Lian Li PC - A7010 SATA Hot Swap HDD Cage

can you kindly posts some pics please? im looking to get this case too.cant you remove the driver cage to make room for your HSF?
 
The drive cage is removable but there's a partition that splits up the 2 compartments so it would hit the partition anyway.

Here are some pics

View of the innards. As you can see the Tuniq Tower is huge and almost hitting the base of the HDD cage above it. Some board acrobatics was required. Also the 8pin power connector is at the top left of the mobo, was a pain to reach from the bottom - http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4148/pict2295ox5.jpg
Mobo compartment - http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/9983/pict2297rc1.jpg
HDD compartment. I love this, spiffy connections - http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/9166/pict2296vr8.jpg
Front - http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/742/pict2298up9.jpg
 
galapogos said:
The drive cage is removable but there's a partition that splits up the 2 compartments so it would hit the partition anyway.

Here are some pics

View of the innards. As you can see the Tuniq Tower is huge and almost hitting the base of the HDD cage above it. Some board acrobatics was required. Also the 8pin power connector is at the top left of the mobo, was a pain to reach from the bottom - http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4148/pict2295ox5.jpg
Mobo compartment - http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/9983/pict2297rc1.jpg
HDD compartment. I love this, spiffy connections - http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/9166/pict2296vr8.jpg
Front - http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/742/pict2298up9.jpg
Click to expand...
where did you get it?
price?
 
galapogos said:
The drive cage is removable but there's a partition that splits up the 2 compartments so it would hit the partition anyway.

Here are some pics

View of the innards. As you can see the Tuniq Tower is huge and almost hitting the base of the HDD cage above it. Some board acrobatics was required. Also the 8pin power connector is at the top left of the mobo, was a pain to reach from the bottom - http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4148/pict2295ox5.jpg
Mobo compartment - http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/9983/pict2297rc1.jpg
HDD compartment. I love this, spiffy connections - http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/9166/pict2296vr8.jpg
Front - http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/742/pict2298up9.jpg
Click to expand...

does the mobo trey have hole sin it to run the psu cables behind the mobo trey? how quiet is the stock fans? temps?
 
Yes there are holes which I'm using to run the PSU cables behind. The stock fans running at medium speed are quiet to me, but this is considering my previous system was a jet turbine, and I'm running a Tuniq Tower, 9800GTX and 7 HDDs, so it's no iMac, but it's significantly quieter than my previous system.
 
if i remember correctly they used 4 pin power connectors on those SATA backplanes, which would make them NOT hot-swappable... SATA requires the 3.3v pin to be present in order to hot-swap properly
 
FLECOM said:
if i remember correctly they used 4 pin power connectors on those SATA backplanes, which would make them NOT hot-swappable... SATA requires the 3.3v pin to be present in order to hot-swap properly
Click to expand...

Nice!

I try to learn something new everyday, and this is today's learnin! :D

Here's a great tutorial about plugs and power.

Can we sue Lian Li for false advertising? :)
 
galapogos said:
With a HDD cage on top and a PSU at the bottom, the motherboard area isn't big enough for large mobos and large HSFs installed. I have a DFI X48-T2R with a Tuniq Tower, and it was hard to fit the installed mobo tray back into the case. The Tuniq Tower would keep hitting the bottom of the drive cage.
Click to expand...
All ATX motherboards are equally big... (mATX, E-ATX etc are different size specs)
When looking how close Tuniq is and its asymmetric shape it might not even fit otherway. At least some of that holed divider could be removed but there's still those back-front cross-supports so while there would be more space for fingers during installation of HSF biggest of them might just not fit.

They should have just rised top part starting from cross supports few centimeters upwards during design process. Without that "lapse of memory" in sizing of frame older A70/71, these new A7x10 models and Stacker style A77 would be without any notable faults.
At least while having similar size opening/motherboard tray V2x10 models have space above motherboard so clearly someone might have noticed this problem while designing them.

love the drive rail designs for both IDE and SATA drives(they're different, but they both work)
Click to expand...
That soft mounting in top cage is acoustically always clearly better because it doesn't conduct HD vibration to case but have you tried does that rack with HDDs in plastic rails vibrate?
 
galapogos said:
Doesn't vibrate for me. Quite a snug fit.
Click to expand...
I didn't mean "rattling" of loose parts but does rack feel to vibrate when touched. It's quite easy to notice does case or any part of it vibrate by touching it.
(that vibration is largely responsible for "humming" background noise)
 
I don't understand what "hotswapping" is.

