Impressive: Lian Li Lancool 216 Case Review, Thermals, Cable Management, & Noise

Space-efficient. The Lian Li Lancool 216 is a more standard mid-tower ATX size.

Lian Li Lancool 216 Case Specs

The Build

From the outside, the 216 looks like a smaller and slightly more basic version of the Lancool III, but the designs are practically indistinguishable at a glance. There's only one glass side panel on the 216, and the "handles" on either side of the front panel are just decorative, but "indistinguishable" is a strong start for a case that costs two-thirds of its non-RGB Lancool III counterpart. We specifically requested the least expensive Lancool 216 for review, priced at $100, but there are also RGB Black ($110) and RGB White ($115) models.

The most obvious difference is the front intake. The 215 had two 200mm intake fans, an extremely uncommon feature in the budget category and a defining feature of the case. Despite being a sequel (in name) to the 215, the 216 doesn't have 200mm fans. It does have two very strange "160mm" fans, though. On these fans, the blades and rear section of the frame are 160mm wide as set out in the spec sheet, but the front of the frame is 170mm. This means that the two intake fans sit flush with each other and block any potential airflow leaks around the edges. As far as we know, these fans were made specifically for the 216, which must be a significant investment for a relatively inexpensive case.

At the rear of the case, Lian Li has included an optional 120mm fan bracket that can be attached over the rear expansion slots to pull GPU exhaust. No 120mm fans are included with the case, so you need to supply your own–this might also be the reason Lian Li was able to get away with selling a bracket wide enough to stuff a finger through. We'll test it with our usual case bench GPU in the thermal section, but the bracket should theoretically work best with big GPUs that push exhaust out of the rear of the case, like 4090 FEs. The bracket covers all but one slot's worth of GPU I/O, and other add-in cards like NICs or capture cards are inaccessible with the bracket installed, but none of that matters as much as it would have ten years ago. The entire expansion slot section of the case can be rotated for vertical GPU mounting, and the rear fan bracket can be rotated with it.

"Air Cooling Mode" vs. "Water Cooling Mode"

The 216 can be set up in either "Air Cooling Mode" or "Water Cooling Mode." The difference between these is 2cm in the motherboard's vertical positioning. Switching to air cooling mode requires rotating the rear I/O cutout and moving each motherboard standoff, but that only takes a minute. Water cooling mode is the configuration that the case ships in, with the board shifted downwards for extra clearance under the primary radiator mount at the top of the case. Air cooling mode shifts the board upwards, allowing 140mm fans to be mounted to the top of the PSU shroud and moving the primary GPU slot out of the way of the optional rear fan bracket, as well as giving extra room for vertical GPU mounting. Air cooling mode does eliminate the top expansion slot, which limits compatibility with boards that have their primary PCIe slot in that location. If your motherboard's GPU slot lines up with the center row of screw holes, air cooling mode won't work. Shifting the board upwards also puts the cooler backplate right at the edge of the motherboard cutout, potentially making larger backplates harder to work with. 

This is a cool feature and both configurations have advantages, but it's hard not to think that if the 216 was at least two centimeters taller (like the Lancool III) and had eight expansion slots (like the Lancool III), there wouldn't need to be two separate "modes."

Cable Management, I/O, & Organization

Back to the rest of the case.

The top panel on our review sample sagged down by about half a centimeter at its worst point at the back. The mesh reduces its structural integrity, but this wasn't a problem on the Lancool III as the panel was attached with one thumbscrew in the center rather than two at the corners. This doesn't cause any harm, but it is visible and it’s not intentional.

Lian Li includes a warning in the manual not to remove the side panel mesh without removing the glass panel first, as it rests on top of the mesh. We gave it a try, and it's pretty hard to do incorrectly–you'd have to be really determined to damage the case.

Internally, the motherboard tray sits flush with the cable grommet bar, allowing wider-than-ATX motherboards to overhang (but there aren’t additional standoffs for them). The bar can be flipped to move the grommets towards the front of the case for a maximum motherboard width of 280mm, although wider boards could be installed by overlapping the grommets. 

