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The Build

First, let's embrace some complaints we had with the original version that have been resolved. The hard drive cages in our first Lancool II sample were falling apart at the hinges; like many issues, it was nothing a little hammering couldn't fix, merely that hammering should take been done at the factory. The sleds in our L2 Mesh are exactly the same blueprint, merely assembled properly this time. Nosotros can't say for sure that the problem is fixed based on a single unit, only information technology'due south a offset.

The four door sections on Lancool Two cases are held shut with magnets. On the original Lancool Ii these magnets were left bare, so that if they weren't tucked advisedly into the corners during associates they could smack against the metallic chassis and chip. Even if they didn't, the lower doors would slam shut, steel against steel. On the Mesh, these magnets are covered with foam pads that protect them and cushion the bear on slightly.

Those are the fixes we wanted, merely Lian Li has likewise made another changes. The first and most obvious is the front panel, which is now steel mesh over a plastic frame with no bankroll filter, a fashion that we've seen increasingly often lately. The Cooler Master TD500 instance, the NR600, and the Phanteks A-series cases have all started moving toward similar designs. The front console of the Mesh is considerably simpler than the original, which was a fairly elaborate construction with 2 sections of ARGB lighting.

The original case had two 120mm fan mounts on tiptop of the PSU shroud directly underneath the GPU, and the Mesh expands on this feature. There are open up 120mm holes in the shroud for unobstructed airflow, which can be covered with perforated steel plates when not in use. The steel side panel that formerly had a small-scale intake vent is now fabricated entirely of mesh, making the shroud-top fan mounts much more usable. Lian Li informed usa during our visit this year that the final version of this mesh department would be more reinforced than the paradigm, and it is, just it's even so much more flexible and decumbent to warping than the solid steel panel on the other side of the case. There's a tradeoff being fabricated here, but we believe it's worth information technology. The Mesh's legs are canted inward, which allows the lower doors to open fully without pinching the legs.

The ventilation holes used throughout the Lancool 2 were originally elongated ovals. Wikipedia informs united states that this shape tin can be called a stadium, obround, discorectangle, or sausage body, but it's and so hard to cull. We'll go with sausage bodies. These sausage bodies have been replaced by a honeycomb pattern in well-nigh locations except underneath the PSU, which co-ordinate to Lian Li should allow more air through. It makes sense: the new pattern has a college hole-to-metal ratio.

No RGB means no RGB controller, and Lian Li has repurposed the front panel space formerly used for lighting controls to concord a fan speed slider. The hub information technology's continued to has six four-pivot PWM connectors and iii speed settings, as well as an "auto" setting that controls fan speed based on a PWM signal from the motherboard. We prefer to connect individual fans to individual motherboard headers, and we e'er do so for case testing, but equally far as fan hubs go, this one is pleasantly minimalistic.

There were several small issues that we had with the original case that haven't changed. To start, magnets remain the only thing holding each of the doors shut. Nosotros like magnets, simply there's no way to fully secure the doors, either for moving the example around or to forestall big wads of cables from pushing the sides open. The glass doors tin still only be opened past outset opening the lower steel doors, and the steel doors can simply be opened from the dorsum of the case. Finally, there's even so just an empty hole in the front I/O where an optional USB-C port can exist installed. USB-C cables are available for purchase from Lian Li separately. Perhaps this is a good fashion to requite a discount to customers who don't want a USB-C port (due east.chiliad. everyone who works here), but it but feels bad to buy a case with an empty hole for a feature it doesn't take. Nosotros'd prefer a preinstalled USB type-A port that could exist replaced with USB-C, for instance.

Our first Lancool II review was posted earlier our "EATX is a lie" piece, so we didn't requite it any grief at the time over claiming EATX support. Flipping the cable management bar creates some extra room for motherboards up to 280mm wide. SSI-CEB boards volition fit, SSI-EEB boards volition not. Even with normal ATX boards, the stock placement of the cable management bar puts it very shut to the border of the motherboard, making information technology somewhat difficult to route the 24-pin power connector neatly.

