Lian-Li P80N Questions

Ten years ago I bought a few Lian-Li P80 Cases. At the time, they were simply amazing cases. I built a few machines with them and I never had a problem. Flash forward a decade and I am ready to build another machine for the house. Needless to say technology has advanced a bit - But I have 3 perfectly good cases that are big enough to hold anything. Ok, that’s the backstory. What I’m looking for is any information regarding:

E-coating vs Powder coating for the chassis. I’ve used powder coating for a car but never for a pc chassis. The eCoating looks like it is thinner but seems to look better and we have a local shop. Anyone have experience with this?

Second, the Lian-Li came with 5 - 140mm fans 3-front/2 -top and 1-120mm fan in back. The fans are now a decade old and while they still work…ten years of dust and cat hair have probably taken a toll. Should I proactively replace them with Noctua black chromas (I’m not an RGB fan)?

Last question. Is it worth it to replace the top panel with something more modern (it came with 1394 and USB 2.0/USB 3) and has never been really utilized. Is it worth it to replace the “mohawk” narrow top with some aluminum plate that will allow a 360 radiator in place of the two 140mm fans? I plan on putting an Intel 12900k into this on an Asus Maximus Hero Z690 board.

FWIW I have long ago replaced the original 5.25 drive bays with side mounted 2.5 SSDs to provide even better airflow in the case from the 3-140s up front.

I kinda miss these big behemoth cases…

E-coating will result in a thinner coating for sure and it’s also (generally) better for parts with lots of minute detail and hard to reach areas. Powder coating will be thicker, but also stronger. I think either would work for a case.

It definitely wouldn’t hurt anything other than your wallet. My rationale would be if I thought they were too loud for the case temp I desired I’d replace them, or if they have started to make clicking or grinding noises. Luckily nowadays there are plenty of very good fans available.

Again, wouldn’t hurt. Lian Li used to make replacement front panel IO for their cases, but I’m not sure if they’re still available in 2021. If they do that would be an easy swap and you’d get more modern IO. Completely replacing the mohawk with a plate for fans would be a bit more involved. You’d either need to cut space for fans directly into the case or source a fan plate and cut space for the plate. Mountain Mods may have a plate that could be retrofit.

Thanks, I will contact Mountain Mods to see what can be done.

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