Much like Ferrari and Lamborghini in the automotive world, Lian Li is considered by many to be the flagship computer chassis manufacturer.

Although they have been in business since 1983, it wasn't until around 2000 that they began turning heads with their all-aluminum PC-60 series enclosures. This happened to be the first enthusiast case I ever reviewed, and at the time, it was light years ahead of anything else on the market.

A decade later, Lian Li is still making great cases but they aren't the only premium enclosure vendor on the block. With stiff competition from the likes of Silverstone, Corsair, NZXT and several others, does Lian Li still have what it takes to remain relevant in the ever-changing PC market?

Today we'll be looking at the Lian Li PC-V2120A, a luxury full tower chassis that supports most standard motherboard form factors and also EVGA's exotic HPTX format. In a nutshell, the PC-V2120 sports a tool-less aluminum design supporting up to ten 3.5-inch and two 2.5-inch HDDs, 11 expansion cards and five fans.

The PC-V2120 is available in three different color schemes: black with a silver interior, silver with a matching interior and black with a black interior. We were sent the all-silver version for evaluation which will set you back a handsome $399. The black aluminum models go for a larger premium at $429 for the black exterior, and $499 for the black on black chassis.

Lian Li ships the chassis with a detailed photo installation guide and more screws than you could ever use. Other extras include a small screw container, mounting bracket for SSI CEB/EEB motherboard, PCI card holders, a PCI bracket, a USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 converter, multiple rubber grommets for HDD installations, zip ties, a clamp for cable management and a 3.5" to 2.5" x 2 drive bay converter.

Hardware Installation Impressions

The following hardware was installed in the Lian Li PC-V2120 for testing purposes:

* Intel Core i5 661 processor
* EVGA H55 motherboard
* Zalman CNPS8000A heatsink fan
* Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 2x 2GB
* Western Digital
SiliconEdge Blue 64GB SSD
* StarTech USB 3.0 PCIe adapter
* Seasonic SS-460 X-Series Fanless 460W PSU
* DVD burner

The fully tool-less design, lightweight aluminum construction and removable motherboard tray make the PC-V2120 a breeze to work with. The motherboard can be installed in a matter of minutes and slid right back into the chassis. The access port on the back of the motherboard tray did not line up fully with the backplate on my board. This means that I would need to remove the board in order to change heatsinks / backplates. I've actually seen very few access panels line up properly with most boards — perhaps they should be larger.

Since this is an H55 board, I will be using the integrated Intel HD graphics on the CPU. This unfortunately means I won't be able to test out the VGA card pillar.

I opted to install the SSD above the power supply on the horizontal divider. To place a drive here, you need to use four spaced thumbscrews and four rubber grommet. Slide a grommet over the screw, then put the thumbscrew into the bottom of the drive. With all four screws installed, place the SSD over the mounting holes then slide it towards the motherboard to secure it in place. This method worked great and helped eliminate cable clutter.

Furthermore, since I am only using a single SSD, I opted to remove all of the extra hard drive cages and the extra cooling fans. These are all easily removable as they use a combination of thumbscrews and a few Phillips head screws. This left the two front 140mm intake fans unrestricted and should result in better overall system cooling.

Cable management inside the PC-V2120 was so-so. I do wish Lian Li included a few more access ports on the motherboard tray to help with cable routing, similar to what Corsair did on their Obsidian chassis.

After removing the extra storage bays and fans, I was left with two front 140mm fans, one 120mm exhaust fan and the CPU cooler fan. I opted to wire these up to the built-in fan controller in the front of the case.

The fan controller sits above the top 5.25" drive bay and can be a bit difficult to access. I found it best to remove the top drive bay cover, undo the two screws on the front of the controller and pull it out from the drive bay opening.

The module can control up to four fans on the single adjustable dial, perfect for this installation. The problem I ran into, however, is that none of the fan cables were long enough to reach the fan controller. Even the front intake fans wouldn't reach. Lian Li should include enough 3-pin extension cables to actually make the controller useful. Fortunately, I had some spare extension cables on hand and was able to get everything wired up properly.

In order to use the front I/O panel USB 3.0 ports, you need to run the extension cables from the front of the chassis to the rear and plug them into the USB 3.0 ports on your motherboard. For this install, I plugged them into the StarTech PCIe expansion card. Lian Li includes a PCI bracket cover for this precise task. Two cables fit into the bracket and make the installation much cleaner than simply running the cables through an open slot.

