Lian Li TYR PC-X500 Chassis

 

One thing I would have liked to have seen with this chassis is a removable motherboard tray. When I reviewed the X2000 a couple of weeks ago, I was impressed with this feature. So I was surprised to not see it feature on the X500. Having said that, the chassis is roomy enough to enable good working access though. There are pre cut holes with which to route the cables from the top compartment and there is also space behind the motherboard tray to hide any slack cables.

 

 

 

The chassis comes complete with  six PCI slots with vented PCI slot covers, which are anodised black and look great. Lian Li have also included black thumbscrews with which to fasten them. For those who would consider using watercooling with this chassis, Lian Li have provided four  pass-through holes for tubing with rubber grommets, if you wanted to externally house your radiator. 

 

 

  

The top compartment is quite busy in the fact that it houses the optical drives, HDD’s, and PSU. We shall see how well this arrangement works when we build the test rig. 

 

  

 

Fitting the hard drives means removing either of the two available caddies and fitting the drive to the caddy. All that is then required is to slot the caddy in place, and to secure with the fixed thumbscrew. The caddies have rubber washers on the screw points, which will aid in keeping vibration down to a minimum. There are thumbscrews provided to fix the hard drives to the caddies.

 

 

 

 

  

Fitting the optical drives is a straight forward job. Firstly, you have to decide on which side of the chassis you are going to mount the drives. As previously mentioned, you can mount either side and this comes in handy if you are going to be placing the chassis next to something when it’s in use. Next, you have to remove the blanking plates, by removing a few screws. You then fit the supplied CD/DVD screws to the drive sides, which will allow you to simply slot the drive in place. Lian Li have drawn some criticism for only supplying two 5.25″ bays, both on the X500 and the X2000. Whether or not this will be enough for your own needs is a question you would need to ask before you considered purchasing this chassis. We would also have liked to have seen the stealth drive bezels which Lian Li supply as extras to be included with the chassis, considering the price point the chassis is at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The PSU sits on a vented bottom within the chassis, and Lian Li have placed two rubber strips for the PSU to sit which aims to prevent vibration and noise. With the PSU fitted, it can feel quite cramped, and someone with large hands, like myself, would find it awkward to work on the PSU cables when the PSU is fixed in place.. Fixing the PSU in place is attained via a plate on the rear of the chassis, which is fixed onto the chassis with four thumbscrews. The PSU is then fixed to this plate, using a further four screws.

 

 

 

 

 

That’s the interior covered, so now let’s discuss how assembling the PC inside the X500 was, on the next page.