Gadgetory

how's it going guys Kyle here with awesomesauce news today I'll be doing a review on this case from Lee Ann Lee this is their PCB 3 5 8 and I think it came out at the turn of this year either late last year or very earlier this year so it's been out for a few months but I managed to get my hands on a review sample so I thought I would give my own personal take on it since it's been out for a little while now there are a few really good reviews already out online that I've seen Dmitriy from Hardware conducts does a really awesome review of this case so go ahead and check that out if you haven't seen it yet now one message I did want to send out to Lee and Lee before we get into the meat of this review and I say this with all due respect is to perhaps consider changing the names of your PC cases to something other than a random string of numbers and letters and I feel like that would be a smart branding move it would make the case names a bit more memorable to the average consumer and I only say that because I love you guys's products a lot and I would like to see your company become even more popular than it already is so just a suggestion if you're looking on ideas on where to begin I really don't have any leads but you guys are a pretty innovative company I'm sure you guys can figure it out with that said why don't we get on to the review the PCB 3 5/8 is an extremely well-built full aluminum micro ATX chassis and an early descendant of the monolith from 2001 Space Odyssey coming in at twelve point seven five inches wide fifteen point three five inches deep at eleven point two five inches tall the full aluminum construction keeps the case fairly resistant to fingerprints which is perfect since the simple yet elegant design makes you want to put your filthy hands all over it at the front is a slot for a slim optical drive a power button and two 120 millimeter intake fans both sides of the case have generous ventilation for your fans and video card and also on the right side are two USB 3 ports and your mic and headphone jacks in the rear our four PCIe slots since once again this is a micro ATX case you get some ventilation above your i/o panel a 120 millimeter exhaust fan and a removable power supply bracket held in place by four thumb screws on the bottom of the case our for circular feet with rubber pads that have a nice silver finish around them that contrasts nicely with the otherwise all-black exterior I will say however that I'm a bit surprised that there's no bottom ventilation for the power supply it feels like it would have been easy to punch a few holes in the bottom to let some extra air in but you know what is all pretty straightforward as far as the exterior goes but things start to get a little more interesting when we look inside to access the innards of the case simply pull off the tool as side panels which pop right off of the frame from there remove the three thumb screws at the back of the case in order to fold down the top and front panel which as you can see here is one continuous piece of aluminum and for some reason it reminds me of those Mighty Max toys that I used to play with as a kid tried to survive Dino lab and the killer team like so true you'll never miss the panel is held in place by two hinges that like the rest of the case feels sturdy and secure the two three pin intake fans are also tooless and can be removed by sliding them up and lifting them off of the mounting holes each fan has a twist-off dust filter for quick and easy cleaning which your wife or girlfriend will appreciate it's also worth noting that the fans mainly provide air to the lower half of the case where only the drive cages and power supply sit so I would actually recommend going with a liquid cooling solution for your CPU speaking of which the PCV 3 v 8 features a long bracket with mounting points for either two 120 millimeter fans or a 240 millimeter water cooling radiator removing the two thumb screws allows it to swivel away from the motherboard tray making the installation process easier for people with two hands right smack on the face of the motherboard tray our mounting points for two two and a half inch drives I see this posing a potential inconvenience as one of the drives would be partially mounted right underneath that 240 millimeter radiator this could make uninstalling an SSD a hassle something I haven't experienced since the time I thought adhesive velcro was just a mix of superglue and lint the case supports video cards up to 13 inches in length and CPU cooler towers up to 13 centimeters tall standoffs are pre-installed and there are two rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for routing cables one near the top left corner for your CPU cable and one on the right side for everything else unfortunately this second grommet is severely blocked by one of the two Drive cages beneath it this makes it near impossible to pass all those cables through without either permanently removing the cage or investing in a portal gun and that brings us to the lower chamber of this chassis the two Drive cages come pre-installed with rubber grommets and support three three and a half inch mounts each supporting a total of six mechanical hard drives one critique here is that the mounts are solely for three and a half inch drives so you're really limited to just two SSDs in this case unless you pick up an adapter now earlier I was a little concerned when I saw that there was no bottom ventilation for the powers why but as it turns out there's an elevated rubberized platform for the unit to sit on so as long as you don't buy a cheap power supply that shoots flames out the back this shouldn't pose too much of a threat according to the manufacturer the case supports power supplies up to 20 centimetres long however that leaves little room for the cables attached to it due to that damn hard drive cage that just seems to keep getting in the way you know that one friend in your group that no one really likes yeah this is him so to be on the safe side I would suggest using a power supply 18 centimeters or shorter the confusing thing here is that there's a lot of free space in the bottom chamber of the chassis so it seems like it would have been feasible to place this cage in a less obtrusive location to sum up the PCV 3 5/8 is built like a tank with its full aluminum construction and in my opinion looks absolutely stunning it incorporates a thoughtful amount of tooless design has excellent water cooling support and manages to fit a healthy amount of sizable hardware for a case of its form factor unfortunately it falls short in accommodating some of the components with ease in terms of hardware layout and cable management and unless you're okay with parting with that awkwardly placed hard drive cage the build process can prove to be a frustrating task let me know what you guys think about this case in the comments below and what you'd like to see in a similar future case from Lian Li I'm Calvin Bosma saws news thank you guys so much for watching this video be sure to give me a like if you enjoyed it subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see you guys in the next one