Holy cow you tested everything I could think of to test in a PC case configuration. Amazing work and much respect for putting in all those hours to deliver us such detailed info. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
@@ChristopherFlanniganHi Chris, do you think the Lancool 216 would see similar temp results with this set up? If not, what would you recommend? Currently doing Top 360 exhaust, 2x160 Front stock, 140 exhaust rear, 2x140 gpu intake (with connecting uni fans this could be ran as 3x120) Cheers mate.
Well, by now I've tuned into a number of your videos, mostly those on computer construction, and I can honestly say you are one of the best build instructors on CZcams. Just excellent! I love the way you slowly yet succinctly and completely walk the builder through the computer's construction, including adding the operating system and all the post-build things you need to do to bring the project to fruition. Especially nice is how curious you are in the placement of all the case cooling hardware and how they affect temperature and noise level. Who does as thorough a job as you with all the different build variables? No one! It is such a pleasure to sit down with a huge cup of coffee, kick back and watch one of your videos. No matter the topic or how long or short it is it's always well worth my time. Yes, I've learned a ton from you. Please continue on making them because those of us who are into building computers are better for all that you do. Thanks!
I ran some basic smoke testing on my Lancool III using a CPU air cooler with the stock fan configuration. I observed that the CPU cooler under load would draw air down through the top vents, and the front fans needed to run at >70% before they compensated. So it makes sense that we see the CPU temps go up when top exhaust fans are installed, as this would be choking off air supply to the CPU cooler. Great video. Very informative!
Another reason why top exhaust is terrible with aircoolers is because the top fans (especially the frontmost one) will redirect air out of the case before it even reached the CPU cooler. So the air goes in through the front mesh, and then directly out through the top. The CPU cooler will struggle to pull enough air since it has to compete against the exhaust.
The sheer effort alone in trying out almost every conceivable arrangement of the various components to determine how to obtain the optimum temperature result is laudable. Just for that alone I've subscribed and given you a thumbs up.
Yes mounting your CPU AiO at the front will make your CPU a bit cooler and yes it doesn't really affect the GPU since it already has a massive cooler on it and due to it's big power draw colder air around won't matter that much however a front mounted AiO is gonna absolutely tank your RAM temps and especially your motherboard VRM temps. I always advise to mount your AiO as top exhausts as those 2-3 degrees on just the CPU won't matter at all. It's just not worth it to tank your whole system for it. Also just a note if you are doing air cooling don't mount top exhaust fans in front of your CPU tower cooler as you will suffocate the cooler by taking away the fresh air coming in from the front. ( for 3 front intake fans 1 rear exhaust and 1 top exhaust in the back is more than enough when you are air cooling)
Im thinking on something like: AIO 3x SL-Infinity 120mm top exhaust, Front 3x SL-Infinity 120mm Intake , Botton 3x SL-Infinity 120mm Intake and Rear SL-Infinity Exhaust. Looks good overall ? I will still have the 3 stock AIO and 3 stock case spare. ( I bought 10x SL Infinity 120mm )
@@DanCaparroz i have the exact same setup now in my lian li dynamic xl case right now :) - though the front 3 intake in my case is more like side 3 intake. Go for it.
@@kerotomas1 Just taking advantage of what the case allows me, im putting the 140mm for the front ans I wont get the Infinity ones since The mesh covers, there is no need for the extra spending. And im evaluating the same for the back. Thanks for the headsup.
Hey man, I really appreciate you sharing that. Say, is this AiO configuration for Lancool III alright? Anything to improve here? 3x140 Front Intake (Stock) 3x140 Top AiO Exhaust (Other) 1x140 Back Exhaust (Stock) 3x120 Bottom Intake (Other)
@@Shoutenkou That's pretty much the best setup you can do with that case in my opinion. :) I wouldn't say the bottom fans are absolutely necessary but it will create positive air pressure to keep most of the dust out of the case. Always good to have more fans as intake because of it.
Some excellent testing, though I do wish we could've seen how an air-cooled configuration performed with just one fan exhausting out the top (in the rearmost slot). In the 3X top fan config, you're exhausting most of the fresh intake before it can reach the CPU, increasing the proportion of GPU exhaust being sucked in by the CPU cooler. I've seen 1X top-fan configs perform well with air coolers though since it adds some extra exhaust without disrupting the intake.
Yeah, GN actually tested exactly that. 1 top mounted as the only exhaust often performed similarly to the back exhaust. For their Lancool 2 Mesh review they had 2 140s at the front, 1 120 on the rearmost PSU Shroud mounting point, and 1 rear exhaust. This got them their chart topping results. They stressed what you did: Do not put exhaust in the middle or front top slots as fresh air is being exhausted before it can be pulled through the case.
It might help, but I normally say I refuse to test one fan solutions where there is space for three due to the aesthetics, but can say that here as I tested on fan at the bottom. I though about it and ruled it out on looks. Where there is two fan slots at top I have had the front one intake and rear exhaust before (think it was my 500dx if you want to take a look).
@@ChristopherFlannigan Well, I've got a beautiful set of beige and brown fans I'll probably be replacing the front fans with anyway, so maybe my sense of aesthetics are a bit different from everyone else's :p
@Konga From personal experience I can say that adding a top rear exhaust helps quite a bit when using a tower cooler. The setup chosen by Christopher unfortunately does not make any sense, as you pointed out. A top front fan should definitely be run as an intake but probably won't make much difference. I'm also sceptical about Christopher's result for the bottom intake fans. Maybe he had them running at the wrong speed. I manually-tweaked the fan profiles for my fans and having a bottom intake fan definitely had a positive impact for the GPU.
