A Closer Look - Inside

Moving right along to the inside of the K7, let's start with the rear. While the power supply bay may not look out of the ordinary on the outside it is certainly a bit different when compared to OEM cases. There is a little "step" in the design of the bay, which moves the bottom plate away from the fan of the power supply and also has holes, so that air may pass through.

The rear fan is covered by a guard, which has been created out of a single sheet of aluminum. There are circular cuts to allow air to be pulled out the rear of the case. It may have been cheaper and better to use a traditional steel fan grill instead, but Lian-Li uses its own version on all their cases. Another highlight is the user choice of either the mainboard header or PSU to supply the cooling devices with power. This is something sorely missed in so many cases these days.

The PCI brackets are held in place by simple screws. There is a fine air grill next to these expansion slots, which can hold an additional side fan, sold seperately. Once again, this is a feature which has been passed on from the more expensive Lian-Li enclosures.


The optical bay uses a simple locking mechanism, which snaps into the screw holes in the rear of the drive. This means that it is sufficient to use a single screw to secure the drives and that you do not need to line up drives with the front of the case manually. The hard drive cage features a completely new design. While it is not screw-less, it does use rubber rings to disconnect the hard drives from the chassis and thus reduces nois and vibrations. You have to slide them in backward from the other side of the case. At this point it also becomes apparent why the K7 only has three 5.25 inch drive bays and a single 3.5 inch one. The space is used by the hard drive cage, which can hold a total of five hard drives.


The mainboard tray can also be removed by unscrewing two thumb screws. The rear holds two large metal clips and the tray has two large holes. You can route cables behind the tray to the drives and toward the bottom of the mainboard. As you will see when the system is put together, it makes cable management very easy.