While many PC case makers are cutting corners nowadays to save a buck, dropping basic features and handy creature comforts, many will feel the back of the glove from Lian Li with this chassis. The veteran chassis player has decided it’s not going to play that game—even with a bargain-priced case. Its new Vector V150 INF comes in at just $85, but it sports a formidable spread of ports and fans, and brings over a few design conveniences from the previous generation—the kind of stuff that competing models often end up ditching. A striking optical illusion on the front panel and a polished look that suggests a case priced close to twice as much make the V150 INF an Editors’ Choice winner for budget MicroATX chassis.
You can see one of those design holdovers as soon as you glance at the case: Lian Li’s trademark infinity mirrors. These flourishes—placed full-frontal around a pair of cooling fans—don’t make any pretense of being pricey, but they definitely gussy up a case that runs under a hundred bucks. The Vector V150 INF also ups the “whoa, man” factor with an ARGB strip around the periphery. (We had to build the system—see below—to power up the lights.)
Meanwhile, we didn’t see any serious cost-cutting measures that might reduce the case’s value in its price class. The case keeps all the mid-market mainstays like a Gen 2x2-compatible (up to 20Gbps) USB 3.2 Type-C port alongside a couple of Gen 1 (5Gbps) Type-A connections. Right next to those, you get a four-pole headset jack that can handle standard headphones or a combo device with a mic. Incoming nit: The power and reset buttons don’t provide any lighting to indicate that the power’s on and the drive is working. Then again, you can tell the case is fired up just by looking at all the ARGB.
The Vector V150 INF offers plenty of ventilation: a fan and grille on the back, plus a perforated panel on the right. Another welcome feature around back: Unlike a lot of low-price competitors, Lian Li didn’t skimp on the expansion-slot panel, maxxing the design to simplify swapping cards in and out. The case also makes life a lot easier for users of rear 120mm radiators. Thanks to the slots that hold the exhaust fan’s mounting screws, users can position the hardware between any top-mounted cooling parts and/or graphics cards.
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Again, these are basic features—but they help make the V150 INF a remarkable value in a market where many competitors have dropped those kinds of perks to slash the price tag.
That brings us to the slide-out dust filter, which is just long enough to cover the bottom panel’s power-supply air inlet (below).
Moving along, the V150 INF can hold up to two drives ahead of its power-supply bay, and the internal spaces feature dual (3.5-inch/2.5-inch) mounting patterns. Well, sort of: Realistically, the front one is too close to the rear to fit two 3.5-inch drives (there’s no room for the front drive’s cables). Bottom line, the panel can handle up to two 2.5-inch drives or a single 3.5-inch and a single 2.5-inch drive.
On the plus side, if you’re using mechanical drives, the case offers a lot of stability. The keyhole-shaped mounts use a combination of shoulder screws and grommets to dampen drive vibrations.
The Vector V150 INF’s top and front panels pull straight off, revealing two single-format (140mm) front mounts filled with factory fans and a dual-format (140mm or 120mm) top radiator (or fan) bracket.
Getting into the nitty-gritty, the top fan mounts don’t extend far enough to hold three 140mm fans. On the other hand, the 424mm or so of space beneath it is enough to fit nearly any 360mm-format radiator, even those with bulky end caps. The radiator will only sit around 45mm above the motherboard, but with a thicker—120mm/240mm/360mm—cooler, you have about 40mm of horizontal clearance between the cooler’s right edge and the motherboard’s top surface. Given that close proximity, we’d be remiss to make any specific recommendations regarding coolers in the 280mm radiator format.
On top of the power-supply shroud, you’ll find threaded holes that let you attach two more 120mm fans. Lian Li includes special screws to handle that.
Next, let’s move ahead of those and get closer to the motherboard tray, where the V150 INF offers upper and lower card-brace brackets.
Here’s a better look at those braces. The upper one keeps the card from bouncing on the lower one during rough handling; the lower one reduces card sag. A few features let you adjust the setup to get the perfect fit. For one, a pair of screws lets you adjust the lower brace so the bumpers line up just right with a graphics card cooler. You can also fiddle with the height, thanks to another screw beneath the power-supply shroud.
(Another feature: Since some MicroATX motherboards use an alternative (lower) placement for their top x16 expansion slot, the V150 INF gives you a second mounting point for its upper-card brace. Thoughtful, that.)
Time to look at the cable situation. Let’s start with the one connecting the ARGB strip on the front panel. It comes locked down with zip ties, so you’re in for some serious headaches if you try to remove it completely. It’s also tough to take out the mesh fan covers from the face panel. So, get ready to clean them out with compressed air down the line.
Two rows of cable passages surround the motherboard, so builders can choose a traditional or reverse-connector MicroATX board. At the front of the motherboard tray (visible in the picture series below, with a drive-mount plate installed and removed), you can choose between a pair of 2.5-inch drives and a pair of 120mm fans. We also test-fit a couple of 240mm-format radiators in that space; they were so thick they ended up pushing the side fans into the flow path of the ones in front.
