Lian Li PC-Q19 "Console Killer" PC Case
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,626 words · ~8 min read
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soen Le's response to me when they got my request for a sample of this case was
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wow that's the fastest I've ever gotten a response after sending out a product
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announcement PR email I was on it like that and why was I so excited well
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because I thought the PC q19 looked like
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the closest thing that we've ever gotten to a console killer case that has you
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know a very similar form factor to an xgen console actually about the same
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width and depth as an Xbox One although it is quite a bit Coller and these great
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modern living room friendly looks with
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this gorgeous brushed aluminum finish speaking of gorgeous aluminum finishes
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by the way we have a video coming on the MSI gs70 stealth 17-inch gaming laptop
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beautiful aluminum finish anyway make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss that but back to this guy did it meet my
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expectations well I guess you'll have to find out after you watch the
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intro The Cooler Master nepton 240m features
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an exclusive pump design and their new silencio fans to provide impressive near
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silent performance click now to learn more so the PC q19 is the first case in
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a while that I haven't actually been able to figure out how to open just by
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looking at it I mean it's beautiful it's completely clean looking without a
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single screw accessible from the front top bottom and right and left sides it
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includes this fantastic aluminum stand that
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complements it perfectly and is of such high quality that I would feel
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legitimately bad about using the included rubber feet to lay it flat and
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then hide it in my TV console this case demands to be shown off upon Consulting
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the manual which comes in lots of languages but isn't particularly clearly
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written and even contains some errors like instructing you to unscrew the PCI
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Express Riser that actually ends up coming in a baggie not screwed in I
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discovered that you just pop the side panels off they use a similar mechanism
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to the bit Phoenix Pandora and I was ready with my red marker to take off
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points for this because with the Pandora we actually had problems keeping the
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side panel on until I tried to take these ones off
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and realized we are dealing with a whole different grade of push pins here so
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full marks for these side panels Le and Lee I mean let me tell you those sockets
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you wouldn't want to put your penis in there you'd never get it back inside the
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case it's classic and Le everything is made of the usual wonderfully finished
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aluminum that keeps the case lightweight and classy looking keeps your fingers
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and cable safe from cuts and enables some incredibly creative designs without
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the sales volume requirements that cases with plastic chassis components require
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motherboard and power supply mounting was pretty simple at first remove both
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panels and all the removable bits the power supply takes an air directly from
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the side and exhaust it out the back I used a 600 watt Silverstone sfx modular
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power supply and the motherboard sits on a nice rigid you know support structure
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thing that gives really easy access to the back of the board for easy cooler
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installation and then I hit a potential snag and a real one first I noticed that
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the ATX connector doesn't fit through the hole into the bottom compartment if
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it's a full 24 pin design without the four detachable pins but mine has four
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Breakaway pins so that was okay and and then I realized that not one combination
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of the Mini ITX boards and sfx power supplies that I own would allow the 24
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pin connector to reach the plug so I had to use a 24 pin extension fortunately I
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had one lying around and there's a fair bit of room in the front of the case to
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store the now extra length that I had to deal with I actually had the opposite
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problem as well with the front usb3 header so the cable wasn't long enough
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to Route around my CPU Cooler and it had to sit over top but that was that was a
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minor issue and everything else here was fine Drive mounting is solid with anti
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vibrational mounts in the 3 2 and 1/2 in locations and one 3 and 1/2 in location
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and cable management was mostly easy with the only potential snafu being the
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spacing of the two stacked 2 and 1/2 in drives you may need an adapter if your
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power supply has left or right angle SATA connectors also of note while you
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guys are watching the b-roll is that one of the drives is in the correct location
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but not actually screwed in don't don't mind that it does screw in there if
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you're not lazy I just threw that in after I was done building now I was very
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pleased to see these sick magnetic fan filters over the motherboard and plower
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Supply areas plower Supply filtered intakes are a very very good thing but I
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was pretty disappointed to see how poorly planned the case's airflow
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strategy was in general the 120 mm fan
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behind the top filter needed to be turned around to keep the case's
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internal pressure positive so that you're forcing dust out of the little
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gaps in the case rather than into them drawing in dust check out this video to
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learn more about this concept and the graphics card mounting while it's super
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sweet with this PCIe Riser card and compatibility with up to 24 cm graphics
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cards plenty of room for Gigabyte's new ITX GTX 970 by the way it's just kind of
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like the cable cutout only being suitable for low-end 20 pin ATX
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connectors I mean it's it's in there rather than feeling like it's an
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important part of the case design and that like lean Lee actually expects
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anyone to put a high-end card in the case any dual slot cooler design is
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obviously going to starve for Fresh Air with a blower Style putting the fan
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right up against a non-perforated side panel and an open design simply
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scattering hot air around at the CPU in the nearby hard drive which leads into
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both my conclusion about this case and I guess a bit of a rant it's a beautiful
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case I can never fault lean Le craftsmanship but unfortunately it's
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more geared towards light and middleweight media PC use and it's not
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what I wanted as someone who wants to see a proper console killer case
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truthfully even though I like the case that's making it really hard for me to
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give it a positive conclusion here because it just feels like such a missed
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opportunity given that even the lowly
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7850 that I have in there runs at 81° on
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the CPU at 80 7% fan speed and we're
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talking about 110 TDP card here 110 watt
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excuse me and the thing that makes me most upset about all of this is that the
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case that I wanted this to be should already exist or be due for release very
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soon 10 months ago I met with Nathan
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from Cooler Master and I'm calling you out buddy and gave him my idea for how
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we could take actually a very similar design to this one obviously before this
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came out uh so it was Innovative at the time but with the mother on top No 3 and
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1/2 in Drive mounting point so you'll rely on ssds or 2 and 1/2 in hard drives
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the graphics card on a flexible PCIe extension on the bottom so the intake
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would be on the same side as the CPU intake and an external brick style power
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supply setup maybe with dual bricks or something like that I've seen this done
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before now as well you know ASUS with their latest Rog thing G20 or something
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like that and then so the idea was that we'd be able to get a full custom ad
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adequately cooled ITX gaming PC into a
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form factor about the size of the PS4 but they've been sitting on their asses
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for almost a year now with this idea so I'm putting the idea out in public now
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guys let me and Cooler Master know in the comments if you want to see
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something like that because if it turned out well that is the kind of thing that
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I would love to do like a sick Linus edition case of or something like that
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anyway good case not what I expected
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thank you guys for watching like video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me
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he