A look inside
Removing the PC-V800's top panel is as simple as loosening a single thumbscrew—pretty slick.

The panel slides off to reveal a reasonably spacious interior that can accommodate full ATX motherboards without breaking a sweat. Micro and Mini-ITX motherboards will also fit, but Extended ATX won't. A dual-processor home theater PC would be overkill, anyway, although the potential for better media encoding performance is tempting.

5.25" drives mount in a removable drive cage that's secured by a total of six screws. Normally, the screws wouldn't faze me, but it's a little odd to have to go through that much effort to remove the optical drive cage when the rest of the case is largely a tool-free design.

Lian Li achieves the PC-V800's narrower profile by mounting hard drives in a pair of vertical bays along the side of the system. Unlike most case manufacturers, Lian Li doesn't use drive rails. Instead, they supply hard drive screws topped with metal casters that slide into plastic channels built into the drive cages. Plastic tabs keep the drives from sliding back out, keeping everything snug and secure. However, I can't help but wonder if these plastic channels can dampen vibration noise as effectively as rubber-damped hard drive mounts.

From this angle, we can also get a look at the PC-V800's dual 60mm exhaust fans. Unlike the 80mm blow hole fan, which uses a three-pin power connector that will plug right into a motherboard, both exhaust fans are tied into a single four-pin Molex connector. The case doesn't ship with a fan speed controller, so that will be up to your motherboard, power supply, or an external fanbus.

Lian Li uses thumbscrews to secure the expansion slot back plates. That's great in theory, but the execution isn't quite there. The screws are partially obscured by a metal lip at the back of the case, which makes it difficult for my stubby fingers to completely turn the screws by hand. Falling back to a screwdriver for final tightening is always an option, but then they're not really thumbscrews anymore.

The PC-V800 doesn't come with a power supply, but you can add your own to a bracket at the front of the case. The PSU points out towards the front of the case rather than to the rear, which can make for an interesting glow when combined with a funky, LED-infested power supply.

Below the power supply mount we can see a bundle of wires, including plugs for the PC-V800's front expansion ports. Audio, USB, and Firewire extensions are available with standard pin pattern blocks, which should work with most motherboards, and also with a set of individual wires for non-standard pin layouts. Unfortunately, the extension cables are a little on the short side; they don't reach the opposite side of the case. That shouldn't be a problem for USB connections, since the internal USB headers on most motherboards are rarely on the far edge of the motherboard. You may not be so lucky with internal audio or Firewire connectors, though.