Overall, the installation went smoothly. The majority of edges inside the case are rolled or smoothed so you don't cut yourself, but there are still some sharp edges. Use caution when working with the drive cages especially, as most all of the edges on them are pretty sharp. I didn't manage to draw blood, but I did slice into my skin on one occasion.

Article Index

Lian Li PC-V2120 External Design
Lian Li PC-V2120 Internal Design
Final Thoughts

Republished with express permission of TechSpot.Com.

Shawn Knight is a feature writer at TechSpot; he also publishes his own blog OCIA. TechSpot is a computer technology publication serving PC enthusiasts, gamers and IT pros since 1998.

Our favorite Brooklyn-based wacky video game peripheral maker, CTA Digital, will be showing off their latest collection of plastic and rubber add-ons for the Wii, Playstation 3 Move and Xbox 360 Kinect at CES next week.

Among the peripherals being showcased at CTA Digital booth is the PS3 and PS3 Move Assault Rifle Controller, Playstation Move 5-in-1 Charging Station, Wii Inflatable Racing Kart, PS3 Move Golf Simulation Set, Bowling Ball accessory for the Playstation Move and the Playstation Racing Wheel.

CTA Digital also promises to show off some of their "latest innovations for Kinect."

The PlayStation Portable represented well in Japan's Christmastime hardware contest thanks to the continued sales rampage of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and idol worship game AKB1/48: Idol to Koishitara... and maybe even The 3rd Birthday.

The latest Monster Hunter game for the PSP has racked up more than 3.5 million sales in Japan, something the pop group AKB48-themed title and Square Enix's The 3rd Birthday will have a hard time matching. Another pair of monster hunting titles in the top ten, Pokemon Black and Pokemon White, appear to be on the cusp of selling an impressive 5 million copies overseas.

And kudos to the Retro Studios-made Donkey Kong Country Returns, which crosses the half-million mark in Japan, according to sales tracker Media Create. Here are the bestselling games in Japan for the week of December 20 to 26, 2010.

01. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) - 404,175 / 3,565,976
02. AKB1/48: Idol to Koishitara... (PSP) - 236,282 / NEW
03. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) - 213,518 / 529,818
04. Pokemon Black / White (DS) - 164,950 / 4,909,161
05. Wii Party (Wii) - 162,135 / 1,573,959
06. The 3rd Birthday (PSP) - 140,476 / NEW
07. Mario Sports Mix (Wii) - 136,295 / 435,829
08. Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen! The Ogre (DS) - 117,504 / 293,108
09. Ni no Kuni (DS) - 84,115 / 328,992
10. Tongari Boushi to Mahou no Otana (DS) - 74,255 / 249,450

11. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem (DS)
12. Kirby's Epic Yarn (DS)
13. Wii Sports Resort with Wii Remote Plus (Wii)
14. Gundam Musou 3 (PS3)
15. Super Kasekihorida (DS)
16. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
17. Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Minna de Party * 3-Yome! (Wii)
18. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
19. Super Mario All-Stars Collection (Wii)
20. Tamagotchi no Narikiri Challenge (DS)

On the hardware front, the PSP wins first place, but Nintendo wins the pie.

• PSP - 177,691
• Wii - 131,761
• Nintendo DSi - 93,464
• Nintendo DSi LL - 92,329
• PlayStation 3 - 64,228
• Nintendo DS Lite - 5,790
• PSP go - 5,380
• Xbox 360 - 5,298
• PlayStation 2 - 2,604

From Gran Turismo 5 comes our latest game of the week, a race pitting Kotaku reader Icegoat in a roadster overmatched by nearly 150 hp against the rest of the field,

"I like a challenge," writes Icegoat, who ran a BMW Z4 tuned up to 397 horsepower against a field of racers ranging in power from 542 to 637 HP. Early in the race, Icegoat hits a couple of walls, crashes three different times in the first three laps, and winds up dead last among the field of 12.

"Normally I might restart the race at this point, but on this day I kept racing," icegoat writes. "From last place I suddenly became quite serious about the race. I timed my braking, controlled my throttle and kept my rear of my overpowered FR car in check around the corners."

