Lian Li Lancool 216 Case Assessment – ATX with Exterior Fan

We see quite a lot of PC chassis right here at KitGuru however we don’t typically come throughout something genuinely distinctive. More often than not, new circumstances supply improved seems, however not essentially any enchancment on the standard options we’ve got seen for many years which signifies that discovering circumstances with helpful new options is a rarity. The Lian Li Lancool 216 is the exception to that rule, however what has Lian Li bought up its sleeve on this new mid-range chassis? Let’s discover out.

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For starters the Lian Li Lancool 216 is on the market in black and white variants. The black model is available in at £105 however there’s a slight premium to pay for the white model which is priced at round £110. The present financial local weather places the Lancool 216 within the mid-range sector with some very fierce competitors, so it’ll want one thing distinctive to face out within the crowd.

There are a few issues which might be attention-grabbing to say the least concerning the new Lancool 216. Lian Li has included a 120mm exterior fan bracket that’s designed to mount to the again of the case, positioned behind the PCIe slot to alleviate warmth from the GPU. Additionally included is a entrance I/O that may be re-positioned, and an adjustable motherboard/rear I/O mounting answer for optimum cooling with air or liquid coolers.

Lian Li Lancool 216 Options:

Accessible in black and white color schemes with mildly tinted tempered glass aspect window, excessive airflow mesh entrance and prime panels for optimum airflow and cooling efficiency.
Optimised for air and liquid cooling with an adjustable motherboard place and a rotatable rear I/O. Liquid cooling mode creates more room on the prime of the case for radiator set up whereas air cooling setup permits for the set up of enormous air coolers whereas nonetheless providing vertical GPU mounting.
A reversible entrance I/O permits customers to re-position the entrance panel from the highest of the case to the underside left-hand aspect. Because of this customers with floor-mounted or desk-mounted circumstances can have quick access to the entrance I/O.
An included 120mm rear fan bracket will be put in externally behind the PCIe slots to enhance airflow across the graphics card and supply a greater airflow steadiness with an extra rear exhaust.
Two 160mm excessive airflow ARGB PWM followers come pre-installed to the entrance of the case, whereas within the prime rear exhaust place is an ordinary black non-RGB 140mm excessive airflow PWM fan. Each the entrance 160mm and rear 140mm followers will be related to the included PWM/RGB fan hub.
Intensive cable administration is supplied by three massive cable straps within the central channel, an extra cable administration channel to the precise of the motherboard tray contains three clips for CPU EPS energy cable routing whereas a number of cable cutouts are positioned in helpful places.
An non-compulsory ARGB controller/USB module accent will be bought individually. With this accent, customers have enhanced ARGB lighting management permitting the 2 RGB lighting zones on the entrance 160mm followers to be configured individually by two switches.
Supported {hardware} contains motherboards as much as E-ATX type issue, CPU cooler top of as much as 180.5mm, a most graphics card size of as much as 392mm and energy provides as much as 220mm lengthy.

Specs

Case Kind: Mid Tower
Dimensions (DxWxH): 480.9 x 235 x 491.7 mm
Color: Black / White
Materials: Metal / 4mm Tempered glass
Motherboard Help: E-ATX/ATX/M-ATX/Mini ITX
Growth Slots: 7
Storage: 4 x 2.5”, 2 x 3.5”/2.5”
Max GPU Size: 392mm
Max CPU Cooler Peak: 180.5mm
PSU Kind: ATX
Fan Help: (Prime) 3 x 120mm/2 x 140mm, (Entrance) 3 x 120mm/2 x 140/160mm, (Rear) 1 x 120mm, (PSU Cowl) 2 x 120mm/2 x 140mm (Air Cooling Mode), (Exterior Bracket) 1 x 120mm
Included Followers: 2 x 160mm ARGB (Entrance), 1 x 140mm PWM
Entrance I/O: Energy button, reset button, 2 x USB 3.0 Kind-A, 1 x USB Kind-C, 3.5mm Audio jack
Mud Filters: 1 x Backside

Thermal Efficiency Testing

To simulate thermal demand we run the Cinebench R23 multi-thread benchmark and 3DMark Time Spy Excessive stress check concurrently in a loop for 60 minutes to totally load the system. This offers the CPU and GPU sufficient time to achieve fixed steady-state temperature. With this information, we are able to examine how the system handles the thermal demand and measure peak noise ranges.