@@ChristopherFlannigan With my BeQuiet 802 case I have 3x140mm front intake and 3x140mm fans at the top for exhaust, but I just unplug the first fan so that it looks aesthetic, but not doing anything. I don't have RGB fans so you don't notice it's not in use. At the rear I have a 140mm fan as exhaust too and it seems to give me the best results with three in and three out total. My cpu air cooler is the Noctua U12A Chromax. I tested different fan configs, but this ended up being the best for my setup.
Very, very good job. I was really courious how unifans will work with this case and You just happen to answer all my questions with this video. Thank You so much
Just goes to show that simpler airflow paths are more efficient. Adding in turbulence with air going all over the place is unlikely to help cooling or noise. The key is balance. Some of these setups might actually work better with certain fans set at very low speeds so that airflow paths don't interact as much.
@@Cleverconveyence the fans in the basement of the case. If they are blowing too hard they are just going to interfere with the air flow front to back.
Just so everyone know there is build in this case that can be achived and it is not in the review. Great job first of all Chris. Build is following: 1. Rad on the roof with 6 SL 120 Unifans blowing outside the case. There is enough offset to clear the memory. 2. You can add one 120/140 in the back of the case. 3. 3-120 on the floor 4. This is where it gets very interesting. You can leave 3-140 that came with the case and you can add 3 more 120 without any modifications. Only thing you have to do is take 3 140 out and install 3-120 fans first. After that put back 3-140 fans. Total of 6 fans in the front- that is a lot of air! Lancool 3 can have 16 fans all together. Thermals are great
have you tested a configuration with six fans on the front? my lancool has a freezer 420 on top which does not fit on the front, and I found your idea useful for me
@@DanCaparroz right now I am using loop for my ddr5 8000 memory but I still have 3 140 that came in with case. Other 3 are just on the other side of bracket installed. Nothing really to it. 6 fans still in front. 3 120 lian li and 3 that came with the case.
hey christopher - just wanted to say thanks. your vids are the perfect balance of information... not too far into the weeds on irrelevant info that most dont care about... but going over things with a fine tooth comb with details that most reviewers and builders leave out - but some of us desperately want to know before plunking down some money on it. kudos!
I have this case, building it tomorrow. I think I'll mount the 420mm radiator to the front, based on what you've shared here (I was going to top-mount it). It should be easier to fit the 420mm rad in the front as well (though i will have to see). And then put 3 fans top & bottom each. IF the 420mm rad won't fit in front, i'll mount it across the top. Looks like it can fit (barely) if I move the front fans forward by flipping their bracket around, and remove the rear fan. I want the cpu as cool as possible though, it's a 7900X. This video has been extremely useful! Thank you for making it!
@@andreio6063 I ended up mounting it to the top. I kinda went back & forth on placement. Ultimately I decided I wanted the rad horizontal and above the CPU, so that it would remain completely functional even at say 50% fluid loss over time (fluid loss would just make the radiator fill more shallow, not introduce bubbles to the flow). 420mm rad (iCUE capelix) was a TIGHT fit. There's 2 slots to mount the front fan bracket, 2 ways to turn it, and 2 sides to put the fans on it (8 possible configurations in total). And only 2 of those worked with a top mount 420mm radiator, with only 1 of those allowing the front cover to fit back on. Basically out of 8 possible distances in front, you want the fans at the 7th most forward position. This was: with the fan frame turned to be closer to the front, and the fans mounted to the front of that, but fan frame set into the slots which are a bit further back (the upper slots) so the front cover could go back on. After that, I still had a problem in that the 420 rad would not allow the latching lever to move freely (to get the fan mount snapped in place). ...the top screw holes for the rad are a combination of specific holes, and elongated slots. I pulled the screws out of the holes, and loosened them slightly in the elongated slots, so that I could shift the radiator reward a little bit, and get that front latch clicked shut on the fan bracket. Then slid the rad back into place, to line up the round screw holes. Lastly, my motherboard has a chunky IO port area, covered by a largely decorative block with LED lighting inside. It's the "Asus Prime x670e Pro Wifi" if you want to see what i mean. The chunky heat sink above the cpu socket was very tight against the 140mm fans when screwing them in. But the blocky area at the top rear of the IO completely blocked the corner of the rearmost radiator fan. At this point I was pretty deep into an overly complicated assembly process hehe. So I cut off the rear corner of the fan housing (turning it into a 3-screw fan). Then it fit fine. This is essentially invisible, unless you stick your head inside the case, and are told where to look. Also, I can't tell any vibration problems with 3 screws, seems fine. I suspect some motherboards would not encounter this issue. It's a decorative aspect of the mobo I got. Also, I omitted the rear case fan for space. 420mm rad fits in this case but only "barely", and only with a lot of negotiation. After all that ...the build was fairly straightforward. Set the lian li fans to a static color. Set the icue 420 rad fans to a very closely matching color. voila, looks great. And the whole font and top of the case inside are basically wall-to-wall fans. Kinda screams performance, like a car with a hood scoop hehe. Would I do it again? Yes. But getting a 420mm rad in there is NOT a 30 minute build. And may require improvising. Ram clearance is actually better than I thought it would be. I got plain stick ram (ddr5 6000) and there's actually some room to spare. Particularly exotic heat sinks on ram could be an issue though. I will say that I do NOT like the clip-system for attaching the heat sink to the cpu on AMD. It's waaaay too easy to have it move around on you and mess up your paste. I would strongly recommend using the "spread all over the cpu evenly" method for paste, cuz it's impossible to get both clips, with water hoses pushing/pulling on the pump, without it moving some. That would be true regardless of rad size, it's not related to the fact I got a big rad. I had used a dot, but the way it moved while getting it clipped on, i knew i had to pull it off and re-apply (second time with fully spread paste). 