Imo, swapping out harddrives isn't that difficult or time-consuming. This seems like the answer to a question nobody asked, to me, as well as a way to freshen up the A71 chassis and squeeze another $100+ out of the price.

~S
 
semisonic9 said:
I don't understand what "hotswapping" is.

Imo, swapping out harddrives isn't that difficult or time-consuming. This seems like the answer to a question nobody asked, to me, as well as a way to freshen up the A71 chassis and squeeze another $100+ out of the price.

~S
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_swapping
Aka being able to change HDs without turning off the computer, used when you have a raid setup. You need a hotswap compatible mobo/raid card though. Most of the people here are mainly interesting in the simplicity of adding removing harddrive though
 
whakojacko said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_swapping
Aka being able to change HDs without turning off the computer, used when you have a raid setup. You need a hotswap compatible mobo/raid card though. Most of the people here are mainly interesting in the simplicity of adding removing harddrive though
Click to expand...

Unless I'm missing something, Lian Li has decided not to follow that logic, I guess it just doesn't apply to them or their cases.....

Read the thread and follow the links to see what I'm talking about...
 
Has anyone gotten one of these yet? If so, what do you think? Not sure what's going on with Lian Li recently, they have released a number of ne cases but no reviews:rolleyes:
 
As I said in my previous post there's lots of new Lian Li cases and virtually no reviews, other than the occasional forum user that bought one. What's up with that?
 
A very good video review that explains everything about the case. It didn't mention about the problem with the hot swap feature though :eek:

http://www.3dgameman.com/content/view/13105/103/



This is the review for the PC-A7110 which i think looks the same inside, the only difference is the face plate. It's probably better in the sense that you can close it and less chance of dust accumulating at the front fans.

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/cases/lian_li/pc-a7110/page1.asp



My question is, can this case hard drive cage support sata 2 ? Also can it hot swap or not ? Hot swapping isn't really needed for me. I only wish it to be easier to install and remove whenever i want to clean the case.
 
Moogle Stiltzkin said:
This is the review for the PC-A7110 which i think looks the same inside, the only difference is the face plate. It's probably better in the sense that you can close it and less chance of dust accumulating at the front fans.
http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/cases/lian_li/pc-a7110/page1.asp
Click to expand...
Only differences between A7010 and A7110 are because of later having door.
But these (like most Lian Lis) have air filters so I wouldn't worry about fans getting dusty. And in case of A7010 (and original A70) front panel is attached by spring loaded clips so you can access filters in few seconds like that video review shows.
Door adds weight to front panel structure so instead of spring loaded clips front panel is held by apparently two screws on side in A7110 (and A71)

SATA"2" is only update to signaling, not new hardware or standard.
 
FYI, Those Drive bays will not work with the 300gig Raptor drives.
 
Moogle Stiltzkin said:
will it work with my 36.6 gig raptor ?

Also why wont it work with the 300 gig raptor drives ?
Click to expand...

Because the actual drive is a 2.5" drive in the 3.5 adapter it moves the connectors out of the stock locations. so the drive will not interface with the connectors on the backplane.

and Yes, all the other Raptors will work as there standard 3 1/2" SATA Drives

You can still install The 300gig Raptor, you just cant use the Backplane with it. Same for IDE drives.
 
:(
Diablo2K said:
Because the actual drive is a 2.5" drive in the 3.5 adapter it moves the connectors out of the stock locations. so the drive will not interface with the connectors on the backplane.

and Yes, all the other Raptors will work as there standard 3 1/2" SATA Drives

You can still install The 300gig Raptor, you just cant use the Backplane with it. Same for IDE drives.
Click to expand...


Thank you so much for the info. I feel much better about my choice of getting this case.

I just remembered that this case has the top side of the case where you can install hard drives without having to use the cage below. I guess that would future proof it incase of similar cases like those new western digital drives crop up.

