Assembly

Before putting the major parts together, you have to make sure that the shorter leg pieces have been screwed down at the desired angle. Lian Li has created a fairly elaborate design for the joints. You may choose from three placements, which in turn angle the piece differently. One you have selected the one which fits your needs, a metal piece is placed in the joint and two thumb screws are used to secure everything. The entire case does have some weight to it when filled and I had to use a screw driver to tighten the screws quite a bit to hold everything up. Lian Li is working on inproving this aspect for the final retail version. My guess would be with spring washers or something similar.


Once the short leg pieces are in place, I started with the body and head of the spider, I connected them with two thumb screws - one on each side. This gave me the flexibility to bend it upward and trying out different angles. Once I found one that suited my taste, two further thumb screws are required to pin the head down. Due to the complexity of the chassis, I ended up separating these two again and started over with the PSU bay or so called tail section. The weight of the unit created a good base to hold things up at a nice angle, aiding in the final placement of the front part of the spider.

Finished Looks

As a last step, one has to attach the larger leg pieces to the case, which then raises it above the ground and gives you that menacing look. I had to make sure that the thumb screws were tightened here as well after which the entire spider was fairly sturdy when left untouched. Putting pressure on the motherboard or any other part for that matter resulted in the legs spreading apart, but things sprung back to the intended shape once that pressure was gone. So installing new components or connecting cables to the mainboard may be a bit frustrating if the PC-T1 ends up lying flat on the table all of a sudden. Nonetheless, the case is an impressive engineering feat and with a H55 motherboard such a unit would turn heads at every LAN party.


To give you some final insight as far as cable management and hiding is concerned, I managed to store all excessive Molex and SATA cables perfectly in the belly of the beast. While I suggest a modular PSU for anyone with an open chassis, the given solution is excellent, considering the elaborate shape of the PC-T1. The one issue I did notice is the main power lead crosses the path of the ODD, but there is enough play left to push it aside or pin it down to the outer edge with a zip tie.