A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior of the chassis, one is required to remove six black screws holding each side panel in place. it is recommended to remove them both before pulling out the mainboard tray, as it should make the assembly of the interior parts much easier.


The mainboard tray is held in place by a set of thumb screws. Once you have removed those the tray may be pulled out with a firm tug. It is also constructed of aluminum but does feel fairly sturdy. So you should be able to stuff it full of high-end hardware without having to worry about bending it out of shape.


You will find three fans in the V351. A small one has been placed on the inside of the hard drive bay cover on the rear. This panel may be removed by unscrewing four screws. The three hard drive trays use the same system we have found on many other midrange Lian Li cases. It does not require you to screw the drives down, but you still need tools to prepare the drives for the V351.


The optical drive bays follow the same principle as the 3.5 inch ones. You do not require screws to secure the devices but still have to apply special screws to be able to slide them into place afterward.


Once all the panels and the mainboard tray are removed, you can clearly see a pair of 120 mm fans. These units pull air in from the side of the chassis and blow it over the entire mATX mainboard area. Two such units may not be anything out of the ordinary in a mid tower case, but seeing them in the extremely compact V351 is a welcome sight.


Lian Li has opted for the traditional mainboard connectors to route the functionality of the I/O and the power & reset buttons along with the LEDs to the appropriate areas of the chassis. The cables are quite long so I was able to route them nicely and hide them during installation.