Lian-Li PC-V600

About a month ago, I upgraded the graphics card in my PC to a BFGTech 8800GT. I’d been experiencing some glitches on my two year old Nvidia 7900, probably due to the Zalman cooler I added to it not providing the VRAM with enough heat transfer combined with not enough air circulation in the case. After monitoring the temperatures on my machine, I realized I had a heat problem with the CPU spiking up to around 75°C where Intel says it should only peak at 65° under load. Worse, the mother board was pushing 60° and the GPU was over 100°.

Not wanting to fry another graphics card, I decided a new case was in order. I really liked the case I had, a Lian-Li PC-V1200 — now replaced by the PC-V1100? Hard to tell because like all “high-end” products, their website is particularly awesome. Anyway, I remembered seeing another case that had a drilled front and back similar to the PowerMac/MacPro design.

Shopping around online, I found a PC-V600 case listed at NCIX.com in BC. For whatever reason, I had it in my head that this was an OK company to deal with online, and put in my order for a black V600. That was on a Sunday night. Monday rolled around and I checked the status page a few times. I believe it was on Tuesday night that the status was finally updated with a credit card validation error, asking me to call them. I had given them a different phone number than what the bank had, no biggie. The customer service guy assured me that the order would be processed the next day.

The day came and went, my order was shown as “verified” and payment was processed.

Days passed…

A week later and still no shipment. I used their online support form to write a “hurry up and ship my case or I’m walkin’” message. I watched the clock, waiting for 9:30am PDT to roll around then commenced a campaign of phone calls to their support staff which I eventually got a hold of. It went something like this:

<me> “Hi, where’s my case?”

<NCIX> “That case isn’t in stock. It’s back-ordered.”

<me> “That’s not what your ‘online availability’ says on your web catalog.”

<NCIX> “That doesn’t always get updated.”

<me> “Kind of useless then, isn’t it?”

<NCIX> “meh!”

<me> “Thanks for telling me!”

<NCIX> “. . .”

<me> (speaking slowly and loudly now despite the other’s excellent grasp of English) “DO. YOU. HAVE. ANY. IN. SILVER. ?”

<NCIX> “I don’t have a SKU for that.”

<me> “DO. YOU. NOT. HAVE. A. COMPUTER. IN. FRONT OF YOU??!!”

<NCIX> “It’s in a different system.” (I can hear him filing his nails or something, possibly chewing gum at the same time. I imagine him making a wanking gesture to his customer service pals and mouthing, “I’ll be able to go for a smoke in five”)

<me> “LET ME LOOK IT UP FOR YOU”

I proceeded to look up the SKU for the “Customer” “Service” “Rep” on HIS OWN WEBSITE and relayed it to him over the phone. He told me they had one. I asked him to prove it to me by shipping it. He said it would take a day or so for them to process the order change and it would be shipped shortly after that. That would be excellent, I gagged, and hung up as a droplet of hot oil begin seeping out of my forehead just like Zorg when he was talking to the sphere of infinite evil in The Fifth Element.

I waited.

I received a shipping notification a few days later. A week after that, my case arrived. Ordered June 22nd. Arrived July 11th, 20 business days later. Had I not asked them why I had no case, I would likely still be waiting for a back-ordered black case and taking the side panel off my PC to enjoy an exciting game of Never Winter Nights 2. I will not be ordering anything from them again.

In any case (har), the new box is very nice, a little loud with all the fans spinning, but it keeps my chips nice and cool. Also, it looks bitchin’.

THE END