That's all old news- the biggest flaw that's new to the Lancool Two Mesh is a big hole at the lesser of the front end panel. This wasn't present in the original case, but for some reason the handle at the bottom of the Mesh's front panel isn't sealed off from the front end intake fans. Using one layer of metallic mesh without a filter for the forepart panel is fine, and we consider this the platonic compromise between high airflow and keeping grit out. Using one layer of metal mesh with a big open-air gap that circumvents it is but pointless, especially at the bottom, where dust likely collects. We'd recommend taping off this hole for long-term use--information technology's subconscious underneath the instance, so it won't affect the case'southward appearance. Dust will affect long-term operation, though, and yous can sentry our dust thermal criterion for that.

Ane feature that hasn't changed is the removable front fan/radiator mountain, but it'due south nice and we'd like to mention it over again. It can be flipped around and repositioned to move fans closer to or further from the front console in small increments, either for better airflow or radiator clearance. The case ships with the stock fans mounted flush with the forepart of the chassis. We don't recommend mounting radiators larger than 280mm in this case: the forepart just barely has space for a 360mm rad, and probably only with the tubes upwardly, which is inadvisable since information technology creates pump whine and water starvation after permeation sets in. The drive cage is repositionable and removable, but at that place's already limited space to piece of work with under the shroud without adding fans and radiators into the mix. Clearance from the summit edge of the motherboard to the top of the case is simply slightly over 3cm, so narrow 120mm radiators that can be beginning away from the motherboard are recommended for top mounting.

The Mesh is uniform with the same separately purchased addons as the regular Lancool II, like a hot-swap HDD backplane and a vertical GPU mounting kit. Check our original review for more than details on these features, simply our opinion is that they don't add together significantly to the value of the instance.

GN Case Testing Bench

	Component	Courtesy Of
Video Carte du jour	MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 10 (OC Mode)	MSI
CPU	Intel i7-6700K @ 4.4GHz	GamersNexus
CPU Cooler	MSI Cadre Frozr L	MSI
Motherboard	MSI Z170A Gaming M7	MSI
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB 3200MHz	Corsair
SSD	Samsung 850 EVO 120GB	Samsung
PSU	Gigabyte 800W PSU	Gigabyte
Cables	CableMod Pro Mesh Cables	CableMod
Case	This is what we're testing!	-

The video carte du jour is configured to run at 55% fan speed at all times.

Prior to load testing, we collect idle temperature results for ten minutes to determine the unloaded cooling performance of a case's fans and air channels. Thermal benchmarking is conducted for 1400 seconds (23 minutes), a period we've determined sufficient for achieving equilibrium. The over-fourth dimension information is aggregated and volition occasionally be compiled into charts, if interesting or relevant. The equilibrium performance is averaged to create the below charts.

Load testing is conducted using Prime95 LFFTs and Kombustor "FurMark" stress testing simultaneously. Testing is completely automated using in-house scripting, and executes with perfect accurateness on every run.

Discover our noise normalized & fan normalized testing methodology here: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3477-instance-fan-standardization-tests-noise-normalized-thermals

Thermals & Dissonance

Nosotros did a lot of tests with the original Lancool Two, prior to the Mesh version, including rearranging the 3 120mm stock fans throughout the case for different airflow patterns. Our main issues with the Lancool II original instance were related to thermals, and and then those were our attempts to prepare the problem. The Mesh is slightly less reconfigurable, since 2 of the stock fans are 140mm and therefore volition not fit on the mounts on top of the PSU shroud. Nosotros did our full suite of tests on the Mesh, too equally one test with a generic NZXT instance fan added in on peak of the shroud in the mount furthest dorsum in the case as intake, and one examination with the hole at the lesser of the front panel taped shut.

CPU Torture

Nosotros'll start with data for only the Lancool series, then nosotros'll expect at the comparative tests versus other cases. Baseline temperature for the CPU in our combined torture examination was 45 degrees Celsius over ambience, which vicious a fraction of one degree with the front end panel removed, rounding to 44 degrees over ambient. Fifty-fifty earlier comparing this result to other cases, that's a huge achievement--even cases with the least restrictive front panels see improvements of a few degrees with the front panel removed. The P400A RGB, not shown hither simply for example, improved its CPU temperature delta by four degrees. Taping shut the bottom of the Lancool Two Mesh'south front panel helps to explain what's happening: the CPU averaged 47 degrees over ambient with this modification, and so it turns out that leaving an open up hole at the lesser is skillful for airflow, even if it's not a good idea overall. Although we advocate for airflow, nosotros don't do generally recommend that cases which otherwise filter dust should get out giant holes in them, because it sort of invalidates all the dust control piece of work washed elsewhere. Don't let that temperature departure distract from the fact that this is notwithstanding only iii degrees higher than baseline. Putting an extra fan in the example below the GPU understandably pushed the CPU's boilerplate delta upwardly a few degrees from baseline to 47 degrees Celsius, every bit hot air from the GPU was pushed up in the case towards the CPU cooler, and the pressure level systems inside the example have now drastically changed. More than on that in the GPU department. Compared to the Lancool Ii non-mesh, all results are significantly better. The Lancool Two non-Mesh without a front panel is actually warmer than the worst of the Lancool Ii Mesh results.

