Published: September 23, 2008 | Source: Lian Li | Author: Stuart Boardman

Lian Li TYR PC-X2000 Chassis

Internal Impressions – A closer look

SATA Hard Drive Hot Swap Bays

The X2000 features six hard drive bays, with two three bay hot swap boards. The boards take care of your drives SATA and power connections, and you connect the cables from the motherboard and PSU to the rear of the boards. A welcome bonus to this setup is the fact that you can power three drives from just the one molex connector on the board. Access to the rear of the boards is gained from the right hand side of the case, when the side panel is removed. Fixing the drives in the bay is achieved by attaching the supplied handles to the drive and then slotting it into an empty bay – all you then do to lock it is push down two clips. This system works brilliantly. Not only does it allow you to swap out hard drives quickly and painlessly, it provides an easy way to keep drive cables in check.

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Cooling

The X2000 comes equipped with three 140mm fans to the front, and one 140mm to the rear. In addition to this, there are two 80mm fans at the rear. The three front fans act as air intake’s, and blow air into the main chamber and the hard drive compartment. The 140mm fan at the rear is positioned in line with the CPU and acts as an exhaust for the hot air. The two 80mm fans are positioned in line with the drive bay and exhaust hot air from there. All fans are fitted with grilles and this gives the case a finished feel. In addition to the fitted fans, the PSU bay has a slotted floor, which will allow hot air created in the main chamber to be exhausted through the PSU fans. We will discuss how effective this cooling setup is in our testing results page.

Optical/ Floppy Drive Bays

As already mentioned, the optical and floppy drive bays are placed in the top of the case, but are orientated so that the drives are sideways on.Â There are twoÂ 5.25″Â and one 3.5″ bay. The drive fronts can be facing either left or right due to theÂ side panel cut-outs and the bay’s design.Â Fitting the drives is a simple affair and Lian Li have provided screws which allow you to just slot the drives in. If you are using an IDE optical drive, fitting could prove a little harder than a SATA drive, due to the cable being larger andÂ having toÂ pass itÂ through a hole in the 3.5″ bay floor.Â Â We would have liked to have seen Lian Li provide the Aluminium drive bezels with the case, so the drives can be stealthed, but they are available to purchase as an optional extra. Considering the cost of this case though, it would have been prudent to provide them as standard.

PSU Bay

The PSU is housed next to the optical drive bays and it sits on two rubber strips that are stuck to the bay floor. The floor has a grille cut into it so hot air can be exhausted from the main compartment through the PSU fans. Fitting the PSU is quick and easy. The PSU cables are then passed through a pre-cut hole into the main chamber.