7900X runs HOT. First time in bios I thought I had done something wrong. But I figured out that the cpu is just constantly trying to overclock itself (by design), even when not under load. PBO undervolt helped a lot. Mine seems completely stable at PBO -20 on all cores, zero difference in performance, and this shaved off 12C. I also set max cpu temp to 85C, because AMD can say 95C is fine all day, but they also sell cpu's, and I want mine to last. With the PBO tune, his had only a very minor impact on performance (like a 100 mhz difference). Also 95C is very close to boiling & will fry your paste very fast (dry it out), 85 should allow the paste to last a lot longer. I had planned to get a "not quite bleeding edge" graphics card (XTX or 4080). But the price/performance ratio is not great on those this generation. Bizarrely the flagship beast 4090 does better on price/performance. So I got that. It's more money, but also probably will last me an extra generation. It is quite warm, but I detuned it "slightly", and added three 120mm fans I had laying around over the power supply area. I would like to replace them with iCUE fans, as there are 3 open ports on the icue controller still. And I think that would match the top fans well. Then I had to fight the bios to get 4x16 GB to run at full 6000 speed. hehe. But I eventually sorted that out. There's no reason 4x single bank dimms wouldn't. 2x32 are each dual bank which is functionally the same, 4x32 can't go full speed cuz that's too many banks, but 4x16 _should_ work fine. But computers are full of dark witchcraft. I managed to appease the evil spirits though. Definitely the most challenging build I've ever done, by far. But also gratifying to complete. Lancool III is an amazing case though. I _made_ the build hard with numerous other decisions. The case is great. it's exactly as thick as my old corsair 750D (full tower), but a couple inches less tall and wide. A half centimeter more height & width would make 420 radiators easier, but lancool III is pretty beefy for a mid tower already. Computer go BRRRR No money left over for a 4k panel... maybe when the next black friday rolls around. I think the 4090 is completely bored running a 1440p/120hz monitor. Not even a hint of stutter, no matter the setting or how badly optimized the game. Even cyberpunk at max ray tracing just sits steady at 120hz. And visual work is much faster.
This is the most helpful video on fan configurations I've seen. Thank you! I was really hung up on bottom fans but now I see I don't really need them (no water cooling in my case).
I highly recommend doing something about noise first (52+ db is very loud, IMO) before doing other tests and it drowns any chance of positive changes from things like fans under the GPU. My current config is Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 and my fans are almost inaudible, all 10 of them. The loudest I can get it is around 1db extra in 3d mark stress test (slight bit of extra fan noise). I don't do AIDA64 so I can't comment on that. Personally, I'd prefer cinebench or 3d mark stress test over AIDA64, as latter is an unrealistic scenario that overloads CPU fans and results in said fans drowning the system noise completely. Simply speaking, almost all results start at around 50db noise, which isn't very useful. Just my personal opinion. Thanks for testing all of these configurations! Loads of very useful info!
Watched this as wells as your build video in this case and all the information was fantastic. I am beginning my first PC build utilizing the Lian Li Lancool III this week, so both videos are a great reference. Thank you for all of your testing and advices.
Thanks dude, u saved me a lot of money. I was considering different case, but knowing that just adding bottom fans for gpu cooling makes small to none difference, is a great piece of information. Great thorough testing!
good details of your different configurations thank you. after your last review and build in the lan cool 2 I built in that case I'm not building another yet but when I do i'll use your references again
I'm thinking about going with the stock configuration + AIO at the top to make it look the best. Despite the worse temps from putting the AIO at the top, I think it will still be better than air cooling the CPU? Many thanks for the in-depth video and the one teaching how to build on it. Wish I had watched it before forcefully trying to remove then replace the front panel, which made me break one of the pins and now I'm one pin away from making the front panel impossible to fully close.
Fantastic work sir, I saw one of your other videos with this case and I was very impressed. Thank you for being on point and considering multiple angles that most reviewers never speak to.
lol, thanks i had the exact same case even with the exact ak620 with only 3 fans and met the perfect video for fan configuration. the only regret with this case is it breaks your back and it’s heavy asf
It looks like the front AIO + rear exhaust + 3x 140 top exhaust is one of the better setups and one that I would prefer, but I'm worried this would cause a negative pressure system and suck in dust constantly. What would be the best solution to that? Is adding the 1 bottom intake really doing anything since its inside the case? Or would switching the front most top fan to be an intake be ok?
While I appreciate the effort, and I know this is a bit of a necro criticism, I would have preferred to see some maxed out hardware. Clearly the cooler the build in generally the smaller the delta between configurations. An overclocked 4090 and overclocked 13900k would have been nice to see.
I think the 3 top exhaust fans might be sucking in the new cool air from the front intake fans before the cool air got the chance to circulate in the system, and this is exacerbated by the negative air pressure by having more exhaust than intake fans. That's why this setup ended up being hotter than the stock despite having more fans.
Thank you so much for your content... I bought this case and I Will put the AIO with push / pull configuration In front (6x120) + 3x140 original Fan CaseTop ( Exhaust) + 3x120 bottom (intake) + 1x140 Rear (Exhaust) . Total : 13 Fans all of them are the ST-.120 and the original 140 fans included In the case. All for a I7-13700k & RTX 3080Ti
@@DanCaparrozI have the Push/Pull with 6x120 ST-120 fans, but the last week , I had to change the position from "Front_6x120 Push/Pull " to "Top_6x120 Push/Pull" , because the pump water (Lian Li galahad 360 AIO) started to make bubble sound inside, so is recommended keep the AIO radiator & air bubble in top, BUT with this new configuration, actually the temperatures increased (with the vertical GPU mount too, as is showed in the video.)
Excellent Video. The air-cooled build is very attractive to me in terms of budget and ease of build. The fact that the temperatures are only slightly warmer compared to the "AIO as top exhaust" configuration really seals the deal for me. I am hoping to overclock, however, so I may end up going with the AIO as front intake if I find myself seriously limited by temperatures under load, but as I will be using the computer mostly for gaming, I'm optimistic. Thanks again for such an informative video.
