Lian Li/DAN A3-mATX

[derbo]

MSRP of $69.99 is temping to overlook the slightly larger size of this compared to the C4-SFX.

 

[mattmatt12690]

Better cooling as well.

 

[Fabian2602]

ATX PSU in all positions just with a maximum of 140mm?

 

[Jylakir]

Strange for me that you can only mout two 120mm on the bottom of the case. With 3 times 120mm this case would be very high on my list.

 

[Viking]

Is there a solution for dust filtering in this case?

 

[Liru]

Is there a solution for dust filtering in this case?

Don't worry fabric panel will get 25% of your dust
Until it tears down of course

 

[euro3er]

I was interested in this, but two things have made me change my mind. One, the fabric front. Two, the choice of up to 140mm ATX PSU.

 

[Viking]

Don't worry fabric panel will get 25% of your dust
Until it tears down of course

Well, I think most of the air - including dust - will come through the top and bottom where the fans are sitting.

Why would the fabric tear down? There is no mechanical load on it. Does the fabric on loudspeakers wear down?

 

[BRSxIgnition]

Looks nice at first glance, but fabric is a bad idea - should be mesh or glass - especially because that front area won't serve super well as an intake anyway and will gather dust + wear down quickly.

Also, can't wait for this case to get cancelled a month after launch and a v2 to be announced with no release date.

 

[shangor]

Fabric front puts me off, it gives me that low quality case vibe. Also, with 26 L, it grew a bit too much from the initial idea.
It is still a nice, low budget case.

 

[PicoXXL]

@dondan , any hints regarding the release date? Don't see it being available anywhere despite all the announcements since 2022.

 

[boundary-stone]

Now that the A3 has grown in size all the way from the original sub 20L design to the current 26L it'd be really nice to see 5-15mm more AIO clearance at the top of the case for thicker rad + fan combos than the max 27mm rad / 25mm fan that the current 55mm top AIO clearance spec appears to be limiting itself to. This clearance should be *at least* 60mm to allow for 27mm rads with 28-30mm fans (Lian Li's own P28, Phanteks T30 etc.).

Alternatively ~66mm AIO clearance would allow for 38mm rad / 25mm fan combos like the massively popular Arctic Freezer II / III series or ~71mm would allow for 38mm rad / 30mm fan combos.

The emphasis on AIO usage, but weirdly limited top AIO compatibility just feels like a mistake carried over from earlier revisions that were still focused on compact size? Hopefully this can be fixed before launch.

 

[boundary-stone]

When making case one needs to compromise between air coolers & water coolers.. I for one would use big tower cooler. As AIO are pointless..
If we keep increasing the size left/right, what's the point of going M-atx? It's almost the same size as atx already. At least foot print wise.

Now that i think about it - it's almost same size as ATX cases already. Only thing that sells this - GPU being right next to bottom intake.. Over ATX cases with bottom PSU covers.

I also prefer air coolers and agree that it's very hard to find anything AIO wise that offers practical *cpu cooling* benefits vs top tier current gen air coolers like the PS120SE when cpu cooler height isn't constrained.

That said the flexibility of being able to directly exhaust cpu heat / directly intake cool air is extremely helpful for a lot of builds. The improvement in portability is also real (reduced motherboard stress, increased number of mounting contact points, screw mounted rad fans vs less secure clips etc.) and the quality of life boost from being able to easily access densely packed connectors on an itx board while the pump is mounted is appealing. My hulking PS120SE makes almost my entire ITX board inaccessible.

The point though was that the current prototype revision of the A3 case that's blown up to 26L *no longer has compact dimensions as a design requirement* so compromising on top mount compatibility for commonly used AIO setups for maybe 1/2 liter of volume reduction just doesn't make sense.

 

[boundary-stone]

Thought about this case more and might give it a go for air cooling. Roughly 50% more volume than many ITX cases, but the flexibility of having so many fan mount options on the top / side / rear is tempting. That's just an absolute ton of fan capacity for a 26L case.

I'm curious whether the bottom intake will have mounting options for 2x 140mm or 3x 120mm fans though?

For GPU deshroud folks like me having the option to use 2x 140mm or 3x 120mm bottom intake fans positioned immediately below the GPU would be a nice upgrade over competing sub-30L cases. I'm currently using an NR200 (18L) with a deshrouded GPU that has a thicker heatsink assembly and I'm limited to 2x 120mm slim fans on the bottom intake - not ideal. If I could install 3x T30's / A12x25's (120mm) or 2x SW4P's (140mm) in the bottom intake of the A3 it'd be an instant buy.

 

[mikejmcfarlane]

A lot of flexibility in this case. The ability to use an ATX PSU is interesting.

Is the fabric front easily replaceable? Being able to swap the fabric out for different fabric materials or patterns would open the design up to a whole load of new customisation options.

 

[boundary-stone]

A lot of flexibility in this case. The ability to use an ATX PSU is interesting.

Is the fabric front easily replaceable? Being able to swap the fabric out for different fabric materials or patterns would open the design up to a whole load of new customisation options.

I'd happily pay an extra $10 for a metal mesh / non-fabric front.

 

[Funkie]

So any updates when it will hit market???? It has been YEARS already.. How hard is to make a metal box? Oh almost forgot fabric.. Yeah making fabric will take some time.
(Jokes aside - i know it takes a long time to get thing going, etc.. But come on!)

 

[Sen]

Looks like it's a good alternative to the original NR200 now.