The original Lancool 2 averaged 56 degrees Celsius over ambient, nowhere shut to the Mesh's operation. Non much IS close to the Mesh'south functioning, in fact, with the merely stock result higher on the chart beingness Silverstone's RV02. The H500M Mesh averaged 46 degrees and the RL06 averaged 48, and the rest of the stock results go upwardly from there. Even if we say that the lesser of the front panel should be taped off and therefore that result should exist counted as stock, that ties the Lancool Ii Mesh with the 2d-best stock result on the whole chart, beating out cases that occupy a similar toll infinite, like the Phanteks P400A, Cooler Master TD500 Mesh, and be quiet! Pure Base of operations 500DX.

GPU Torture

GPU temperatures were less affected by the brake of airflow coming through the bottom of the forepart panel. Boilerplate temperature was 49 degrees Celsius in a higher place ambient whether the pigsty was closed or not. Adding the extra bottom fan did assist, which may sound similar the logical result, merely nosotros've see instances where the GPU pulls air in through the rear of the case when left to its own devices, and performs worse when this airflow pattern is contradistinct. Here, the GPU dropped down to 45 degrees Celsius over ambience with the boosted cooling. The original Lancool II was, at very best, at 54 degrees over ambience with the best fan configuration nosotros arranged. In the original Lancool II, we did one exam with a stock fan moved to the elevation of the PSU shroud, with the result that both CPU and GPU temperatures got worse. Even though the same fan mounting locations exist in the original Lancool II, they're too restricted to be of much do good. In the Mesh, they do take enough ventilation to exist beneficial if users choose to install fans hither.

Moving to the comparative nautical chart, the baseline GPU temperature delta is over again far better than the original Lancool II, which averaged 55 degrees Celsius, but the stock Mesh'south GPU temperature doesn't completely top the chart the way the CPU temperature did. Instead, information technology's tied with several extremely respectable cases similar the Silverstone PM01, the P400A, and the H500M Mesh, with cases that accept directly GPU cooling like the HAF X and the SL600M retaining the top positions. Note that putting a fan on the PSU shroud pushes the L2M up to this same level of operation, as shown in the previous chart.

Firestrike

The Firestrike Extreme stress test places relatively trivial load on the CPU, meaning that hot exhaust from the CPU libation can't touch on GPU thermals as much as it can in the torture test. Average GPU temperature in this test was 47 degrees Celsius over ambience, a little libation than the baseline of 49 degrees over ambient. This is an extremely good result, on par with the cases that beat information technology in the torture test similar the HAF X and SL600M. Thermals have been great beyond the board for the Lancool ii Mesh, simply GPU thermals tin be even meliorate when the arrangement is partially loaded (or when an extra fan is added to the top of the shroud). The Lancool Ii Mesh is within error and variance of the SL600M, our highest performer.

Blender

Blender is next, placing load entirely on one component or the other. This helps to evidence another realistic workload that's less torturous. Rendering our monkey head scene on the CPU exclusively had the CPU boilerplate 35 degrees Celsius above ambience, which places the Lancool Ii Mesh at the acme of the chart for unaltered stock results, confirming the results of the torture test. It's within variance and mistake of the RV02 and H500P Mesh. The only better result nosotros have logged for Firestrike is a laissez passer in the RL06 with reduced fan RPM, and then Silverstone's old case is still hanging on to beginning identify in one category. Contemporary competitors to Lian Li'southward case are all warmer, although some of the better options are fairly close, similar the be quiet! 500DX at 36 Celsius and the P400A at 37 over ambient. The original Lancool 2 averaged 37C here as well, a better showing than in some of the more intense workloads.