Thermal efficiency is measured with the case in varied configurations, such because the default, with the tempered glass left-hand aspect panel eliminated and with the entrance panel eliminated to see how these configurations have an effect on the CPU and GPU temperature. Throughout testing, solely inventory case followers are used until in any other case specified. All water pumps are set to most RPM and followers are set to a customized RPM curve by the Motherboard software program/BIOS.

All temperature measurements are introduced as Deltas – which means the ambient temperature has been deducted from the CPU temperature giving us a Delta. Information proven within the charts characterize the common part temperature over the size of the check as measured by HWiNFO after which the final quarter-hour of the info are calculated to get the common. The ambient temperature throughout thermal checks is between 20-21⁰C.

Check System:

Thermal Efficiency/Noise Overview:

In its default configuration with solely the inventory followers put in, the Lian Li Lancool 216 is a wonderful high-airflow chassis that may serve customers with high-specification parts properly. The excessive airflow panels mixed with the inventory 160mm and 140mm followers simply cooled our check system.

Including further 120mm followers to the PSU shroud helped drop GPU temperature once more and putting in the rear exterior fan mount, geared up with a 120mm Lian Li UNI Fan SL120 V2 diminished GPU temperature even additional. With these further followers put in the case cooling goes from good to nice.

Closing Ideas

When studying the overview information that got here with the Lian Li Lancool 216, I used to be a bit doubtful of the claims made about one or two of the brand new options that had been carried out into the chassis. I wasn’t anticipating the exterior rear fan to assist a lot in any respect with GPU temperature discount however I used to be mistaken. The exterior fan mixed with the underside PSU shroud-mounted followers labored extraordinarily properly in our thermal testing by knocking a whopping 8°C off the GPU temperature.

All this is good news for customers of high-end graphics playing cards. Nevertheless, the implementation of this function is flawed as it’s only appropriate with motherboard and graphics card combos that place the graphics card video outputs within the prime PCIe slot. With the vast majority of motherboard and graphics card combos, one can find that the video outputs populate the second and third PCIe slots which suggests which you can’t set up the exterior fan and entry video outputs.

By putting in the exterior fan barely wonky and with just one screw I used to be in a position to hook up with one HDMI port on the graphics card and run the thermal checks. Hopefully, Lian Li can take a second have a look at the fan mount and modify it in order that it might probably appropriate with extra system configurations as it’s genuinely a very good function, particularly when mixed with the PSU shroud mounted followers.

Aside from this minor inconvenience, the Lian Li Lancool 216 is a wonderful mid-range chassis. Putting in a system contained in the case is simple, the adjustable motherboard mounting place makes motherboard parts on the prime of the case accessible when in water cooling mode with a top-mounted radiator and for many who need to air cool the system the motherboard will be lifted to create more room for larger backside followers and enormous CPU air coolers whereas nonetheless having the ability to mount a giant graphics card vertically.

Mixed with the excessive airflow mesh panels, the inventory followers supply spectacular cooling and the RGB lighting results of the entrance 160mm followers look nice, particularly if you happen to pay the additional for the non-compulsory USB/ARGB controller module which permits for management of the 2 RGB zones individually. There’s additionally loads of house for storage gadgets with two detachable 3.5” bays and the potential to put in as much as 6 2.5” drives.

Taken as a complete, the Lian Li Lancool 216 is a wonderful mid-range case with nice cooling efficiency, in depth help for high-end {hardware} and strong construct high quality. Priced at £105 for the black model, it affords good worth within the present market in comparison with the competitors. For lovers that desire a moderately priced chassis, with helpful options able to cooling very high-end parts, the Lian Li Lancool 216 will likely be a really sensible alternative.

We do not but have a purchase hyperlink however the Lian Li Lancool 216 will likely be out there from Overclockers UK for £105.

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Professionals:

Mesh panels present nice airflow.
Exterior fan and backside followers considerably enhance GPU thermals.
Optimised for each air and water cooling.
Useful cable administration options.
Strong construct high quality.

Cons:

The exterior fan isn’t appropriate with all {hardware} configurations.
ARGB controller must be bought individually.

KitGuru says: The Lian Li Lancool 216 is a powerful chassis for its worth level. There’s some robust competitors in that sector of the market however Lancool 216 is up there with the perfect of them, what do you guys assume?