I'm currently awaiting an RMA for my Galahad 360. Knowing that I could sell that for 100 bucks and get this and a good air cooler and save so much money kind of pushes me in that direction.
wow , thank you very much for a great explanation it saved me alot of research and effort for the PC i am building the only variation or issue i might have is i will be adding 2 3.5 hdd and no fans on top of that but i assume that will not be a problem . again thanks for a great video
Do you believe a 420mm AIO on top with 3 exhaust fans that takes advantage all the available top space could do the same as the 360mm front case scenario that was the best at your tests? Btw this is the best video on CZcams considering real testing with a lot of scenarios. Good job, subscribed for this only.
Title of Video: "Lian Li Lancool III - BEST Fan Configuration" 0:00 "Hello in this video I'm going to be answering the question, 'what is the best cooling configuration for Lian Li's brand new Lancool III." 15:58 "So if you were hoping at the end of the thermal testing I was going to tell you 'what is the best way to build in the Lancool III', you're going to be disappointed." Clickbait at it's finest.
I wouldn't have thought of a push/pull at the front, let alone putting the CPU AIO on the front, but that worked better than I expected it to and is aesthetically pleasing. I am curious if two fans on the bottom would have made any noticeable difference. I understood removing the front-most fan, it's not blowing air directly on anything, the air is just getting pushed by the front fans towards the motherboard. But the rear-most fan, maybe that could have helped in some way. At the very least it wouldn't have been as much of an eyesore as the middle-only fan.
Just out of curiosity, have you tried testing top fans as _intake_ when air cooling, rather than exhaust? I have been finding, in these airflow-oriented cases, filling the top full of fans set to intake **when aircooling** actually provides better results for temperature on both CPU and GPU and noise. I suspect it's creating a lot of positive pressure pushing heat out. This does not necessarily hold true for AIO cooling as I have found it is better as exhaust when installed on top, especially for GPU temps and noise.
I really loved the thoroughness of this test, but I am left with a lot of questions about how adding fans increases temperature? Is it a question of balancing intake and exhaust, or the direction/ turbulence of flow? If you varied the speeds of intake and exhaust fans, would it be possible to change this result?
I wonder if I should flip my front fan bracket on my Lancool 3? I installed SL Infinity 140 mm fans on the front and they make an annoying oscilation noise.
Right now I have a 13900K with stock fans and an AIO 360 at the top and get 97-100C on 10 minute Cinebench 2024. You think if I just switch the AIO to the top and the 140s to the top I will get better thermals? That is what I got from the video.
How can i control the front rgb with the rgb controller? So if i want to connect it with rgb software. Its not showing up the 3 front rgb fan. Pls help
I know the video is one year old, sorry I'm late. But I'm thinking about buying a 3 fan bundle , to replace the none RGB one and 2 in the bottom. Doing this with a 240 aio on the top and the 3 stock fans up front.
My brother pointed me to this video and I liked how you break down the different setups. I then found the Mesh II reveiw you did a year or so back and am sad I didn't find it sooner as I have that case and wish I had found that video sooner. I basically came to the same results you did but I only had the 240 rad to play around with. I found that the bottom fans help but not enough for my build to bother as I too like having my card mounted in the vertical position and placing the veritcal mount in the raised position looks terrible to me. Yes it runs a degree or two hotter but after watching your Lancoool III review I wonder if I can offset that with a push/pull setup on my rad.
For air cooling with the stock fans, does it make any difference to have the fans in front mounted on the inward side of the front bracket (about 1" closer to components) vs. the outward side of the bracket (as they come stock)?
It's really fascinating how these tests prove that there can be too much of a good thing. It's a shame that the most aesthetic build is actually not super great in terms of thermals. You would think more on the bottom would be good. Why do you suppose this is?
Is it possible to fit a 420mm radiator at the front of the case, not just 3x140mm fans? Or does the extra size and cabling of the radiator make it impossible to fit at the front?
Great video! Exactly the information I was after. One question, when installed in the front could the radiator be flipped so the pipes are at the bottom?
I've been trying to find out if, if the III actually has better airflow than the II, if you'd actually gain -1 degree or two. Because I have a II (thanks to your old video) an im wondering should I do a complete rebuild or just add new components into my Cool ii. cheers
I wonder if in the configuration with the fans mounted to the top and bottom, if that would have more of an impact with a vertically mounted blower style gpu, since it would be exhausting its hot air directly out of the case, if the bottom mounted fans would be able to allow it to pull in cooler air, as well as not blowing warmer air from the gpu across the cpu, ram, etc. (though that would probably be a moot point, since those aren't manufactured anymore).
Love to watch your setup on the Lancool III. I've just upgraded my gig to i9-13900K and 3090Ti, but my old case bequiet Dark Base Pro 900 and H150i PRO seem not good for the temp and airflow. I'm considering between the Lancool 3 and Corsair 5000D Airflow. Which one do you prefer for the airflow and temp?
The >10C difference between air and AIO is huge, but I don't find what's the full wattage of the CPU, I suspect it's near 200W so the aircooler gets overwhelmed; with a less power hungry chip (say an AMD one lol) I think the difference wil be
this video answered so many questions I had on my mind after I had decided to build my new rig on the Lancool III. Excellent content, Thanks a lot for all your work! a much deserved like and Sub!
Funny, I got cooler temps in an air cooled setup by adding 3 Noctua A12x25s above the PSU shroud. I'm running 3 Noctua A14s in the front and 1 in the back. DH-15 for the CPU cooler and no top fans. I was considering more fans on the top but I don't think it is worth it as my temps are fine and I don't want to mess with the positive pressure.
I can't do the push/pull configuration using the corsair ML 120 RGB fans in the front panel of this case because they won't fit, what did you do to get the push/pull to work?
