Shane Baxtor03 October 2008, 6:00 PM
If you find a full tower still too small, the Lian Li Armorsuit P80 super tower, with its massive 600mm x 600mm+ design, could be the case for you.
Coated in an all-black, hairline-brushed aluminium paint job, the massive Lian Li Armorsuit P80 stands at 633mm high. The P80 isn’t only tall though; the depth of the case also goes back an extremely long 610mm, which brings it into the Super Full Tower category and makes the overall case look more square than you’re probably used to seeing.
Looking around the case, there isn’t a whole lot that stands out. There’s no 200mm+ fan installed in the left side panel that glows in four different colours, nor do we have a massive window that lets you see inside. The rear of the case looks pretty normal, though it is, of course, bigger. The main feature that we can see here is that the P80 has support for motherboards with up to 10 slots, along with two holes that let you run water-cooling tubing if you’re interested in moving away from the standard air-cooling option.
The top of the case features both the power and reset button and below that we have the Lian Li logo, which sits attached to a door that opens and exposes four USB 2.0 ports, microphone-in, line-out and FireWire, along with a single e-SATA port.
It isn’t until everything is installed and you turn your computer on for the first time that you notice the blue glow emitting from the front of the case, thanks to the help of the three 140mm blue LED fans installed behind the front door. If that isn’t enough air-flow, the top of the case sports another 140mm fan, while the rear has a slightly smaller 120mm fan to allow air to escape.
Behind the door, which can be adjusted to open either to your left or right, you have room for a massive 12 x 5.25” bays. Included inside are two separate racks that slot into the bays to give you the ability to install up to six hard drives at the cost of six of the bays. If you find yourself wanting more hard drives, you could have a total of 11 alongside a single ROM drive. Buying extra racks gives you the ability to mix and match the hard drive/ROM drive configuration to something that is more suitable for you.
Hardware installation is made easy, with a removable motherboard tray and a huge amount of room. The overall size of the chassis gives your components plenty of room to breathe. And with graphics cards getting hotter and the benefits of adding a second one becoming better and better every month, the more room the warmer components have, the better.
Lian Li brings true meaning to the phrase “You get what you pay for”. While the price tag is high, everything from the outside of the case to the inside is of the highest quality. The aluminium design, high-quality fans and overall feature-set give you sheer joy the second you dive inside the case.
You can’t deny for a second, though, that this case isn’t for everyone. The price is going to cut out a huge portion of the market, and the fact that you could easily add a further $150 for a quality power supply means the overall cost can quickly become quite excessive. Upon turning the Armorsuit P80 on for the first time and seeing the blue LED fans fire up, you get a sense that you’re looking at the Rolls Royce of cases. The good news is, if you do love the case yet find it simply too big and too expensive, you can have a look at its smaller variant, the P60, which carries 120mm fans instead and has less room. However, the same quality, overall design and excitement is still there.