The PC-Q08 includes a color matched bezel for the optical drive. It can be removed during the installation of the optical drive if you prefer. I have the black case and a black optical drive so I removed the bezel. One other note on the optical drive, make sure it’s the very first thing you install. You need access to both sides of the bracket and it seems impossible to do it once the motherboard is mounted.
Lian Li offers USB 3.0 support on the front of this case. While a very forward thinking, I was curious how that would work with only a small handful of new boards having USB 3.0 headers. Turns out headers are unnecessary. The front ports are connected to two USB cables inside the case that are long enough to pass through the case and out through a special bracket that can be installed into an empty expansion port. The cables will then connect to the USB 3.0 ports on the rear panel of your motherboard.
Umm, I have a double wide video card. Most likely so will anyone else that buys a case like this. We don’t have the space for the pass-thru bracket and short of a drill, no other way to get the USB cables out of the back of the case.
Lian Li thought of this. Well, kind of. They include an adapter that allows the interior cables to be connected to a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard. Now we have USB 2.0 ports on the front, and 24″ of double thick USB cable eating up space inside out mini-ITX case. I appreciate the effort, but I for one would have been much happier with this case if it had just used USB 2.0 on the front panel. There’s barely enough room in the case for cables that need to be there. Good thing I only used one hard drive. The three empty bays have become storage for excessive internal USB cables.
Cable routing aside, the case was well suited to my build. The 700w power supply was tight, but it fit. There is plenty of room in the case for the Radeon 6850 graphics card and the ventilation on the bottom of the case functions well. The large case fan in the front and the exhaust fan on top provide excellent airflow through the chassis. The fans are also very quiet and the blue LED on the front adds a nice splash of color.
While not without a few flaws, the Lian Li is an excellent choice for a mini-ITX gaming system. It runs cool and quiet and has plenty of space for components. Many will argue that for the size you can step up to a micro-ATX system for just a few more inches.
But then it wouldn’t be a mini-ITX gaming system, would it?