When u did the test with the fans that come pre-installed, did you have them plugged into the sata cable for power or pluged into one of the chassie fan headers on the motherboard
You know I like the review but how can you really judge the airflow when most people have an AIO that allows more air flow. I wish you would have tested both!
Holy cow you tested everything I could think of to test in a PC case configuration. Amazing work and much respect for putting in all those hours to deliver us such detailed info. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
My pleasure!
I know right? He covers evey possible user case out there. This is a fantastic breakdown.
@@ChristopherFlanniganHi Chris, do you think the Lancool 216 would see similar temp results with this set up? If not, what would you recommend? Currently doing Top 360 exhaust, 2x160 Front stock, 140 exhaust rear, 2x140 gpu intake (with connecting uni fans this could be ran as 3x120) Cheers mate.
Well, by now I've tuned into a number of your videos, mostly those on computer construction, and I can honestly say you are one of the best build instructors on CZcams. Just excellent! I love the way you slowly yet succinctly and completely walk the builder through the computer's construction, including adding the operating system and all the post-build things you need to do to bring the project to fruition. Especially nice is how curious you are in the placement of all the case cooling hardware and how they affect temperature and noise level. Who does as thorough a job as you with all the different build variables? No one! It is such a pleasure to sit down with a huge cup of coffee, kick back and watch one of your videos. No matter the topic or how long or short it is it's always well worth my time. Yes, I've learned a ton from you. Please continue on making them because those of us who are into building computers are better for all that you do. Thanks!
I ran some basic smoke testing on my Lancool III using a CPU air cooler with the stock fan configuration.
I observed that the CPU cooler under load would draw air down through the top vents, and the front fans needed to run at >70% before they compensated. So it makes sense that we see the CPU temps go up when top exhaust fans are installed, as this would be choking off air supply to the CPU cooler.
Great video. Very informative!
Another reason why top exhaust is terrible with aircoolers is because the top fans (especially the frontmost one) will redirect air out of the case before it even reached the CPU cooler. So the air goes in through the front mesh, and then directly out through the top. The CPU cooler will struggle to pull enough air since it has to compete against the exhaust.
I wonder what change we would see to the best air cooled setup if only two fans were added to the top middle and front as intake.
The sheer effort alone in trying out almost every conceivable arrangement of the various components to determine how to obtain the optimum temperature result is laudable. Just for that alone I've subscribed and given you a thumbs up.
Yes mounting your CPU AiO at the front will make your CPU a bit cooler and yes it doesn't really affect the GPU since it already has a massive cooler on it and due to it's big power draw colder air around won't matter that much however a front mounted AiO is gonna absolutely tank your RAM temps and especially your motherboard VRM temps.
I always advise to mount your AiO as top exhausts as those 2-3 degrees on just the CPU won't matter at all. It's just not worth it to tank your whole system for it.
Also just a note if you are doing air cooling don't mount top exhaust fans in front of your CPU tower cooler as you will suffocate the cooler by taking away the fresh air coming in from the front. ( for 3 front intake fans 1 rear exhaust and 1 top exhaust in the back is more than enough when you are air cooling)
Im thinking on something like: AIO 3x SL-Infinity 120mm top exhaust, Front 3x SL-Infinity 120mm Intake , Botton 3x SL-Infinity 120mm Intake and Rear SL-Infinity Exhaust. Looks good overall ? I will still have the 3 stock AIO and 3 stock case spare. ( I bought 10x SL Infinity 120mm
)
@@DanCaparroz i have the exact same setup now in my lian li dynamic xl case right now :) - though the front 3 intake in my case is more like side 3 intake. Go for it.
@@kerotomas1 Just taking advantage of what the case allows me, im putting the 140mm for the front ans I wont get the Infinity ones since The mesh covers, there is no need for the extra spending. And im evaluating the same for the back. Thanks for the headsup.
Hey man, I really appreciate you sharing that.
Say, is this AiO configuration for Lancool III alright? Anything to improve here?
3x140 Front Intake (Stock)
3x140 Top AiO Exhaust (Other)
1x140 Back Exhaust (Stock)
3x120 Bottom Intake (Other)
@@Shoutenkou That's pretty much the best setup you can do with that case in my opinion. :)
I wouldn't say the bottom fans are absolutely necessary but it will create positive air pressure to keep most of the dust out of the case. Always good to have more fans as intake because of it.
Highly considering building a rig with this case, so you running tests like these are incredibly valuable. You have my thanks sir, subscribed
You seriously deserve a million subs. Amazing work dude thinking or building in this case and this helps me immensely.❤
Just got me this case today! I will be leveraging ALL your Lian Li Lancool III videos! Thank you sir!
ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME
Thanks
Some excellent testing, though I do wish we could've seen how an air-cooled configuration performed with just one fan exhausting out the top (in the rearmost slot). In the 3X top fan config, you're exhausting most of the fresh intake before it can reach the CPU, increasing the proportion of GPU exhaust being sucked in by the CPU cooler. I've seen 1X top-fan configs perform well with air coolers though since it adds some extra exhaust without disrupting the intake.
Yeah, GN actually tested exactly that. 1 top mounted as the only exhaust often performed similarly to the back exhaust. For their Lancool 2 Mesh review they had 2 140s at the front, 1 120 on the rearmost PSU Shroud mounting point, and 1 rear exhaust. This got them their chart topping results. They stressed what you did: Do not put exhaust in the middle or front top slots as fresh air is being exhausted before it can be pulled through the case.
It might help, but I normally say I refuse to test one fan solutions where there is space for three due to the aesthetics, but can say that here as I tested on fan at the bottom. I though about it and ruled it out on looks. Where there is two fan slots at top I have had the front one intake and rear exhaust before (think it was my 500dx if you want to take a look).