Cable management is good, although that's been a rule rather than an exception over the past couple years of our case reviews. The hard drive cage can be shifted forward (without removing any screws) for extra room, and one or both of the 3.5" mounts can be removed entirely. Velcro straps surround the motherboard tray and Lian Li has also included some rigid plastic clips that are even easier to work with. Lian Li suggests using the two straps above the PSU to hold cable slack rather than stuffing all of it under the PSU shroud–that should work well, but only if that area isn't being used for SATA cables. The steel side panel isn't held in place with any screws, so tidy cable management is important, but we had no problems keeping it fastened.

Front I/O is the usual; on one hand Lian Li has provided two Type-A USB ports and a Type-C, but on the other it's sticking with a combined audio jack. The entire I/O module can be shifted to a second location on the side of the front panel. On the RGB SKUs, this secondary location can also be used to install a control module with buttons for changing lighting patterns on the fan hubs and rims separately, as well as two additional Type-A ports.

Thermals & Noise

Before we get to test results, we should go over some thermally-relevant aspects of the 216. First off, this is another case (like the Lancool 215 or Fractal Torrent) with front fans that aren't suited to radiators, but are also integral to the case. If you put a radiator in the 216, we'd recommend keeping the stock fans and putting the radiator on the removable top mount. It theoretically fits up to 360mm radiators, but it's a tight fit even with a CLC. If a shorter radiator is used, Lian Li has included a "seal plate" to block off the unused space and prevent air from recirculating through the cooler. There are also two small metal plates screwed onto the sides of the mount, and it's our understanding that these are to make it more convenient to route cables from top-mounted fans.

Radiators are technically also supported on the top of the PSU shroud (up to 240mm), especially with the motherboard shifted to its upper position. This mount shouldn't be used for normal pump-in-block CLCs because the pump may run dry, and even in an open loop it would limit access to the lower edge of the motherboard. Still, having the option is a plus, and the mount does have moderate access to airflow through the ventilated side of the shroud. Without the added height of a radiator, up to 140mm fans can be installed (in air cooling mode).

For most of our tests, we kept the case in its Water Cooling mode. It's the way the case ships and it's also the more widely compatible option, and therefore it's fair to treat it as the performance baseline. We also ran two extra tests: one in Air Cooling mode, and one in Air Cooling mode with an additional 120mm fan attached to the rear expansion slot bracket. 

CPU Torture Testing

We’ll start off with our usual full system torture test and just some Lancool cases first. The CPU averaged 40 degrees Celsius above ambient in the 216, which dropped down very slightly to 39 with the removal of the front panel. This tells us that the panel isn’t inhibiting much airflow, as its impedance only created a 1-degree swing. Switching to air cooling mode by pushing the motherboard up 2cm hurt performance slightly, with a new average of 42 degrees. That may seem counterintuitive, but "Air Cooling Mode" is about providing more fan mounting locations–it should barely change the airflow pattern if no fans are added. With the case still in air cooling mode, adding the 120mm Noctua fan from our standardized set to the optional rear bracket didn't change that average. The fan is entirely focused on pulling GPU exhaust, so it makes sense that it wouldn't strongly affect CPU temperatures. The Lancool 215 predecessor scored a respectable 45 degrees, but the 216 is in another class entirely. This is a big improvement by Lian Li.

Here’s the comparative chart. The Lancool 216 set a new record on this chart, effectively tied with the all-time great Fractal Torrent. Phanteks' $100 G360A is the most relevant competitor on the market, given its identical $100 MSRP and Lian Li's past strategy of targeting Phanteks' P400A with the 215–we'll cover the G360A in more detail in the future. Fractal's slightly more expensive Torrent Compact is similar in spirit and in performance, averaging 41 degrees in this test.

GPU Torture Testing

During the same baseline torture test, the GPU averaged 55 degrees Celsius above ambient. Removing the front panel still had little effect, lowering the average to 54 degrees but only on the edge of our margin for error. Lian Li used an extremely open mesh for the front panel with slightly denser hole spacing than the top, and it provides little resistance to airflow. Switching to air cooling mode helped temperatures slightly, lowering the average to 52 degrees thanks to the change in position relative to the case fans. Adding the rear fan on top of that didn't significantly change the average. The front intake fans force a strong positive pressure layout, so there isn't any rear intake for the rear fan to cut off, but it doesn't help either. With fins oriented top-to-bottom, which is still a large percentage of video cards, we don’t see the benefit we might see on an FE card with specific rear exhaust. In fact, in our Schlieren imaging of the 4090, you can see how it kicks a ton of air straight out the back of the I/O plate. That’s where we’d expect to see this fan matter more, but here, it serves no purpose. 

