Lian Li PC TU-200 The HTPC Build (Construction - Part 1)

Setting Up the Case

Step 1: Remove thumb screws

First remove the side panels of the case.  This means removing (see picture: step 1) the thumb screw at the top left and right hand corners.  Next push the protruding level outward (see picture: step 2).

Step 2: Remove the side panels

Side Note: I encountered some difficulty opening the left side panel.  The lever was simply not pushing the panel out no matter how hard I pushed (to be fair, I didn't want to push too hard).  The solution?  Look from one side and use a screw driver or some other tool to push out the panel.  See picture below for where you can insert a tool to push out the side panel (note: push firmly but it won't take too much power to remove the side panel).

 Next account for all the parts that comes with the case.  Besides the manuals there are some screws, a USB 3 to USB 2 converter, and attachments for the hard drive for easy installation:

Next, I remove the drive bay and get the front case fan out.  There are lots of thumb screws to be removed from the drive bay.  See pictures below.

Side Note: I didn't notice that before sliding the front case fan out, I needed to first remove a thumb screw (see picture below).  I used too much force and broke the side of the case fan.  Luckily I won't be needing this fan anymore.  So pay special attention here before trying to forcefully removing the fan.  

 Before installing the case fan, first unscrew the filter and the anti-vibration screws from the original case fan, then reattach them to the new case fan.  See below for an illustration.

Next I installed the optical drive.  This is done by first removing the optical drive bay cover by unscrewing two side screws on either side (see picture below) then remove the drive bay cover by pushing it toward the inside of the case.  Sliding the optical drive in from the front.  Next reattach the drive bay cover.  Then slide the optical drive flush against the back of the cover and use a thumb screw to secure the optical drive.  Finally replace the drive bay cover.  This is a pretty convoluted process so be sure to patiently work through it.

Stay tuned for the next part on the system construction

Lian Li PC TU-200 The HTPC Build (Introduction)

Inspiration

The reason I decided to make this build in the first place is because my father in law needed an everyday use PC and I wanted to build this little guy as a surprise for his birthday.  He also likes to watch movies so I started out with a home theater PC ("HTPC") in mind.  His everyday usage mainly consists of Excel and Word; occasionally he may use it for Photoshop but that's quite rare.  My father in law loves novelty items and he has mentioned on quite a few occasions that he wants a cool looking PC with LED lights inside.  I intend to fulfill that wish with this build.

The reason I chose the Lian Li PC TU-200 is for three reasons:

1) The case is extremely small but still capable of hosting some serious hardware as it can take an ATX power supply as well as a full size graphics card.  This is quite rare on for mini-ITX cases, at least to my knowledge.

2) This case looks awesome.  Look at it.  The overall design is sleek and clean.  There is some added flair with the screws at the edges, giving it a modern industrial feel.  The handle on top to fully take advantage of the small form factor is just a cherry on top.

3) This case is very well-made (though there are a few flaws that will be covered later).  It's constructed with aluminum and the craftsmanship is amazing.

Overall Assessment of Build Difficulty: Difficult.  Due to the small (very small) form factor as well as some of the case design decisions, this is a case that requires lots of patience and experience.

Planning

Since the case has been chosen, I decided to do some further research and find out just what's needed to get a system up and running inside this little guy.

Side note: I will make side notes throughout this article and point out the little things that I think are important.  In this instance, I want to emphasize that research is absolutely imperative to any PC builder.  No one wants to spend over $800 and come home with parts that do not fit together.

My research first focused on form factor.  I want to find out whether there are any peculiarities when it comes to the parts that might fit in this PC.  It turns out that the case does fit an ATX power supply, HOWEVER, if the case is left unmodified and the hard drive bay is kept inside, one should consider using a 140mm long ATX power supply. Any longer and you will risk mashing the cables from the power supply against the drive bay.  See picture below for details and note that the red box depicts roughly how a power supply would fit.

This case needs a 140mm ATX power supply.