May i however just clarify, does the backplate support sata 2 ? or only sata 1 or both ? :confused: The Lian Li web site also mentions that the back plates require you to install a sata raid card, or to have a motherboard that supports sata raid. Any recommendations about that ?

Should i use raid 0 ? Because i am not too comfortable about if 1 drive dies, all die, or having drives duplicate the same data meaning i halve my storage space. I need some advise about this :( pretty please.

My country Malaysia sole supplier ATE, told me they had ordered this model and it should arrive in 1+ months.

I am currently using a Cooler Master case which has good build quality, BUT it is impractical because the front panel is not removable, and i cannot reach the fans in the front of the case as i need to remove the hard drives first, which is hard because i would need to take out the motherboard to do so.

I always thought Lian Li's looked boring and not cool as cooler master cases, but for this case it looks very practical and the quality looks great. I like how the motherboard tray can be easily taken out of the case. Anybody know whether it can do that while all wires are still attached ??? :confused: It looks as if it can but can anybody confirm it for me ?

The reason i ask is because i would like to remove the motherboard tray with mobo attached without having to unattach the wirings when i am cleaning my pc.
 
I also would like to know the answers to these questions. Per my numerous/annoying posts, I am about to purchase either the PC-A70B or the A7010 from Performance-PCS, and really can't decide between the two aesthetically. However, I am leaning toward the A7010.
 
May i however just clarify, does the backplate support sata 2 ? or only sata 1 or both ?
Click to expand...

The backplane just holds all the connections for the drives allowing you to slip them in and out without using any cables. It has nothing to do with SATA specs other than having the correct plugs.

It was also pointed out in this thread that because of the way the SATA plugs were wired in this unit (I believe they were missing a wire?) it won't support hot swapping of the drives.

It also has nothing to do with RAID. If you want to implement RAID you will have to get a MB or controller card that supports it.

Go back and re-read my comments on page two of this thread.

Nothing has changed and it's all marketing BS. ;)
 
Firstly thanks guys for helping. Sorry if i had repeated myself, probably have dementia or something *gasp :eek:


E.T said:
Only differences between A7010 and A7110 are because of later having door.
But these (like most Lian Lis) have air filters so I wouldn't worry about fans getting dusty. And in case of A7010 (and original A70) front panel is attached by spring loaded clips so you can access filters in few seconds like that video review shows.
Door adds weight to front panel structure so instead of spring loaded clips front panel is held by apparently two screws on side in A7110 (and A71)

SATA"2" is only update to signaling, not new hardware or standard.
Click to expand...

Anyway in regards to the A7110 front panel, after removing the 2 screws, can it pop on and off like the A7110 ?

Filters are good and all but we still need to clean the filters because dust builds up and it will clog airflow in due time. My current case it is hard to access the front panel to clean the filter that i got fedup with it.

Old Hippie - I will. Reason i didn't before was it take ages to load stuff on the pc at work >_<:
 
Old Hippie said:
The backplane just holds all the connections for the drives allowing you to slip them in and out without using any cables. It has nothing to do with SATA specs other than having the correct plugs.

It was also pointed out in this thread that because of the way the SATA plugs were wired in this unit (I believe they were missing a wire?) it won't support hot swapping of the drives.

It also has nothing to do with RAID. If you want to implement RAID you will have to get a MB or controller card that supports it.

Go back and re-read my comments on page two of this thread.

Nothing has changed and it's all marketing BS. ;)
Click to expand...


Just read thanks.


Hm is it possible to mod it to become hot swapable ? Has anybody tried this ? I think that would be friggin awesome if it could be truly hot swapable :D
 
Moogle Stiltzkin said:
Anyway in regards to the A7110 front panel, after removing the 2 screws, can it pop on and off like the A7110 ?
Click to expand...
Haven't seen photos from both sides but I would expect other side to have two more screws.

I think some kind eay to remove plastic pins should work well at least in place of lower screws when case isn't moved around... maybe even in place of all screws.
 
I wouldnt mind getting the A7110 because it has a door even if it has some screws.

But i am not sure whether the front can be detached as easily as the A7010. Can any kind soul please verify whether the front panel can be easily removed like the A7010 once screws have been removed.
 
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