Lian Li LANCOOL III Review - The Best Case of 2022?

Thermal Performance

Lian Li LANCOOL III Review - The Best Case of 2022

Cooling Performance  

Thermal performance is an essential factor for any PC case. Your system may look fantastic and seem silent from the outside, but all of that is for nought if your PC has the internal temperature of an oven. Your PC case needs enough airflow for your components to remain cool under load and to prevent any form of thermal throttling. For our test, we used the following hardware using fixed fan speeds (so that only the case and its included fans can influence thermal performance).

ASUS TUF Gaming GT501
Intel i9-9700K @4.8GHz at 1.2V
ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming @ 100% Current Capacity/ LL lvl16
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition @ 9V via Fan Speed Reducer
Nvidia GTX 980 Reference @ 60% Fixed Fan Speed
Corsair LP Vengiance LP (Grey) @ 3200MHz
Corsair MP500 M.2 NVMe SSD
Corsair RM550X Power Supply

The graph below showcases Delta temperatures with a controlled ambient temperature of 20 degrees Celsius.

1000 RPM Fan Tests

Sadly, our standard 600 RPM stress test did not work with the LANCOOL III, because our normal fan control software would not run this case's fans at a steady 600 RPM, invalidating the test. Thankfully, things worked as normal at 1,000 RPM and at this case's maximum fan RPMs (1650 RPM), allowing our other standard tests to proceed normally. 

At 1000 RPM, the LANCOOL III remained quiet and delivered thermal results that are towards the bottom of our graphics. That's a good thing, as the lower on these graphs a case is, the lower its delta thermals are. While this case does not deliver the best thermals that we have ever seen, these remain respectable results, specially for a case that has plenty of space for SSDs and HDDs.

Lian Li LANCOOL III Review - The Best Case of 2022  
Lian Li LANCOOL III Review - The Best Case of 2022

Max RPM Fan Tests

When we let the Lancool III's fans run at their highest RPMs, the case falls towards the bottom levels of our CPU and GPU performance charts. That means that this case's CPU and GPU thermals are amongst the best that we have seen for an out-of-the box case. Only the Fractal Torrent delivers a convincing lead over the Lancool III, and it ships with more fans and has less space for HDDs/SSDs. 

Lian Li LANCOOL III Review - The Best Case of 2022  
Lian Li LANCOOL III Review - The Best Case of 2022

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Most Recent Comments

15-07-2022, 11:39:44

Peace
The opening part of the article is misleading as in the 2nd page's top picture AND the table on the bottom of the 1st page, it's cleary visible and said that the RGB version does NOT ship with a rear mounted fan...
//EDIT: This means that not all versions ship with the same amount of fans. Later in the article it's said that usually, manufacturers ship their non-RGB versions with less fans and LianLi are a good example of the opposite.

The 1000 RPM Testing graph also doesn't have a green indicator for the case.



Otherwise it's a darn sexy case for this price! Sorry for the nitpicking!Quote

15-07-2022, 12:49:36

WYP
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peace Ð View Post
The opening part of the article is misleading as in the 2nd page's top picture AND the table on the bottom of the 1st page, it's cleary visible and said that the RGB version does NOT ship with a rear mounted fan...
//EDIT: This means that not all versions ship with the same amount of fans. Later in the article it's said that usually, manufacturers ship their non-RGB versions with less fans and LianLi are a good example of the opposite.

The 1000 RPM Testing graph also doesn't have a green indicator for the case.



Otherwise it's a darn sexy case for this price! Sorry for the nitpicking!
It does ship with a rear 140mm fan. The picture on the second page is must be an out of date image from Lian Li. I will fix that shortly. I will also make sure the charts are fixed.Quote

15-07-2022, 13:16:50

AlienALX
Amazing case.

I built in the Lancool ages ago (for a PC I was selling off) and it was incredible. I then saw all of the improvements they made to the LCII. So much so that when my pal asked me to order him a case from OCUK (because I get free shipping) I actually chucked in £30 and bought him the LCII rather than the case he wanted. He was absolutely thrilled.

It's so nice to see the ingenuity going into this case. Lian Li are deffo OGs, so it's nice to see them still really pushing the envelope. Those front "handles" are a genius touch.

It's just the sheer engineering pron that goes into this stuff. Incredible !!Quote

16-07-2022, 11:32:23

Lonestar166
As always, an excellent review Guv. Will you eventually do a gaming build for us in this case? I see and understand your enthusiasm regarding this case, it definitely ticks a lot of boxes for me as well. It may very well be the case I choose for my new build. I just did a quick check online and I'm not sure if it is available yet here in Toronto Canada.
Cheers Tiny One, have a great day, hi to puss.Quote

16-07-2022, 18:41:58

Dawelio
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlienALX View Post
Amazing case.

I built in the Lancool ages ago (for a PC I was selling off) and it was incredible. I then saw all of the improvements they made to the LCII. So much so that when my pal asked me to order him a case from OCUK (because I get free shipping) I actually chucked in £30 and bought him the LCII rather than the case he wanted. He was absolutely thrilled.

It's so nice to see the ingenuity going into this case. Lian Li are deffo OGs, so it's nice to see them still really pushing the envelope. Those front "handles" are a genius touch.

It's just the sheer engineering pron that goes into this stuff. Incredible !!
Yeah, totally agree. Just look at their UniFans, such an innovation in itself and they just keep on innovating them, new connectors, removeable corner connectors if you don’t want them etc.

Lian Li is certainly one of the very few companies that are genuine enthusiasts and that are bringing both innovation and customer feedback to their products.

Not like Corsair, who still haven’t figured out their headache of cable management mess that is their fans. And iCUE as I’ve read many still dislike a lot.Quote
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