REVIEWS / CASES
T
here haven’t been many sub-£100 PC
cases that have wowed us as much as
Lian Li’s Lancool One recently. It offered
good cooling, plenty of features, RGB lighting,
decent water-cooling support and a unique, head-
turning design. Lian Li has recently stepped up to
claim the sub-£100 case crown again, though,
with an updated version of the case, not
surprisingly called the Lancool II. What’s more, it
offers even more features than its predecessor
and will still leave you with change from £90.
You get a lot of case for your cash here. Let’s
start with the exterior, which includes hinged
tempered glass side panels on both sides that
require no tools to use. Below these, again on each
side, you’ll find panels that flip down, providing access
to storage bays and the PSU
area, covering up any potential
cable spaghetti.
Unlike the original case, the Lancool
II also sports two large mesh grilles
on the front to boost cooling, although
they’re still fairly dainty compared
with a full mesh panel, so we don’t
expect cooling to be improved much
compared with the Lancool One.
However, we love the way Lian Li
has added RGB lighting to these
mesh areas. The lighting is vivid yet
tasteful, and the integrated RGB
lighting controller enables you to cycle
through various colour and effect
modes, while a separate connector
means you can also connect the
lighting strips to your motherboard
for control.
The front panel detaches too,
providing access to the fan mounts
beneath it, and we were amazed to
see a slot-together RGB port for thelighting here too, which reconnects itself when you reinstall
the panel. The vents do have removable dust filters, but you’ll
need to pop the front panel off to access them.
Meanwhile, the front panel sports two USB 3 ports, a
4-pole audio jack, plus power and reset buttons, and two
more buttons to control the lighting. There’s a USB Type-C
port opening here too, but no port, with the module available
separately. There are several other optional components
too, such as a 3-way hot-swap SATA connector for the trio of
3.5in tool-free mounts in the base, although these can still be
used as normal with SATA cables. Lian Li also offers a vertical
GPU mounting kit that includes a replacement rear panel
plus an anti-sag mount for the GPU.
Flipping open the far side panel reveals a large cable-
tidying system, which includes numerous large plates that
do a fantastic job of hiding cables, which is just as well, as the
glass side panel gives a clear view of any mess. Inside the
front panel, Lian Li includes a reversible fan bracket that can
move forwards to provide more radiator clearance, although
there’s already room for 45mm-thick radiators in the front, in
either 360mm or 280mm sizes.
The roof can play host to a 240mm radiator as well, and as
this mount is offset, it can be a 45mm-thick model too – you
could possibly install a larger radiator here too, depending
on your choice of waterblock and fittings. There are threeSUPPLIER overclockers.co.ukLIAN LI LANCOOL II
/£83 inc VAT
AT X C A S E
SPEC
Dimensions (mm)
230 x 478 x 494 (W x D x H)
Material
Steel, plastic, glass
Available colours
Black, white
Weight
13kg
Front panel
Power, reset 2 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C
(optional), audio, RGB lighting controls
Drive bays
3 x 2.5/3.5in, 4 x 2.5in
Form factor(s)
E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX
Cooling
3 x 120mm/2 x 140mm front fan mounts (1
x fan included), 1 x 120mm rear fan mount
(fan included), 2 x 120mm/140mm roof fan
mounts (1 x fan included), 2 x 120mm base
fan mounts, (fans not included)
CPU cooler clearance
176mm
Maximum graphics card length
384mmcc
uu
sstommPP
CCP
R
E
M
IU
M^ GR
A
D
E