@@ChristopherFlannigan Well, I've got a beautiful set of beige and brown fans I'll probably be replacing the front fans with anyway, so maybe my sense of aesthetics are a bit different from everyone else's :p
@Konga From personal experience I can say that adding a top rear exhaust helps quite a bit when using a tower cooler. The setup chosen by Christopher unfortunately does not make any sense, as you pointed out. A top front fan should definitely be run as an intake but probably won't make much difference. I'm also sceptical about Christopher's result for the bottom intake fans. Maybe he had them running at the wrong speed. I manually-tweaked the fan profiles for my fans and having a bottom intake fan definitely had a positive impact for the GPU.
@@ChristopherFlannigan With my BeQuiet 802 case I have 3x140mm front intake and 3x140mm fans at the top for exhaust, but I just unplug the first fan so that it looks aesthetic, but not doing anything. I don't have RGB fans so you don't notice it's not in use. At the rear I have a 140mm fan as exhaust too and it seems to give me the best results with three in and three out total. My cpu air cooler is the Noctua U12A Chromax. I tested different fan configs, but this ended up being the best for my setup.
Very, very good job. I was really courious how unifans will work with this case and You just happen to answer all my questions with this video. Thank You so much
Glad I could help!
Thank you so much for this deep investigation of an amazing case. I will refer to this when my case arrives. :)
Just goes to show that simpler airflow paths are more efficient. Adding in turbulence with air going all over the place is unlikely to help cooling or noise. The key is balance. Some of these setups might actually work better with certain fans set at very low speeds so that airflow paths don't interact as much.
Like which certain fans?
@@Cleverconveyence the fans in the basement of the case. If they are blowing too hard they are just going to interfere with the air flow front to back.
I feel like I could be on the Lian Li support team after watching your videos.
Just so everyone know there is build in this case that can be achived and it is not in the review. Great job first of all Chris. Build is following:
1. Rad on the roof with 6 SL 120 Unifans blowing outside the case. There is enough offset to clear the memory.
2. You can add one 120/140 in the back of the case.
3. 3-120 on the floor
4. This is where it gets very interesting. You can leave 3-140 that came with the case and you can add 3 more 120 without any modifications. Only thing you have to do is take 3 140 out and install 3-120 fans first. After that put back 3-140 fans. Total of 6 fans in the front- that is a lot of air!
Lancool 3 can have 16 fans all together. Thermals are great
have you tested a configuration with six fans on the front? my lancool has a freezer 420 on top which does not fit on the front, and I found your idea useful for me
Your idea is interesting, still i can't figure how to put those 6 fans on the front. Could you explain more please ? thanks
Could you answer jeys question please bro
@@DanCaparroz right now I am using loop for my ddr5 8000 memory but I still have 3 140 that came in with case. Other 3 are just on the other side of bracket installed. Nothing really to it. 6 fans still in front. 3 120 lian li and 3 that came with the case.
hey christopher - just wanted to say thanks. your vids are the perfect balance of information... not too far into the weeds on irrelevant info that most dont care about... but going over things with a fine tooth comb with details that most reviewers and builders leave out - but some of us desperately want to know before plunking down some money on it.
kudos!
I have this case, building it tomorrow.
I think I'll mount the 420mm radiator to the front, based on what you've shared here (I was going to top-mount it). It should be easier to fit the 420mm rad in the front as well (though i will have to see). And then put 3 fans top & bottom each. IF the 420mm rad won't fit in front, i'll mount it across the top. Looks like it can fit (barely) if I move the front fans forward by flipping their bracket around, and remove the rear fan. I want the cpu as cool as possible though, it's a 7900X. This video has been extremely useful! Thank you for making it!
Have you mounted 420mm radiator in front finally?
@@andreio6063 I ended up mounting it to the top.
I kinda went back & forth on placement. Ultimately I decided I wanted the rad horizontal and above the CPU, so that it would remain completely functional even at say 50% fluid loss over time (fluid loss would just make the radiator fill more shallow, not introduce bubbles to the flow).
420mm rad (iCUE capelix) was a TIGHT fit. There's 2 slots to mount the front fan bracket, 2 ways to turn it, and 2 sides to put the fans on it (8 possible configurations in total). And only 2 of those worked with a top mount 420mm radiator, with only 1 of those allowing the front cover to fit back on. Basically out of 8 possible distances in front, you want the fans at the 7th most forward position. This was: with the fan frame turned to be closer to the front, and the fans mounted to the front of that, but fan frame set into the slots which are a bit further back (the upper slots) so the front cover could go back on.
After that, I still had a problem in that the 420 rad would not allow the latching lever to move freely (to get the fan mount snapped in place). ...the top screw holes for the rad are a combination of specific holes, and elongated slots. I pulled the screws out of the holes, and loosened them slightly in the elongated slots, so that I could shift the radiator reward a little bit, and get that front latch clicked shut on the fan bracket. Then slid the rad back into place, to line up the round screw holes.
Lastly, my motherboard has a chunky IO port area, covered by a largely decorative block with LED lighting inside. It's the "Asus Prime x670e Pro Wifi" if you want to see what i mean. The chunky heat sink above the cpu socket was very tight against the 140mm fans when screwing them in. But the blocky area at the top rear of the IO completely blocked the corner of the rearmost radiator fan. At this point I was pretty deep into an overly complicated assembly process hehe. So I cut off the rear corner of the fan housing (turning it into a 3-screw fan). Then it fit fine. This is essentially invisible, unless you stick your head inside the case, and are told where to look. Also, I can't tell any vibration problems with 3 screws, seems fine. I suspect some motherboards would not encounter this issue. It's a decorative aspect of the mobo I got.
Also, I omitted the rear case fan for space. 420mm rad fits in this case but only "barely", and only with a lot of negotiation.