Icegoat kept picking off the field - 11th place, then 10th, then 9th. "I managed to get all the way up to second place, just behind the leader, at the last corner of the race. I dived in to the inside line, pushed my way through and overtook first place just as we rounded for the final stretch."

He would have to hold off a furious AI rally, though. "My opponent, just in my rearview mirror, was much more powerful than me. I all had was cunning. If I allowed him, he would easily overtake me in the half-mile straight sprint to the finish. So I made my little BMW Z4 as wide as the the four lane road. I swerved and zig-zagged to keep the enemy squarely in my rearview. With that final bit of skill and luck I was able to clutch victory from the jaws of crashing-into-last-place defeat."

Icegoat vows that he ran the race with no driver aids. "No traction control, no active steering, no skid recovery force, no stability management." See for yourself in the video above!

Remember, all you have to do to get yourself featured in Box Scores' Game of the Week is take a picture of whatever you've been playing - crappy cell picture will do - write up a couple sentences about why it was so compelling, and email it to me, owenATkotakuDOTcom, with "Box Scores" in the subject header. I will star all submitters, regardless of whether they are published. So be sure to include include your commenter handle, or your commenter page URL if it is different from your handle.

Now the Kotaku Sports open thread commences with the sports TV highlights for today and tomorrow. All times are U.S. Eastern.

• College Football Bowls
  Games underway include Florida and Penn State in the Outback Bowl on ABC; Alabama and Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl on ESPN and Mississippi State and Michigan in the Gator Bowl on ESPN2 in half an hour. The BCS begins tonight with Wisconsin vs. TCU in the Rose Bowl at 5 p.m., and Connecticut vs. Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl at 8, both games on ESPN.
• 
  
• NHL Winter Classic
  Hockey's outdoor extravaganza has been moved to an 8 p.m. start (NBC and CBC) to avoid rain predicted for the Pittsburgh area this afternoon. The NHL's fifth regular-season outdoors match (with a sixth coming later this year in Calgary) pits the rival Penguins and Washington Capitals at Heinz Field. The CBC nightcap involves the Flames at the Oilers, 10 p.m.
• 
  
• NFL
  The biggest game in the final week of the regular season involves the 7-8 Rams and the 6-9 Shitchickens for the NFC West title and a home-field berth in the playoffs. Elsewhere, the Packers (4 p.m. Fox,) Giants (4 p.m., Fox) and Buccanneers (1 p.m.) Fox, all take the field trying to lock up the last NFC playoff berth. If you can sort out the playoff possibilities, let me know.
• 
  
• MMA
  Tonight's UFC 125 matches lightweights Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard; and middleweights Chris Leben and Brian Stann, in Las Vegas on pay-per-view at 10.
• 
  

Headsets claiming to offer "surround sound" have been on the market for a while now, but I'm yet to find one that really works as advertised. Let's see if the Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma can change that.

After a week spent with the Sigma, I'm going to have to report that no, these headphones do not change that. What they are, though, is a solid late-night sound solution for the PC gamer looking for something in the middle ground between the budget section and the top shelf.

The Basics

The Tactic 3D Sigmas are the more expensive of two new "3D" headphone sets being offered by Creative Labs. They boast 3D sound, can be plugged into regular headset and microphone ports for other uses (like on an iPod), and if you feel like a drunken laugh also have a feature that will disguise your voice. My favourite? The effect that makes you sound like you're in a witness protection program.

Using It

They're headphones. They're pretty easy to use! While not being strictly plug-and-play, as you need to first install the custom software that allows them to run in "3D", once that's done all you do is stick 'em in and you're good to go. If you want to use them as regular stereo headphones, all you need to do is plug them into the headphone jack on your computer (or other device). If, however, you want to use the "3D" sound effects, you'll need to plug the headphone and mic cables into an included THX adapter, which needs one of your computer's USB ports to run. To play games in "3D", you simply change the hardware settings from an individual title's menu to surround sound.

Attached to the soft, sexy cables (no, really) is a small control unit that lets you manage the headset's volume, mute the microphone and clip the cord to your shirt.

What We Liked

While they may not look it, the Sigmas' bow-legged design and padded "roof" make them one of the most comfortable sets of headphones I've ever used. As a man with a large head (for reference, I wear 7 3/4 caps), many headphones pinch or don't sit right, but even using these for hours, I never noticed any pain or discomfort.

