Lian Li XB-01 Replacement Xbox 360 Case Review
Published by HQM0NSTERB0Y on Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Tagged: Hardware, Xbox 360,
Lian Li's XB-01 Replacement Xbox 360 Case Review
By Joel Kuntz (frozenfire12) www.360-Hq.com
Supplier: www.Lian-Li.com
The guys over at Lian Li recently gave 360-Hq a chance to review their XB-01 replacement Xbox 360 case. Does this case live up to its promises of silent operation, find out in the full review. Thanks must go to Lian Li to give us the opportunity to review their product.
If you are on the 360-Hq homepage click read more to check out the full review!
Why a case replacement?
Case replacements have always been popular with consoles and with this generation it is no different. I must say this is a unique case replacement because it isn’t a replica of the original specifications, it resembles a PC more than an Xbox 360.
Impressions
I knew I was in for something different when I saw the size of the box it came in. The case is meant to make the Xbox 360 silent and run cool to help prevent against the most common problem, RROD. I think Lian Li realized that to follow those two things they would have to make the console a bit bigger. Don’t get me wrong I completely support that, sacrificing some size for terms of loudness and heat output. The 120mm fan moves a lot of air and is silent so that is a good solution. The front intake of the case is a good idea because it allows plenty of ventilation to occur and will help you see when the system needs to be dusted out. The inclusion of the ability to have water cooling was an excellent idea so anyone who is adventurous enough can follow this path, although I think with the cooling options it has water cooling is overkill. After close examination I think the fan shroud that Lian Li has made would work with slight modification if you exchanged the GPU heatsink with a spare CPU one for extra cooling. Overall Lian Li set out to make the 360 operate silently and for the most part they succeed. Due to the 360’s loud DVD drive it still makes the case as loud as the original 360 case during gameplay. Although there is nothing Lian Li could have done to fix that, when the fall update comes and you can run games off your hard drive, this case should be very quiet.
With the revisions that the 360 has had it is good that this case accommodates both designs (with HDMI, and without) with a simple piece of plastic sticker that is contoured to each one. Also with these revisions was a different connector for the fans but the case comes with a switch that will allow the 120mm fan to work with both models.
The way they made the Hard drive internal was a good idea because it makes it easily accessible for a modder to upgrade it without problem. I wish they would have made a way so the hard drive could be removed, because if you’re like me I like to take my hard drive to my friends house to show them stuff in my saves, oh well I guess that’s what the memory cards are for.
The case is very solid and of good quality, although it falls short in a few design areas. To start a memory card will not fit in the slot A which isn’t an issue if you only ever use one memory card at a given time. Another issue I had was the DVD door flap never fully opened and tends to drag on the tray, which could cause problems with the drive in the future. My final issue with the case is the sync and eject buttons are a little too far from the motherboard, making it very hard to press the buttons and getting the system to react. Other than these problems I find the case itself to be very sturdy and well crafted. I think with a bit more time Lian Li could have made this case a bit better and fixed the issues I experienced. Another issue I think they should have worked on was making the power brick internal, there is more than enough room inside the case, and with a little thought it could easily happen. Lian Li did what they set out to accomplish with this case, but I think there is still room for improvement. I hope Lian Li takes that into account for future iterations of the case.
Final Score
Build Quality: Very sturdy case, some design flaws that could have been fixed hold this back
3.5/5
Packaging: Comes in a very sturdy box with good Styrofoam protection to keep the case scratch free
5/5
Ease of Use: Installation is fairly simple. Some design flaws make the eject and sync buttons hard to work.
3.5/5
Overall: A sturdy case that could have used a bit more design time to make it better. It accomplishes what it sets out to do, and that is to make it quiet and cool.
3.5/5
Verdict: Recommended if you can deal with the design flaws
Product Page: www.Lian-Li.com
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