for those who want to show off their build; so long as you’re willing to pay a premium for it. As part of a HTPC setup, in your office, or as a gaming rig, the PC-V359 is going to look great!”

Thank you Lian Li for providing us with this sample.