Next I know that I need a mini-ITX motherboard ("mobo").  One thing worth noting here is that I worried a mini-ITX motherboard may have a limited selection of CPUs.  So I wanted to find out what type of sockets are on these types of mobo.  It turns out the AMD mini-ITX mobo have FM1 sockets (Ex: a CPU for FM1 type socket would be AMD A6-3670K) and AM3/AM2+/AM2 sockets (Ex: these sockets fit Phenom II and Athlon II CPUs).  The Intel mini-ITX mobo can have LGA1155 socket types which can fit Core i7 to i3 type CPUs.  These are the latest and the greatest CPUs on the market so I guess my worries were unwarranted.

I wasn't planning on inserting a powerful graphics card into the computer since it won't be used for gaming and the rare usage of Photoshop would not warrant a powerful discrete graphics card.  As a result I did no further research on how well graphics cards fit into this case.

My father in law did want some LEDs inside so I thought a red LED front case fan should contrast nicely with the black.  I did some research but did find any information on whether the front 140mm front fan is (easily) removable.  So I emailed some editors from a few online publications and found out that it is indeed removable.  Great!  See picture here for a full frontal view of the case.

This roughly concludes my initial research.  Now onto the rest of the parts.


Motherboard and CPU

Given the needs of this computer, I know I potentially wanted an integrated video card on the mobo.  However, it turns out all the mobos I like come without an integrated video card.  Luckily, AMD came out with the AMD A8-3870K that's got a quad core CPU along with an AMD Radeon HD 6550D that comes all in the size of a normal CPU.

Power Supply

It was difficult finding a 140mm long power supply.  I finally spotted the Corsair PC Builder series that's just 140mm long.  In the end I decided to go with the 500 watt or the CX500 model.  This is more than sufficient for my needs and if I ever decide to stick a discrete video card inside this case, I think the 500 watt model would be able to handle it as well as there are two PCI-Express connectors.

Hard Drive and Memory

Boot time and overall speed is pretty important so I wanted to invest in a solid state drive ("SSD").  In order to have enough storage space, I bought a Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB drive.  With memory or RAM, I decided to go with 8 GB.

The Rest of It

Since I expect this PC to be carried around a bit, I wanted to give it some wireless capabilities.  So I went with a Rosewill RNX-N150 wireless card.  As mentioned before, I wanted to swap out the front case fan for a LED fan.  I settled on the XIGMATEK 140mm red LED fan.  Reviews seem to indicate that it's of solid build and relatively quiet.  Which are both important factors.  In order to make this a all-around HTPC, I decided to invest in a Blu-Ray drive.  And the chosen one is Finally, since the case is so small, I decided to stick an extra PCI slot fan to increase airflow and ensure temperature control inside the case.  For that I decided on the AOC FC-2000 case cooler.  It's also reported to be relatively quiet and can move large amounts of air out the case.

Complete Parts List

Case - Lian Li PC TU-200

CPU - AMD A8-3870K

Mobo - ASRock A75M-ITX

Memory - Kingston XMP 8GB

Primary Hard Drive (OS) - AData XPG SX900 128 GB

Secondary Hard Drive (Storage) - Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB

Power Supply - Corsair CX500

Case Fan - Xigmatek Crystal Series CLF-F1452

PCI Slot Fan - AOC FC-2000

Wireless Card - Rosewill RNX-150PCe

Optical Drive - LITE-ON Blu-Ray

Stay tuned for the next part on the actual construction of the system

PC Building for Everyone - Introduction (Preparation and Choosing a Case)

For everyone and their moms

I am going to provide as much detailed information as possible for PC builders, especially for those who has never done this before but wants to.  So if you are an absolute beginner, then this is for you.  I will summarize the key points at the end of each article to provide a good overview in case you hate reading or are in a hurry.  On a side note, for experienced/advanced builders I will later provide an article on a recent PC I built using a Lian Li PC TU-200 mini-ITX case.  So please come back and visit if you are interested.