After all that ...the build was fairly straightforward.
Set the lian li fans to a static color. Set the icue 420 rad fans to a very closely matching color. voila, looks great. And the whole font and top of the case inside are basically wall-to-wall fans. Kinda screams performance, like a car with a hood scoop hehe.
Would I do it again? Yes. But getting a 420mm rad in there is NOT a 30 minute build. And may require improvising.
Ram clearance is actually better than I thought it would be. I got plain stick ram (ddr5 6000) and there's actually some room to spare. Particularly exotic heat sinks on ram could be an issue though.
I will say that I do NOT like the clip-system for attaching the heat sink to the cpu on AMD. It's waaaay too easy to have it move around on you and mess up your paste. I would strongly recommend using the "spread all over the cpu evenly" method for paste, cuz it's impossible to get both clips, with water hoses pushing/pulling on the pump, without it moving some. That would be true regardless of rad size, it's not related to the fact I got a big rad. I had used a dot, but the way it moved while getting it clipped on, i knew i had to pull it off and re-apply (second time with fully spread paste).
7900X runs HOT. First time in bios I thought I had done something wrong. But I figured out that the cpu is just constantly trying to overclock itself (by design), even when not under load. PBO undervolt helped a lot. Mine seems completely stable at PBO -20 on all cores, zero difference in performance, and this shaved off 12C. I also set max cpu temp to 85C, because AMD can say 95C is fine all day, but they also sell cpu's, and I want mine to last. With the PBO tune, his had only a very minor impact on performance (like a 100 mhz difference). Also 95C is very close to boiling & will fry your paste very fast (dry it out), 85 should allow the paste to last a lot longer.
I had planned to get a "not quite bleeding edge" graphics card (XTX or 4080). But the price/performance ratio is not great on those this generation. Bizarrely the flagship beast 4090 does better on price/performance. So I got that. It's more money, but also probably will last me an extra generation. It is quite warm, but I detuned it "slightly", and added three 120mm fans I had laying around over the power supply area. I would like to replace them with iCUE fans, as there are 3 open ports on the icue controller still. And I think that would match the top fans well.
Then I had to fight the bios to get 4x16 GB to run at full 6000 speed. hehe. But I eventually sorted that out. There's no reason 4x single bank dimms wouldn't. 2x32 are each dual bank which is functionally the same, 4x32 can't go full speed cuz that's too many banks, but 4x16 _should_ work fine. But computers are full of dark witchcraft. I managed to appease the evil spirits though.
Definitely the most challenging build I've ever done, by far. But also gratifying to complete. Lancool III is an amazing case though. I _made_ the build hard with numerous other decisions. The case is great. it's exactly as thick as my old corsair 750D (full tower), but a couple inches less tall and wide. A half centimeter more height & width would make 420 radiators easier, but lancool III is pretty beefy for a mid tower already.
Computer go BRRRR
No money left over for a 4k panel... maybe when the next black friday rolls around. I think the 4090 is completely bored running a 1440p/120hz monitor. Not even a hint of stutter, no matter the setting or how badly optimized the game. Even cyberpunk at max ray tracing just sits steady at 120hz. And visual work is much faster.
This is by far the most interesting of your videos.
Thanks
This is the most helpful video on fan configurations I've seen. Thank you! I was really hung up on bottom fans but now I see I don't really need them (no water cooling in my case).
Thank you so much for taking the effort to make this video. It was a great help
Thanks a lot for your premium testing
I highly recommend doing something about noise first (52+ db is very loud, IMO) before doing other tests and it drowns any chance of positive changes from things like fans under the GPU. My current config is Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 and my fans are almost inaudible, all 10 of them. The loudest I can get it is around 1db extra in 3d mark stress test (slight bit of extra fan noise). I don't do AIDA64 so I can't comment on that. Personally, I'd prefer cinebench or 3d mark stress test over AIDA64, as latter is an unrealistic scenario that overloads CPU fans and results in said fans drowning the system noise completely. Simply speaking, almost all results start at around 50db noise, which isn't very useful.
Just my personal opinion.
Thanks for testing all of these configurations! Loads of very useful info!
This is some thorough testing, seems like you converged on an optimal solution there with good recommendations throughout the video.
Watched this as wells as your build video in this case and all the information was fantastic. I am beginning my first PC build utilizing the Lian Li Lancool III this week, so both videos are a great reference. Thank you for all of your testing and advices.
Thanks dude, u saved me a lot of money. I was considering different case, but knowing that just adding bottom fans for gpu cooling makes small to none difference, is a great piece of information. Great thorough testing!
Man you are the best at explaining things and clear cut production too..Hope you have man more views
It's like you knew all the questions before I even knew I wanted to ask them.
Excellent video! You tested everything and answered every question I had about this case and fans! Thank you so much!
Your videos are excellent, thank you for the effort of comparing the different configurations. This answers exactly the questions I've had!
definitely not disappointed youve definitely given me some ideas and what things i need to use
Absolutely brilliant information mate, truly thank you for all the hard work.
good details of your different configurations thank you. after your last review and build in the lan cool 2 I built in that case I'm not building another yet but when I do i'll use your references again
I'm thinking about going with the stock configuration + AIO at the top to make it look the best. Despite the worse temps from putting the AIO at the top, I think it will still be better than air cooling the CPU? Many thanks for the in-depth video and the one teaching how to build on it. Wish I had watched it before forcefully trying to remove then replace the front panel, which made me break one of the pins and now I'm one pin away from making the front panel impossible to fully close.
Fantastic work sir, I saw one of your other videos with this case and I was very impressed. Thank you for being on point and considering multiple angles that most reviewers never speak to.
lol, thanks i had the exact same case even with the exact ak620 with only 3 fans and met the perfect video for fan configuration. the only regret with this case is it breaks your back and it’s heavy asf
I love seeing the data, thanks! Thumbs up.
