Review: Lian-Li PC-A12 chassis

by Matt Davey on 22 October 2007, 09:39

Tags: PC-A12, Lian Li, PC

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The PC-A12 does everything it should do, though it's not perfect, of course. In particular, the lack of water cooling was a disappointment, even for a model billed as the budget offering in Lian-Li's new range.

Some of you may scoff at that statement - £90 is a significant amount of money and quite a lot to be asking for a system case, especially since its only real features are the fit and finish - which in our view are very important - and the blue lights in the door, which don't score too high on our must-have list.

But the finish of the PC-A12 is excellent and the quality of the materials shines through in the final product.

Yet, we are concerned that the PC-A12 is priced a little too high in the UK. In the USA, the same case is currently available online for less than $120. That's the better side of £65 and, even with the necessary addition of UK VAT at 17.5 per cent, would equate to a good bit less than £80. And that's where we feel the PC-A12 should be pitched over here - under £80.

However, we try hard to review products at the earliest possible stage, and it's a bit unfair - and slightly misleading, as well - to criticise newly-launched products on pricing until there's a wide range of stockists and competition has kicked in.

The PC-A12 is a good chassis and we like it. It's quiet and functional, pretty to look at and easy to work with. Hopefully, soon, it will be stocked more widely, by which time you may be able to find it for under £80. However, unless you're a aluminium addict, you might think that there's better value currently available from a steel chassis, perhaps most notably the Antec P182.

But lovers of aluminium (among whom we number ourselves) who don't need water-cooling or a huge multi-featured case might think that the PC-A12 will do the job very nicely - and would likely be right.

HEXUS Labs Certification

The Lian-Li PC-A12 is a fine case and, despite our slight reservations on pricing, is one that fully merits its HEXUS Labs Certfication.




Lian-Li PC-A12

HEXUS Where2Buy

The Lian-Li PCA12 is available for £89.99 (including VAT) from CCL Computers (price correct at the time of publication).

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If Lian-Li chooses to respond, we'll publish its commentary here verbatim.

But Lian-Li isn't alone in being able to have its say - you can, too. So don't forget to comment on this review in the HEXUS.community.

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External.links

Lian-Li home page


 



HEXUS Forums :: 16 Comments

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I'm getting “invalid URL” when trying to read the article :(
What's a man meant to do on a Monday morning at work with nothing to read! Look forward to it :)
It's working for me here…
well… the article is active and live… :innocent:

but no… you guys weren't seeing things… there was a little frantic eleventh hour editing going on :juggle: …so we did briefly deactivate the article for a coupla minutes :mrgreen:

apologies for the inconvenience! :hexlub:

anyways please do let us know your own thoughts on the Lian-Li PC-A12?
PD HEXUS;1244339
but no… you guys weren't seeing things… there was a little frantic eleventh hour editing going on :juggle: …so we did briefly deactivate the article for a coupla minutes :mrgreen:

Whoops.

Ah well what do I know I only wrote the thing :shaun: