Lian Li Tyr PC-X500 Case Review

Inside Tyr PC-X500

Opening Tyr PC-X500 is very easy, all you have to do is unscrew the thumbscrew and pull the mechanism where the screw is attached to. The thumbscrews remain attached to these mechanisms, so there is no chance of losing the screws. Even though you can remove both panels the motherboard tray is permanently attached to the chassis. Both side panels have a thin foam sheet attached in order to absorb noise.

Figure 9: Side panels have a thin foam sheet attached.

Figure 10: Inside Tyr PC-X500.

As you know, this case uses a unique design. Internally the case is divided in three separated compartments, which improves airflow and thus one should expect a computer built using this case to run cooler than PCs based on traditional cases.

On the lower section we have the motherboard compartment. This compartment is cooled by three 120 mm fans, two on the front and one on the rear. All fans used on this case use a three-pin connector for motherboards, so you can install them on your motherboard to monitor their speed through your favorite monitoring program (if you want them to rotate at their full speed all the time) or to the small speed controller available. The fans come with adapters installed for you to connect them to the traditional peripheral power connectors from the power supply.

Then we have the power supply compartment (see how the power supply is attached to the case using thumbscrews that remain attached to the case in Figure 11), where you can also find one of the two hard disk drive cages – each cage can hold up to two hard disk drives – and the external 3.5” bay. If you don’t have a floppy disk drive this bay can be used to hold a fifth hard disk drive.

And the third compartment is located on the top of the case and i
s cooled by a fourth 120 mm fan. On this compartment we have the second hard disk drive cage and the two 5.25” bays.

Figure 11: Detail of the top two compartments.

In Figure 12, you can see the rear side of the motherboard compartment with its rear 120 mm fan. This case doesn’t use a screwless mechanism to fasten daughterboards to the case, but on the other hand it provides thumbscrews, allowing fastening cards without the need of using tools anyway. In fact we personally prefer this approach, as we’ve seen countless times these screwless mechanisms breaking because they are usually manufactured using cheap plastic.

Figure 12: Rear 120 mm fan and thumbscrews for fastening daughterboards.

In Figure 13 you can have a better look at the two front 120 mm fans.

Figure 13: Front 120 mm fans.