Lian Li PC-Q28 Case Review

We’re here today with a Lian Li case that isn’t your typical fare, at least for the systems I typically build. Why, you may ask? Because the Lian Li PC-Q28 is tiny. Sit back, relax and have a read through to find out why you’d want such a tiny case – and find out why we like it so much.

Packaging & Specifications

Like all of Lian Li’s cases, the box is thick corrugated cardboard and the case is floating inside surrounded by styrofoam. It’s well protected against all but the most horrific impacts.

PC-Q28 Box
PC-Q28 Box
Packaging
Packaging

The specifications are helpfully printed on the box.

Specifications
Specifications

Lian Li’s site isn’t cooperating, so here are the more detailed specs as listed from Newegg.

Model

Brand
LIAN LI
Model
PC-Q28B

Spec

Type
Mini-ITX Tower
Color
Black
Case Material
Aluminum
With Power Supply
No
Motherboard Compatibility
Mini-ITX / Mini-DTX
With Side Panel Window
No

Expansion

External 5.25″ Drive Bays
1
Internal 3.5″ Drive Bays
4
Internal 2.5″ Drive Bays
2 x 2.5″ or 3.5″
Expansion Slots
2

Front Ports

Front Ports
2 x USB 3.0 / HD Audio

Cooling System

80mm Fans
No
120mm Fans
1 x 120mm Top Fan
140mm Fans
1 x 140mm Front Fan

Physical Spec

Dimensions
8.94″ x 12.01″ x 13.58″ (W x H x D)
Weight
7.05 lbs

Features

Features
Maximum Compatibility:VGA Card length: 290mm
PSU length: 170mm
CPU cooler height: 100mm

Now we’ll get this thing out of the box and see what it looks like.

Exterior Tour

The PC-Q28 is elegant and simple on the outside. That’s one of the reasons I love this case and why it’s a very good looking addition to a home theater. It’s quite small, at only 8.9″ x 12″ x 13.6″ (WxHxD). There are two USB 3.0 ports and headphone/mic jacks on the lower right side, which leaves the front nearly uniform other than the small power switch and 5.25″ drive bay.

Lian Li PC-Q28
Lian Li PC-Q28

There isn’t much of anything on the other side. If I may talk a minute about the drive bay – I love that there IS one! Many mITX cases this size don’t have one, choosing instead to go with a slot-loading drive, which requires a more expensive, harder to find ODD. Yes, I still use an ODD for Blu-Ray playback, choosing to keep and use physical discs. Yes, storage is cheap, but not as cheap as a Blu-Ray drive and time is worth a lot to me these days, so the time it would take to properly rip all of my discs makes that idea a non-starter.

Thus, I’m very pleased there is an actual 5.25″ optical drive. If you don’t have or use one, they supply a matching brushed aluminum blank to keep the front of the case looking nice.

Lian Li PC-Q28
Lian Li PC-Q28

Speaking of brushed aluminum, that’s what the vast majority of this case is outfitted with. There are small departures from it, but they are few and far between (fan grill, case feet, things like that).

Speaking of grills, the PC-Q28 has its front air intake on the bottom front of the case. There is not a lot in the way of square inches on this grill, so you’ll need to make sure you keep it clean if your house is dust-prone. As long as you do that, it should be plenty of air for a system you put in this case.

The case feet are nearly flush with the surrounding aluminum such that you can’t really tell they are there unless you look from the bottom like this.

Lian Li PC-Q28 Bottom
Lian Li PC-Q28 Bottom

There are two fans included with the PC-Q28, one 140 mm that resides in the front above that filter and a 120 mm underneath the rear fan grill that you can see here. This fan is placed perfectly to remove heat from components on the motherboard.

Lian Li PC-Q28 Top & Rear
Lian Li PC-Q28 Top & Rear

The rear is equally sparse, with a slot for the PSU (you remove that bracket, mount it to the PSU, then slide the PSU into the case) and two PCIe slots, which is great because it means this demure case can accommodate a solid GPU.

Lian Li PC-Q28 Rear
Lian Li PC-Q28 Rear

Overall it is a classy box, with a great brushed aluminum look that’s sparsely outfitted. Externally at least, it looks like a great HTPC case, which will match many of the electronics on the market.