Emphasizing GPU rendering instead pushed the GPU temperature to 21 degrees Celsius over ambient, tying the Phanteks P500A for the lowest temperature on the chart thus far. The original Lancool II averaged 26 degrees in this examination, better demonstrating the value of the Mesh.

Standardized Fans

Our side by side test is with standardized fans. If yous're new, we always note that this particular test has several methodological shortcomings, but we added it to the best of our abilities due to high user demand. If you don't understand this test'due south shortcomings, delight watch our methodology video on the topic that's linked in the description below.

The stock fans in the Lancool 2 OG differ from the stock fans in the Mesh, so this standardized fan exam provides the best example of how the forepart panel changes have improved airflow without that added variable. Swapping in the standardized set of Noctua fans improved temperatures even more over the already-impressive baseline results, with the CPU averaging 43 degrees Celsius over ambient. That'southward the all-time result on the nautical chart for CPU temperatures in this test, followed closely past the P400A and P500A. The original Lancool ii averaged 53 Celsius higher up ambient, a huge difference despite identical fans in an identical arrangement.

GPU temperatures were also slightly improved over baseline, down to 47 degrees over ambient. At that place's more competition in this category, and Lian Li's case is tied with the TD500 Mesh, but still beats the Phanteks cases. The OG Lancool Two averaged 57.4 degrees Celsius over ambience, approximately the aforementioned gap as with CPU temperatures. The Lancool II Mesh'southward front console is nigh as unrestrictive as it can be without being open air--information technology won't filter dust to the same degree another cases might, but the extra cooling is worth it.

Racket & Noise Normalized

Ane tradeoff for the Lancool II Mesh'southward excellent cooling, both in terms of the open forepart panel and the stock fans, is noise. At 100% fan speed, the case reached 43.1dBA, making it ane of the loudest cases we've tested recently behind the Phanteks P500A. Every bit we bespeak out every time we review a mesh-fronted example, though, fans can be run at low speeds in well-ventilated cases without tanking thermal functioning. Nosotros reduced fan speed to 65% for all case fans to hit the 36dBA noise threshold we employ for noise normalized testing, which translated to simply over 700RPM for the two 140mm intake fans and most 860RPM for the 120mm rear exhaust fan.

Noise-normalized, the CPU averaged 50 degrees Celsius higher up ambience in this test, certainly an increase over the 45 degree baseline boilerplate, but an adequate one given how much the racket level dropped. This ties the P500A for best noise-normalized CPU temperature thus far. Other mesh-fronted cases like the P400A and 500DX do virtually as well, but having multiple large 140mm fans in the front of the instance push the P500A and L2M above the remainder. Bigger is frequently better when it comes to noise-normalized thermals: at some signal nosotros'll retest Libation Main's mesh-fronted H500s and add them to this chart, and they should do well here.

The GPU averaged 51 degrees Celsius in a higher place ambient, almost as good as the 49 degree baseline upshot. The P500A has information technology beaten by one degree in this test, but both of them are ahead of every other stock-configured case on the nautical chart, with the exception of the Zondda-O with its side-mounted 120mm intake fan. The TD500 Mesh does comparatively better here than in some other tests at 52 degrees, tied with the P400A.

Conclusion

As far every bit we're concerned, the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh is a direct upgrade from the original model. The original differentiates itself with ARGB lighting, but the Mesh has far better thermal performance, retains all other features of the original, and adds a fan controller equally a bonus. The downside of changing so piddling from the original is that its flaws carry over too. These are detailed fully in our original Lancool II review, but the largest flaw was the airflow, which has at present been fixed. We would propose taping off the bottom of the forepart console, though--it volition get dusty. Adding a 120mm fan on elevation of the PSU shroud is a inexpensive way to improve the case's airflow even more, and it takes advantage of the mesh side panel Lian Li has added.

We've seen quite a few $100-ish mesh fronted cases lately, notably the exist repose! 500DX, Phanteks P400A Digital, and Cooler Master TD500 Mesh. The P500A and P300A are similar in spirit, but the P400A is the most price-appropriate comparing. All of these cases include a full, usable complement of stock fans, as opposed to earlier pioneers of the electric current mesh-fronted trend like the Meshify C and NR600. In terms of performance and airflow, the Lancool 2 Mesh is a worthy addition to this group.

Editorial, Testing: Patrick Lathan
Examination Atomic number 82, Host: Steve Burke
Video: Keegan Gallick, Andrew Coleman

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