Closer look at the outside

Now the DragonLord is manufacturer by Lian Li under the Lancool marker but don't look to get all the goodies that you see in the Lian Li lineup. With the K56 you will get your share of plastic and metal. Me personally can go either way. As there are many metal case I love just like there are many aluminum case I like. Many people when asked for recommendations on a case chances are the first response will be an expensive aluminum case when there are some great metal cases available and look just as good as an aluminum. Off my soapbox.

When we remove the K56 from the box the first thing that you will notice is the plastic mesh front. I like the way Lancool dressed up the K56 with the entire height of the front facial is made of strips of black mesh separated by rows of black plastic. The good looks are far from the alien-look cases and extreme gamer cases we are seeing a lot of lately. Like Lian Li the DragonLord series is all class.

Normally I go down the case when describing the front of a case but in the instance I will not actually I can not as the entire front is mesh except for the top because this is where we have to the input ports of the K56. The K56 is a little short on ports are there are only two USB's and audio ports. Missing are the seldom used fire wire and the newer eSATA ports. Besides the ports there are the usual power and reset buttons located on each end of the small panel.

Each of the DragonLord models are offered with windows as an option. The model we have here is the non-windowed option so each of the sides are made of typical solid sheets of metal.

Lancool paid a lot of attention to the rear of the K56 as ventilation was taking seriously. Lancool slotted the expansion slot covers to aid in the warm air exhaust. This is one small feature that a lot of companies is taking into mind. Also notice that the K56 has eight expansion slots instead of seven. This is to help support of multi-card setups.

The top half of the rear consist of the a large 120mm cooling fan with round rubber covered holes for water-cooling tubing. In order to eliminate any unnecessary vibration the fans are secured using rubber grommets.

The power supply is mounted at the bottom of the case which is becoming a standard nowadays. The more exciting power supply option is inside and not out.