A Closer Look - Outside

The chassis itself follows the same clean and understated design as we have come to love from Lian Li. Due to the fact that it is intended for a mATX board, the chassis ends up being very compact, but slightly deeper than most traditional mini cases.


Taking a quick look, the front is made in its entirety of Aluminum. There is a large air vent in the front along with two 5.25 inch drive bays. There is no external 3.5 inch variant and Lian Li does not include an adapter with the PC-A04. Turning the chassis around it becomes apparent that the interior is not painted black and the PSU is to be placed on the bottom and the mainboard will be installed upright. This is a change from the PC-A05N, which flipped things upside down.


Both side panels of the enclosure are completely solid, no fan grills, air vents or openings of any sort. This means that all air is pulled from the front trough the chassis and out the back and top of the case.


Taking a closer look at the front of the case, it can easily be divided into two sections. The bottom part acts as the afore mentioned air vent. You can clearly see that there are two 120 mm fans right behind the opening. It does not look like there is a dust filter though. Above that are the two clean and simple 5.25 inch bays. Lian Li has placed their signature mini LEDs on the top right corner once again. As you can see no new paths are being taken with the A04 design.


In the back, the bottom mounted PSU will be held in place by a frame later on. Above that come four mainboard expansion slots, each covered by the signature cover, which we have seen on so many other Lian Li cases in the past. In the very top rear you will find a circular opening, covered by metal mesh. This is somewhat new and Lian Li officially does not quantify this hole as a possible position for a fan either according the the Lian Li website, but we are told that an 80 mm unit will fit. Above that is the single water cooling opening. Seems like Lian Li is using this large hole to route the USB 3.0 cable out the back of the chassis. While this works perfectly fine as we will se later on, it does disturb the design and style of the chassis somewhat.


Before we open the PC-A04 up, let us take a quick look at what the top holds. The entire I/O and the power/reset combo is located in front of the top panel. considering the size of the case, you will most likely place the unit on the table next to your monitor, which may make reaching the I/O a bit tough. Behind there is another mesh covered opening, but this time around you will actually find a 120 mm fan here.