Accessories

The accessories give you enough to use the case as you need to. There is a USB 3.0-to-USB 2.0 adapter in case your board doesn’t have a USB 3.0 header, and there are enough screws to mount anything and everything you could need.

Accessories
Accessories

They even include a couple of wire ties for some cable management. You may need more of these before you’re done.

Interior & Feature Tour

The case side panel is held on by tabs and one screw. Pull the screw out and slide the panel up, then it pulls right off.

Side Panel Removed
Side Panel Removed

Now we get to the heart of the matter. The PC-Q28 mounts your motherboard on two rails. You can see the top 120 mm fan and front 140 mm fan in this photo. The 120 mm fan includes a handy grill to keep wires out of it. With space this tight, that’s a very good idea.

Interior
Interior

Next to the board there is enough space for the 5.25″ drive and up to six (6!) 3.5″ HDDs. There are also slots for three 2.5″ drives, one in the drive cage and another two we’ll get to later. Remember that “up to” six drives though. That includes all of your SSD space. Practically speaking, a common use for this capability will be one 2.5″ SSD and up to five 3.5″ HDDs. The drive cage holds four drives.

If you opt to remove the bottom tray (more on that later) like I did, but still want storage and speed together, your best bet is to mount a 2.5″ SSD in the bottom of the cage there and add up to three 3.5″ HDDs. With drives up to 4 TB available, I would think that’s sufficient for the vast majority of people out there, unless your name is thideras.

Drive Bay
Drive Bay

Here’s another angle where you can see the drive cages a little better. I’ve also begun removal of the top drive cage to show that it’s removable. If you want, you can take this one out and just use the bottom cage, or vice versa.

Another Interior Angle
Another Interior Angle

The back of the motherboard rails and drive cages is quite sparse. There isn’t any wire management room behind the motherboard, so you’ll have to do all of your wire management on the ‘business’ side of the board.

Rear Panel Removed - MB Rails
Rear Panel Removed – MB Rails

Here are the aforementioned ‘front panel’ connectors. They’re on the side, but still reside on the front panel.

USB 3.0 & Audio Ports
USB 3.0 & Audio Ports

The PSU mount is a separate piece of aluminum that you mount on the PSU, then slide into the case itself. This is actually markedly easier than trying to hold the PSU up inside the case to mount it, especially on a build this small. You need all the help you can get. In this case, you can drape your wires through the hole, then slide the PSU right in. That is a solid improvement over having to hold the PSU up to mount it from the inside.

PSU Mount
PSU Mount

The PCIe card slots are held on by a sliding mount bracket, which is tool-free and convenient. The case is not as a whole tool-free, but this is and it’s well thought out.

PCIe Card Slots
PCIe Card Slots

Let’s start putting a system in here, shall we?

Working With the PC-Q28 & System Install

First we’ll take a look at that bottom drive mount. There are two sets of holes in two spots – one for 2.5″ drives and one for 3.5″ drives, times two. You can remove the drive cage and mount your only drives here, mount drives in all spots, or remove this tray and use only the drive cage.

Bottom Drive Mounts
Bottom Drive Mounts

In this instance, I was going for a more powerful HTPC that could game if called upon, so I went with removing the bottom drive mount and only using the cage.

Bottom Drive Mount Removed
Bottom Drive Mount Removed

It was mentioned earlier, but you remove the drive cage by taking out these two screws and sliding it out toward the front. As you can see, there is some room for HDD cable management back here too. You won’t be running anything behind the board, but this is some welcome breathing room.

Rear of Drive Cage
Rear of Drive Cage
HDD Cage Removed
HDD Cage Removed

Here’s the front 140mm fan. As you can see it’s offset from the front of the case so that air can be drawn from that bottom air intake.

Front Fan
Front Fan

Here is the drive configuration I went with – one HDD and one SSD in an SSD caching configuration.

HDD Installed
HDD & SSD Installed

The drive cage is well positioned to allow for video card mounting; the card slides right underneath. The maximum video card length is 290 mm, or 11.4″, so it can hold quite a large graphics card, just not the crazy 12″+ monster dual-GPU cards. It would be tight, but something like an AMD R9 290X or NVIAIA GTX TITAN would fit just fine. The card here is a GTX 660 and is 9.5″ long.

