Lian Li PC-K5WX Ebonsteel Case Review

The Lian Li PC-K5WX supports standard ATX motherboards with a total of seven expansion slots.  You'll find plenty of room at the back of the chassis for self contained watercooling units and the top 120mm fan locations are perfect for dual fan radiators.

To give an indication of size I installed a Gigabyte 990FX-Gaming topped with a Silverstone Argon cooler.  The motherboard is the standard ATX width and as the photos show there is just enough room to get cables to all of the vital locations.  You could fit a wider motherboard however the cable routing might be difficult.

In terms of depth you will have to be careful which heatsink tower you go with.  The Silverstone Agron AR07 is a 140mm tower cooler and barely is contained inside the PC-K5WX.  120mm variants shouldn’t have an issue such as the popular Hyper 212.

These days it is pretty easy to find a computer chassis however, finding a good chassis that meets your needs can be quite a challenge.  For the cost the Lian Li PC-K5WX brings with it a good balance of realistic features that will meet the needs of almost any system builder.  Of course the key word here is “realistic”.  Most system builders know that cases are overbuilt with features to help make them more attractive to shoppers looking at "bang for their buck".  For instance you don’t need 20 hard drive bays in a typical system.

The K5 has a very modest cooling system and comes with a total of three 120mm fans in the typical intake and exhaust locations.  There are allowances to include two more at the top which appears to be reserved for 240mm based AIO coolers. 

Speaking of modifications there are a few options available with this case.  An obvious choice would be a paint mod involving the metal grills embedded in the bezels followed by a coat of color to the chassis.  For those of you that like to watercool I suspect your options will be limited to an AIO dual fan cooler.  You could physically install a DIY kit however at a cost of $50 USD I would suspect your money is best spent elsewhere.

The Lian Li PC-K5WX does come with a rather large window and LED fans to help give the case a little extra bling.  For a system builder these features can help make that final sale or they can decide to save 5 bux and use the non-windowed version.

Great System Builder Case
Full System Support
LED Fans
Side Window
Lightweight
Inexpensive

Limited “large” motherboard support
Would like to have SSD mounts on the back of the motherboard
Limited cable management