A removable tray covers the access hole for CPU cooler support plates, designed to hold yet another 2.5-inch drive. If you’re counting, that gives the V150 INF space for a total of five 2.5-inch drives, or four 2.5-inch plus one 3.5-inch unit.
The included ARGB controller comes set to “Wireless Mode.” Translation: The fan and mirror lighting are stuck in static white mode unless you’ve purchased Lian Li’s optional L-Wireless controller. We switched it off and let our motherboard ARGB do the job via an included input cable.
A little farther down, a knurled screw in the power-supply bay lets you play around with the height of the anti-sag brace for the graphics card.
The V150 INF includes a hardware tray with five zip ties and a host of connectors:
16 drive-mounting grommets
20 plastic-thread fan screws
Two replacement panel clips
Two replacement knurled screws
Four power-supply screws
12 truss-head M3 screws (for the motherboard standoffs and its 2.5-inch tray)
Six #6-32 and 16 M3 shoulder screws (for drive mounting)
Eight special machine screws (these are the ones for mounting two 1-inch-thick fans atop the power-supply shroud)
The V150 INF connects to the motherboard of our test build via a combined F_PANEL header block. For wiring, we used hookups for power and reset buttons, HD Audio for the headset combo jack, a Gen 2x2 connection for the Type-C port, and a 19-pin cable for the two Gen 1 Type-A ports. The fan controller acts only as a powered hub when not paired with the company’s L-Wireless controller: It’s powered by a SATA power header, receives lighting instructions from our motherboard’s ARGB header, and accepts PWM signals and feeds back RPM signals via one of our motherboard’s four-pin fan headers.
The top of our motherboard tucked neatly behind our top-mounted cooler. Thank you, handy horizontal offset.
And now we can finally show the V150 INF’s infinity mirror effect in all its RGB splendor.
We’re comparing the Vector V150 INF to our five most-recent MicroATX samples in the following hardware configuration...
There isn’t a great deal of performance difference between the Vector V150 INF and the NZXT H3 Flow—a bit surprising since the Vector lacks intake fans. That’s not a problem for the V150 INF, though, as both cases beat the pack in overall performance.
We were also surprised by the noise—or lack of it. The V150 INF kept about as quiet as the H3 Flow, even with the Vector’s extra fans. The H3 Flow seems to do a worse job of blocking in the high noise level of our graphics card, whereas the V150 INF’s intake fans aren’t nearly as raucous.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Lian Li Vector V150 INF
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
If every single dollar counts, then yes: NZXT's MicroATX-size H3 Flow is even cheaper than the V150 INF. But you’re going to lose a lot of features for those savings. The H3 Flow won’t give you any Gen 2x2 connection for its Type-C port (get ready for a 5Gbps interface of Gen 1 Type-A) and you only get half as many of those Gen 1 Type-A connections, besides. The H3 Flow also lacks the V150 INF’s power-supply dust filter; heck, you don’t even get a single audio jack. (Even the slot panels—which we talked about above—are less convenient than the V150 INF’s.)
Those differences mean a lot—and make the V150 INF one of the best values in its slice of the mainstream MicroATX market. Especially if you dig the groovy infinity mirror.
About Our Expert
Years back, when a small website called out for product-review editors. I leapt at the opportunity: I’d just wrapped up a four-year stint as a systems supplier. That experience provided the credentials I’d need for the transition from industry supplier to industry observer. For one thing, I’d been the first source for an exposé on capacitor plague (“Got Juice?”) at EDN.
By that time, I’d already self-published some guidelines on hardcore PC stuff: pin-modifying processors to defeat compatibility checks and overclock non-overclockable systems. I saw a chance to get paid for my knowledge, and have since written more than a thousand pieces (many of them for the seminal tech site Tom's Hardware) before finding my latest opportunity: with PCMag.
System building. I've been known to take pictures of “wrong way” installations to help builders understand the difference.
PC overclocking, with an emphasis on user ease and component longevity
Motherboards, their infinite nuances and complexities
PC memory, its many variations, and how to configure and understand it
PC cases and PC cooling. The concepts may seem simple, but I help uncover the hidden problems.
Having a test system or two with modern hardware at hand means rarely needing to upgrade my office PC. My old reliable Intel-based workhorse desktop stands at the 6th Generation Core level with a 512GB SSD, 32GB of RAM, and gobs of external storage.
My trusty 3rd Gen Asus Zenbook Pro only comes out for remote conferences (not many of those in the past few years, alas), and even my Samsung Galaxy smartphone is a lower-end model that I bought to replace an old LG unit. Though my day-to-day work consumes the majority of my interest in tech, I've outfitted my home, in recent years, with a whole host of smart TVs.
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