[section_title title=Conclusion]
Conclusion
Having lived with this chassis for a couple of days let’s see what my thoughts and opinions on this exquisitely crafted chassis were.
As I have touched on with previous reviews, the vast majority of the chassis on the market today rely on their aesthetics and brand popularity at the time to gain sales. Lian Li have always had the reputation for as long as I can remember for producing the highest quality chassis, even if you have to pay a premium for that craftsmanship. This is no different. It follows the long line of Lian Li chassis that came before it with its full aluminium construction. Further to this, it also seems to follow Lian Li’s clever design with the inside, easily able to house the ITX motherboard and power supply in a tight area and then delivering modular drive bays to cater to a vast amount of needs from an end user.
I feel that Lian Li have done an excellent job in managing to fit in a lot of features to this chassis whilst keeping true to their principles of a minimalist but sleek and, in my opinion, gorgeous looking, aluminium chassis. Whilst there are people out there, in fact there are a lot of them, who believe that the ITX format is a gaming only format for those looking for a small rig to take to LANs; this is not one of those cases. This is primarily designed to be a NAS or file server first and foremost. As mentioned previously, it can easily accommodate an MSI R9 290 and keep our 4770k cool with the Noctua L9i cooler, so can be a LAN rig if needed, but I would be shock to see one of these being used by a gamer at LAN unless it was a modified case with custom water cooling. In regards for it being a NAS or file server, it is kitted out superbly, able to hold four full size hard drives and three SSD’s in its default configuration. I would be tempted to take the modular hard cage out, which is a nice feature, and fill the front with some IcyDocks. This is where the lockable front door comes into play as it allows you to keep all of your beloved data safe.
There is not a lot that I can fault this case for. The price is obviously going to be an issue for some, being almost twice as much as some of the competition from BitFenix and Aerocool. However, What you pay for is exceptional build quality, a strong and lightweight aluminium chassis and simple but sleek good looks which will look good almost anywhere.
In conclusion, this case is perfect for those people wanting to have a nice compact file server or NAS, but which also has the potential to be a fast home office system or a very potent gaming rig. Lian Li have managed to produce a small gem in this chassis whilst sticking to their principles and good looks of many of their other chassis that are currently available on the market. It this chassis were a little cheaper than this would have got our editor’s choice hands down. However, the price is just too high to ignore so instead, I am happy to award it with our Design and Performance awards.
The Lian Li PC-Q35, along with more products from Lian Li are available to purchase from Overclockers UK – http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=2362&catid=&sortby=nameAsc&categoryid=187
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Performance
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Design
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Value
Summary
Lian Li have always made high quality chassis, and this was no exception. As soon as it landed on my door step, I was excited, knowing that this would be a quality product. I was not let down. The PC-Q35 oozes quality and style in a practical package, as a result it is fully deserving of its awards.