GPU Installed - Bottom Drive Mount Removed
GPU Installed – Bottom Drive Mount Removed

Here’s the back of the system, showing the two cables I managed to squeeze behind the motherboard rails.

Motherboard Mounted on Rails
Motherboard Mounted on Rails

Here are a couple photos of the completed install before shoving the PSU completely into the system. Yes, I’m using the stock cooler; there just isn’t much room between the board & PSU and there was no low profile heatsink on hand. The important part about this install is managing your wires before you put the PSU into place. If you don’t, you’re guaranteed to have a wire eaten up by your HSF. Get your wires squared away, accounting for distance of PSU travel, then push it the rest of the way in.

Peeking Into the Install
Peeking Into the Install

Here are a couple more peeks down at the board.

Wi-Fi Module
Wi-Fi Module
Cable "Management"
Cable “Management”

Finally, wires as managed as you can, push the PSU back in. Aside from that bundle of cables you see in front of the PSU, the front of the motherboard is relatively cable-free, giving plenty of breathing room. One thing I would recommend is a modular power supply so you can remove any cables not in use.

PSU Installed
PSU Installed

While small with few fans, there is actually decent airflow in this case. The 140 mm fan draws cool air in from outside and then you have the top 120 mm exhaust fan working in conjunction with the PSU fan and GPU fans pulling the hot air out of the case. One thing I would highly recommend is using a blower-style graphics card. If your card doesn’t exhaust its hot air outside the case, a case like this will heat up significantly.

Finally, here is the case all buttoned up and ready for HTPC duty.

Case Rear, System Installed
Case Rear, System Installed
Installed & Closed Up
Installed & Closed Up
Installed & Closed Up
Installed & Closed Up

Overall things are looking great…except for those fingerprints I didn’t notice when taking the photo!

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

The Lian Li PC-Q28 is a great example of small done right. In my case, it’s the perfect case for HTPC duty, but that isn’t all it can do. A Z77 system with a 3770K and GTX 660 is slightly overkill for HTPC duty, but it can also game. This build shows you don’t have to compromise on your system if you want to save space. The PC-Q28 doesn’t have to hold an HTPC. It can hold quite a strong gaming system in a very small package.

I didn’t do temperature testing specifically in this review because I am using only the stock cooler. Anecdotally, it keeps things cool enough; the fan spinning up to be audible is few and far between – which is important in an HTPC. No, it’s not going to be some roomy monster of a case with two or three intake fans, so don’t expect it to be and you’ll be fine. Our PCs can tolerate plenty warm temperatures, and this case will allow your system to operate well (and I mean plenty) below anything resembling max tolerance.

Now, being Lian Li, this is not going to be a cheap case, but in this instance neither is it going to be prohibitively expensive. The PC-Q28 retails on Newegg for $109.99 with free shipping. It’s out of stock, but you can also get the PC-Q28 in silver. That’s really not a bad price for the quality of this case. Aluminum cases are inherently expensive. They’re also lighter, stronger and better looking than their painted counterparts.

If you want a great looking LAN system, a classy looking HTPC in your living room or just a small, good looking but powerful PC, the PC-Q28 was made for you. Get one. You won’t be disappointed.

Overclockers_clear_approved

– Jeremy Vaughan (hokiealumnus)

About Jeremy Vaughan 197 Articles
I'm an editor and writer here at Overclockers.com as well as a moderator at our beloved forums. I've been around the overclocking community for several years and just love to sink my teeth into any hardware I can get my paws on!

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M
MunkyTOS

Member

647 messages 0 likes

Very nice article, thank you for this and all the work you do in your reviews Hokie. How does this rate in comparison to other mini itx chassis? I do like the fact that they have a 5.25" drive bay. Also I'm a bit glad they didn't opt for a window given the limited space for cable management.

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Avatar of hokiealumnus
hokiealumnus

Water Cooled Moderator

16,560 messages 25 likes

I haven't done many mITX cases, just this one and the Bitfenix Prodigy. Between those two, the PC-Q28 is lighter and classier, but not as well-rounded. You couldn't water cool this one if you wanted. The Prodigy is really versatile, but is quite a bit larger and heavier.

For HTPC or office use, I'd probably go with the Lian Li. If I wanted to water cool an mITX system, or go all out for performance and needed more cooling, I'd lean toward the Prodigy.

Hope that helps!

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