Sound quality in "regular" mode — so, using them as a stereo headset or with a media player like an iPod — is also pretty good, particularly a nice heavy bass that rumbles the ear without ever feeling like it's too much.

I also liked — and this is a bit weird, I know — the cables. They're thin, like pasta, but soft, like satin sheets. They don't make any difference to the sound quality, sure, but they sure feel nice when you're plugging in and settling down for a night of gaming.

What We Didn't Like

For a $90 pair of headphones, they feel pretty "cheap", with hollow plastic and a rickety frame. As you'll glean above, in terms of both comfort and use this doesn't really affect things, but still, you'd kind of hope for something a bit sturdier when you're paying nearly a hundred bucks for some computer headphones.

We were also a little underwhelmed with the "3D" effects. Like most other attempts at bringing 5.1 sound to headphones, things get a little clustered and busy in your ears when the action starts to pick up. You can tell there's sound coming from more than two places, but it never feels like it's actually coming from where it's supposed to like an actual surround sound unit would manage. It may not have helped I have a 5.1 setup on the same PC I tested the headphones on, but then, that's a sure-fire way to see how the effect really stacks up.

The Bottom Line

If you're after a set of headphones to really nail the effect of "surround sound", these don't fit the bill. If, however, you're looking for a comfortable set of headphones that do a great job with "normal" sound, then the Tactic 3D Sigma's are definitely worth a look. Well. A listen.

The Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma headphones were manufactured by Creative Labs for use with the PC/Mac. Retails for $89.99 and released this fall. A device was given to us by the manufacturer for reviewing purposes. Tested the unit's audio across several PC games, in iTunes and on an iPhone 4 .

It's not. As seen on Buzzfeed via Make and Technabob.

This is the January image for Talk Amongst Yourself. Allow it to put the fear of quiet discourse into your soul and inspire you to instead talk it out in the comments below.

This 15th century painting by Domenico di Michelino is called La commedia illumina Firenza and is meant to depict a scene from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. But with your help this month it will depict other things wondrous, marvelous and, above all, video game centric. You all know the drill. Throughout the month, you can Photoshop this painting in any entertaining way you see fit - preferably keeping it video game-related - and submit your image in the #TAYpics thread.

Keep your submissions 640 pixels wide, please, though, this time, feel free to work on either the whole of the work or a portion.

The makers of massive hits Bejeweled, Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies are eying 2011 as the year for aggressive expansion, PopCap Games head Dave Roberts tells Forbes.

The casual game maker pulled in $100 million in revenue in 2010 and has 400 employees, but 2011 could see the company going public, more international expansion and, of course, new games.

Japan-only Pop Tower, for instance, will be a free-to-play social network host for Bejeweled and Zuma. All I care about is a new Plants vs. Zombies, and maybe a new Peggle.

Come on PopCap, you know you want to do it. Oh, and while your at it, bring Bejeweled 3 to the iPhone. K, thanks!

10 Years Of PopCap Games: Beyond Bejeweled [Forbes]

Learn to walk, learn to run all over again with QWOP, the iPhone port of the highly entertaining and/or maddening track and field Flash game of 2008. Using a touchscreen to independently control calves and thighs sounds fun, right?

Well, QWOP may not be fun in the traditional sense. It's wacky. It's challenging. But one can make the argument that, as video games go, this is a clumsy control scheme. As QWOP, "the local sporting hero of a prosperous country in the Scandinavian Alps," even crossing the finish line isn't easy. Taking control of QWOP's legs and his sense of balance might test your patience—or even better the patience of your friends when you hand them this thing.

The game's instruction screen offers one hint, saying that to make QWOP run, alternating clockwise rotations on the touchscreen control areas are recommended. Didn't work for me!

Play the original QWOP online or grab it from iTunes (it's priced at $1.99 USD right now) if the above looks like your idea a good time.

Anyone old enough to remember Marv Albert on NBC calling a James Scott bout live from Rahway State Prison will want to pay attention to this, the bareknuckle jailhouse fight within the "Champion Mode" of Fight Night Champion.

Promised by EA Sports when Champion Mode was first revealed last month, this fight pits protagonist Andre Bishop (aka: you) against a tatted-up bighouse badass, with just skin and tape separating fistbones from facebones. It's not the first game to include prison fights - Mafia II had them - but this one looks like it requires more strategy and timing, plus a headbutt or two.

Fight Night Champion arrives March 1.