LIAN LI LANCOOL II MESH Review

Video Review

Conclusion & Video

There’s a lot of like about the Lian Li LANCOOL II Mesh, especially given its £74.99 UK pricing. It has excellent cable management options, it has three fans out of the box, it includes a fan controller, features two tempered glass windows and plenty of space for storage drives and liquid cooling. With the LANCOOL II MESH current pricing, it currently stands as one of the best PC cases in its class. 

If you love RGB, know that this case has an RGB option called the LANCOOL II MESH RGB, which costs £79.99 and features three front-mounted RGB fans in its stock configuration and features an RGB hub. That’s incredible value if you desire some RGB bling inside your system, and fans of white cases should be glad to know that both the RGB and non-RGB versions of the LANCOOL II MESH are available in both black and white. 

What the LANCOOL II MESH offers is a premium feature set with value-oriented pricing. As the case’s “MESH” name suggests, this case’s front panel has been switched out to offer users less restricted airflow, allowing this case to better feed your hardware with cool air. When looking critically as the LANCOOL II MESH, the only real downside we see is the case’s lack of dust filters, though it is worth noting that you can’t filter air without restricting airflow. Even then, frequent cleaning of your home office or gaming space will minimise the need for dust filters.

Given the Sub-£80 pricing of the LANCOOL II MESH and its RGB counterpart, we are surprised to see that this enclosure sports two tempered glass windows. Better still is the fact that these windows are hinged, making it incredibly easy to remove and replace the hardware within this enclosure. The only downside of this design is that there is no way to grip and open this window without a handle, forcing users of the LANCOOL II MESH to open the bottom panel to then grab the side of the LANCOOL II MESH’s window with your fingers. This design turns window opening into a two-step process, though it is certainly a lot less bothersome than removing screw-mounted tempered glass windows. This annoyance is a petty gripe, as LIAN LI’s window design is still better than most cases with this pricepoint, but it is worth taking note of. 

With two front-mounted 140mm fans and a single 120mm exhaust, the LANCOOL II MESH offers users ample airflow out of the box without a considerable amount of fan noise. This fact is especially true when the case’s fans are set to low RPMs using the case’ built-in fan controller. The case scores well thermally when compared to other enclosures that we have tested, especially when all of these cases have their fans set to the same RPM values. Lian Li does a great job balancing noise and airflow, which is great news for users of this enclosure. 

When it comes to liquid cooling, the LANCOOL II MESH supports a top-mounted 240mm radiator and 360mm, 280mm, or 240mm radiators in the front of the enclosure. Better still, the front fan mounts of the LANCOOL II can be removed to make fan mounting easier, a feature which is typically reserved for much more expensive enclosures. 

Cable management is also a breeze within the LANCOOL II MESH. As you will see on page 2 of this review, we didn’t put much effort into hiding our messy PSU cables within this enclosure. Despite that, this PC’s cables looked tidy in the end because of this enclosure’s cable hiding plates. It is almost criminal how easy it is to make a neat looking PC within the LANCOOL II MESH, as its management options give ample opportunities to hide your cable management sins. We can also see PC builders customising these cable management plates with custom paint jobs and decals, which would look great when looking through your case’s side panel windows. 
  

 
To summarise your thoughts on the Lian Li LANCOOL II MESH, we love it. The case offers users a lot of premium features that most cases at this price point lack, and all of this case’s shortcomings are minor. Add in this case’s excellent cable tidying features, and we have an enclosure with an affordable price, an outstanding feature set and a fantastic external aesthetic. For that, the Lian Li LANCOOL II MESH is more than deserving of OC3D’s Value For Money award.

With the case’s RGB-enabled version costing as little as £5 more, Lian Li has also made its LANCOOL II MESH suitable for both the lovers and haters side of the RGB spectrum, with both models being incredibly affordable.  

 

You can join the discussion on LIAN LI’s LANCOOL II MESH chassis on the OC3D Forums.