To build a PC - a goal

First, before you begin, I hope you have a goal or an idea in mind of what you'd like to use your PC for.  This is the brain storming and preparation stage and it will shape exactly what comes out at the end.  Think about the purpose of your build: do you need one for an entertainment center, for gaming, for looking cool, for graphics design, or for everyday use, etc.?  It could be a number of things.  In my experience, however, a gaming PC stands at the pinnacle of powerful computational devices. It does everything mentioned above and more.  Word on the street is that the military purchased 2,200 PlayStation 3 (PS3) in 2009 to take advantage of its processing power (mind you, this is not so the army can rock a game of Call of Duty on their spare time).  With that said, the most powerful PCs are also the most expensive.  So that leads us to the budget.  Determine how much you want to spend and throughout your research, you will need to balance it with what you want to build.

You get the idea.  Now do you know what you want?  If so, good.  If not, you should decide.

The Case

PCs are composed of several components.  What we see first and foremost is the case.  It is the shell that holds everything together.

So what does matter when it comes to the case?

As they say, size matters.  Cases come in all shapes and sizes.  They can be compact or they can be large.  This is generally known as "form factor".  Case form factors are divided into several categories: ATX (large), micro-ATX (medium), mini-ITX (small).  These categories are pretty rough.  Sizes vary within each category, especially ATX cases.  Some ATX cases may be as large as a mini-refrigerator and some may be just the size of your run of the mill Dell desktop.  Moral of the story: pay attention to the exact measurements before you purchase a case.   The advantage of a large case is that it is easy to work with.  Putting in other components is generally very straight forward.  As you start constructing a PC, you will realize that there are a lot of cables especially coming from the power supply (to be covered later).  Managing the organization of cables inside a large case is simple as everything is quite maneuverable inside the large space.  With good cable management and plenty of space, there is also plenty of cool air inside the case.  This is an important aspect as heat can cause plenty of damage to delicate PC components.  The disadvantage to having a large PC is, well, it's large.  Large PCs are difficult to move or place in a room.  If you want mobility (e.g., such as taking your PC to work or to a LAN party), then you may want to consider a micro-ATX case instead.  Micro-ATX cases have less dramatic variations in size in comparison.  Because of their compact form factor, micro-ATX cases are favored by people who need to carry them around often.  In fact, many of these cases also provide a carrying handle that further increases their mobility.  Be aware though, micro-ATX or even mini-ITX builds can still be between 12-18 lbs.  So, it won't be that light.  On the other hand, smaller cases are difficult to work with especially for someone who's new.  They require more research to ensure that the form factor will accommodate all the components that you plan to throw in there.  Nevertheless, if one is organized and is willing to put in the work, they can still successfully put together a smaller system.  One final point I will make regarding smaller cases is that heat is often a concern.  Because of the constraints of a smaller space, cable management becomes a problem.  Tangled cables will block space used for ventilation and airflow, hence resulting in increased internal temperature inside the case.  So if you do decide to go for a smaller case, be extra careful in routing your cables to ensure that air can flow between the front and back of the case.

That concludes my first article on the basics of preparation and choosing a case.  Let's summarize this article in a few bullet points:

Preparation

A) Have a goal in mind (what is your PC for)
B) The budget: determine how much to spend on the build

Considerations When Choosing a Case

A) Know the basic sizes (form factor) of PC cases (keep in mind the size variations within each size category)

• ATX (large)
• Micro-ATX (medium)
• Mini-ITX (small)
• Note: always pay attention to the actual measurements of a case before purchasing

B) Advantages and disadvantages of large cases (ATX to the bigger micro-ATX cases)

Advantages

• Plenty of space allow for adding in additional components in the future and ease of construction
• Large space allows for better cable management and better airflow
• Easy on the budget - many budget cases ($30 and less) come in ATX form factor

Disadvantages

• Large form factor means lower mobility and difficulty of placement

C) Advantages and disadvantages of smaller cases (small micro-ATX to mini-ITX cases)

Advantages

• High mobility (some cases will even come with carrying handles)
• Ease of placement, especially when used as an entertainment center

Disadvantages

• Due to confined space, there is a limitation on the number and size of components you may place 
• Smaller internal space places strains on cable management and a cluttered internal space disrupts air circulation hence potentially resulting in temperature management problems
• Smaller cases tend to have higher prices and may create troubles for the budget-minded builder