Breaking
The Highlights
- Lian LI Lancool 215 challenges other cases to catch these hands
- Fractal Meshify looks dope as hell tho
- Honorable mentions: Lian Li O11 Mini, Corsair 4000D Airflow, Silverstone FARA R1
Extremely Dope. The Lian LI Lancool 215, as featured in our review. We don't use the word 'dope' lightly either.
Best Overall Case (Thermals & Design) : Lian LI Lancool 215
The first award is for Best Overall, which factors price, mechanical design, thermals, acoustics, and build quality into the consideration -- but especially price-to-performance. We’re giving this to the Lian Li 215, which we were neutral to positive about at launch, but which has proven itself worthy as the rest of the cases came out for the year. Lian Li positioned the Lancool 215 as its “P400A Killer.” We may not entirely agree with that--the P400A Digital is still a great case at $90--but the P400A won this award last year, got another mention in our mid-year case round-up this year, and now it goes to the 215. The prophecy has been fulfilled.
The 215 diverges from Lian Li’s traditionally high-end aluminum enclosures, and instead is closer to its recent Lancool II and Lancool II Mesh designs (as the name implies). Lian Li partnered with another company to produce the ultra-budget steel-and-glass case with the express goal of getting the best possible airflow at the lowest possible price. To achieve that, the 215 comes with two 200mm ARGB front fans, a 120mm rear exhaust fan, and a wide-open mesh front panel. The chassis isn’t really built for such large intake fans and to some extent they’re wasted, but they still do a good enough job to put the 215 near the top of our cooling charts on a regular basis, and performance was especially good in our noise-normalized thermal test. Big fans are quiet by nature and move a lot more air thanks to the larger hole, it just tends to be at lower pressure; since Lian Li’s mesh front isn’t too restrictive, the pressure wasn’t as much of an issue as you’d see in acrylic-fronted cases of the past, like the H500P.
Third is pretty respectable. Look at these graphs for data. A long caption with more information.
As a $70 budget-category case, we’d recommend the 215 primarily for less expensive builds that don’t use a lot of liquid cooling. The 200mm fans aren’t suitable to be paired with a radiator, and replacing them defeats the purpose of buying the case. We’d advise against a front-mounted radiator for this one, just because the 200mm fans won’t line-up well with standard radiator sizes. The front panel has no backing filter, which we like because it benefits thermal performance, but the interior of the case will need some attention and cleaning over time as a result. Even cases with filters need to be cleaned, so we don’t consider that much of a downside
As a $70 budget-category case, we’d recommend the 215 primarily for less expensive builds that don’t use a lot of liquid cooling.
Check out the review for more detail on this one because, like any case, it does have some down-sides. The 215 isn’t necessarily the highest-scoring case in every test we’ve done, so there are other winners for more specific categories, but it’s a great case and an easy choice for best overall. The combination of good cooling, good price, and competent design at the price point make it this year’s winner.
The Fractal Meshify. Look at that panel though, it's so cool.
Best Mechanical Design : Fractal Meshify 2
The next award is for Best Mechanical Design. We assign this one based on build quality, construction, moving parts, how those parts fit together, and the mechanics of the case. Fractal takes it for the Meshify 2 and, to some extent, the Meshify 2 XL that we haven’t formally reviewed yet. This case should be about $120 to $130.
Fractal’s continued policy of including a bare minimum of stock fans with its cases meant that the Meshify 2 didn’t make waves in thermal testing, but average temperatures were definitely in the acceptable range. More impressive were the various positive design elements carried over from the Define 7, as well as some new features unique to the Meshify 2, like a removable filter instead of the foam layer built into first-gen Meshify cases.
There are tons of fan, radiator, and drive mounting locations in the Meshify 2. The entire front of the case can be reconfigured to hold drives, for a total of 11 possible 3.5” drive mounts (with the purchase of some extra drive trays). Other points of interest are the return of the fully-removable fan mount at the top of the case, toolless fasteners to hold in all of the removable panels, a hinged front door, and molded spacers on the top filter that support the top panel. We hope to see more second-gen Meshify cases from Fractal, specifically a smaller, less expensive case in the style of the Meshify C.
Best Budget Case : SilverStone FARA R1 I like to save money in these inflationary times.
Best Budget Case : SilverStone FARA R1
The next one is for Best Budget Case. The Corsair 4000D nearly takes this category, but we typically try to stay as close to $50 as possible for the category. We also scale price up within reason if it nets a case that’ll last a lot longer and persist through multiple builds, so when we say “budget case,” our price range is $50 to $60. If yours is lower, that’s fine, but we have a base standard for quality that we like to maintain, and it tends to be here.
We’re declaring the Silverstone FARA R1 the winner of the budget category, with a caveat. Although it’s currently the cheapest case mentioned in this content at $61, it only includes one stock fan, which is a large part of why it’s so inexpensive. We’re letting it slide here because many users already have their own fans, or will choose to install a radiator that comes with fans. This is not the successor to the Silverstone RL06 that we wanted, but our standardized fan test revealed that the R1 can still hold its own with some real fans installed: it still has a mesh front, after all, and once you add fans, it’ll be a good performer. This would be a great option for someone with a few fans lying around. Users may want to strip the internal nylon filter out in order to slightly improve airflow, but that decision should be carefully weighed, since the filter is permanently bonded to the front panel.
There are tons of fan, radiator, and drive mounting locations in the Meshify 2. The entire front of the case can be reconfigured to hold drives, for a total of 11 possible 3.5” drive mounts (with the purchase of some extra drive trays). Other points of interest are the return of the fully-removable fan mount at the top of the case, toolless fasteners to hold in all of the removable panels, a hinged front door, and molded spacers on the top filter that support the top panel. We hope to see more second-gen Meshify cases from Fractal, specifically a smaller, less expensive case in the style of the Meshify C.
In Conclusion
That’s it for this one. Check back, especially on our YouTube channel, for additional guides.
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