The Torrent Compact and Lancool 215 averaged within one degree of each other, at 51 and 52 degrees respectively. The 216 still has a respectable place on the chart, but it's not the complete chart-topper that CPU thermals were. Using the 52 degree air cooling mode average instead, the 216 ties the 215. Balancing that with the slightly worse CPU thermals, it does seem like air cooling mode is the ideal configuration for air cooled systems. Shocking.

Firestrike & Gaming Thermals

Average GPU temperature during the Firestrike Extreme stress test was 54 degrees, but within margin of error of the original torture test result. We use the results of this test as an indicator as to whether or not GPU exhaust affects CPU thermals: in this case, it doesn't. The 160mm intake fans move a ton of air, much like the Torrent, and there's not much chance for hot air to linger.

In the same test, the 215 averaged 51 degrees and the Torrent Compact averaged 50, for a near-exact repeat of the GPU torture section results. With the 216 reconfigured to air cooling mode, it would tie the other two cases.

Blender Thermals (CPU/GPU Isolated Loads)

The first of our two Blender test passes runs on the CPU. Its average temperature was 33 degrees above ambient, maintaining the 216's position as one of the best CPU thermal performers. The Torrent Compact and Lancool 215 were both warmer at 34 and 38 degrees respectively, with only the original Compact again effectively tied with the 216.

The second blender test renders on the GPU, which averaged 24 degrees above ambient. Lower average temperatures in this test means smaller deltas between cases, so the Torrent Compact ties the 216 while the 215 is barely ahead at 23 degrees average.

Standardized Fans

For the standardized fan test we left the motherboard in its stock Water Cooling mode position, but swapped the two 160mm intakes for our standard Noctua 140s and the 140mm exhaust fan for the standard Noctua 120. Lian Li's stock fans must be mounted on the outside of the fan rails, but we chose to mount the 140s on the inside of the rails in order to give them better access to the full surface area of the front panel. Remember that this test is a viewer request; in this instance, it’ll likely be worse than the stock fans since we’re decreasing the size.

Average CPU temperature climbed to 42 degrees, a rare instance where the standardized fans perform worse than the stock fans, albeit only slightly. That keeps the 216 at the top of the chart, next to other cases with extremely open front panel designs like the H5 Flow and Pop Air RGB–the difference is that the 216 has the stock fans to take advantage of that panel. So does the Torrent Compact, which averaged 41 degrees here.

Average GPU temperature also rose up to 57 degrees, pushing the 216's performance from middling down to poor in this test. The Torrent Compact managed a 52 degree average, while the 216 is closer in performance to ultra-budget cases like the P360A and Air 1000 Lite. The lesson here is to keep the Lancool 216's stock fans installed: you paid for them, anyway.

Noise & Noise-Normalized Thermals

The 160mm stock intake fans are listed as 1600RPM, which is fast for their size, and fast means loud. We do all of our stock testing at 100% fan speed, and at max speed we measured the Lancool 216's noise level to be 49.2dBA. That's one of the loudest readings we've ever seen, fittingly right behind the maxed-out Torrent's 50.8dBA reading. In order to reduce the noise level to the 36dBA threshold that we use for noise-normalized testing, where we set all cases to the same noise level, we had to reduce fan speeds to 37% for an actual speed of 850RPM (for the front fans). 

There's clearly a point of diminishing returns with the 216's fan speeds, as that massive reduction resulted in a barely-worse average of 43 degrees for the CPU temperature. That's our best result so far, beating the Torrent Compact's 44-degree average and the 215's 47-degree average, despite both cases being exceptionally strong performers in this category.

Lian Li Test Gallery

Lian Li Test Gallery

Lian Li Test Gallery

Lian Li Test Gallery

Lian Li Test Gallery

Lian Li Test Gallery

Lian Li Test Gallery

Lian Li Test Gallery

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