My pleasure!
You are such a legend! Thank you for making this video!
Nice job. That's a lot of work to do.
Thanks
Very thorough analysis, and exactly the questions that I wanted to ask. Thanks!
Thanks for putting in the work, this is marvelous!
It looks like the front AIO + rear exhaust + 3x 140 top exhaust is one of the better setups and one that I would prefer, but I'm worried this would cause a negative pressure system and suck in dust constantly. What would be the best solution to that? Is adding the 1 bottom intake really doing anything since its inside the case? Or would switching the front most top fan to be an intake be ok?
While I appreciate the effort, and I know this is a bit of a necro criticism, I would have preferred to see some maxed out hardware. Clearly the cooler the build in generally the smaller the delta between configurations. An overclocked 4090 and overclocked 13900k would have been nice to see.
I think the 3 top exhaust fans might be sucking in the new cool air from the front intake fans before the cool air got the chance to circulate in the system, and this is exacerbated by the negative air pressure by having more exhaust than intake fans. That's why this setup ended up being hotter than the stock despite having more fans.
Amazing work, Christopher! Thank you very much!
Excellent work, always love the attention to detail on these vids. How is the Lancool III a full tower? There are bigger mid towers.
very thorough work
Thank you so much for your content... I bought this case and I Will put the AIO with push / pull configuration In front (6x120) + 3x140 original Fan CaseTop ( Exhaust) + 3x120 bottom (intake) + 1x140 Rear (Exhaust) . Total : 13 Fans all of them are the ST-.120 and the original 140 fans included In the case. All for a I7-13700k & RTX 3080Ti
@@MultiNastyNate keeping the push/pull ? or just with the AIO sl120mm (3x)?
@@DanCaparrozI have the Push/Pull with 6x120 ST-120 fans, but the last week , I had to change the position from "Front_6x120 Push/Pull " to "Top_6x120 Push/Pull" , because the pump water (Lian Li galahad 360 AIO) started to make bubble sound inside, so is recommended keep the AIO radiator & air bubble in top, BUT with this new configuration, actually the temperatures increased (with the vertical GPU mount too, as is showed in the video.)
Excellent Video. The air-cooled build is very attractive to me in terms of budget and ease of build. The fact that the temperatures are only slightly warmer compared to the "AIO as top exhaust" configuration really seals the deal for me.
I am hoping to overclock, however, so I may end up going with the AIO as front intake if I find myself seriously limited by temperatures under load, but as I will be using the computer mostly for gaming, I'm optimistic. Thanks again for such an informative video.
I'm currently awaiting an RMA for my Galahad 360. Knowing that I could sell that for 100 bucks and get this and a good air cooler and save so much money kind of pushes me in that direction.
This was a good informative pc build .... waiting for Lian li 216 best fan configuration once the case is released 👍🏾
amazing work!I have this case,realy apreciate your video!
Great work, thank you !
Thanks
wow , thank you very much for a great explanation it saved me alot of research and effort for the PC i am building the only variation or issue i might have is i will be adding 2 3.5 hdd and no fans on top of that but i assume that will not be a problem . again thanks for a great video
Do you believe a 420mm AIO on top with 3 exhaust fans that takes advantage all the available top space could do the same as the 360mm front case scenario that was the best at your tests? Btw this is the best video on CZcams considering real testing with a lot of scenarios. Good job, subscribed for this only.
Thanks Chris - very helpful. Why do you think the intake fans at the bottom increased CPU temps? I can't understand why this would happen.
Just bought this case to play with over Xmas
Excellent Video!!! Thank you so much - Very helpful!!
Title of Video: "Lian Li Lancool III - BEST Fan Configuration"
0:00 "Hello in this video I'm going to be answering the question, 'what is the best cooling configuration for Lian Li's brand new Lancool III."
15:58 "So if you were hoping at the end of the thermal testing I was going to tell you 'what is the best way to build in the Lancool III', you're going to be disappointed."
Clickbait at it's finest.
One additional exhaust fans at the top, towards the rear can be good for deepcool ak620 configuration.
Brilliant Video, very educational, have learned a lot from it, Thank you for posting. One question: Could you fit a 420mm radiator in the front?
Im wondering about this aswell.
Deserves more views - amaazing
I wouldn't have thought of a push/pull at the front, let alone putting the CPU AIO on the front, but that worked better than I expected it to and is aesthetically pleasing. I am curious if two fans on the bottom would have made any noticeable difference. I understood removing the front-most fan, it's not blowing air directly on anything, the air is just getting pushed by the front fans towards the motherboard. But the rear-most fan, maybe that could have helped in some way. At the very least it wouldn't have been as much of an eyesore as the middle-only fan.
Just out of curiosity, have you tried testing top fans as _intake_ when air cooling, rather than exhaust? I have been finding, in these airflow-oriented cases, filling the top full of fans set to intake **when aircooling** actually provides better results for temperature on both CPU and GPU and noise. I suspect it's creating a lot of positive pressure pushing heat out. This does not necessarily hold true for AIO cooling as I have found it is better as exhaust when installed on top, especially for GPU temps and noise.
That's not how heat and air works...
AMAZING video.
I really loved the thoroughness of this test, but I am left with a lot of questions about how adding fans increases temperature? Is it a question of balancing intake and exhaust, or the direction/ turbulence of flow? If you varied the speeds of intake and exhaust fans, would it be possible to change this result?
I wonder if I should flip my front fan bracket on my Lancool 3? I installed SL Infinity 140 mm fans on the front and they make an annoying oscilation noise.
Right now I have a 13900K with stock fans and an AIO 360 at the top and get 97-100C on 10 minute Cinebench 2024. You think if I just switch the AIO to the top and the 140s to the top I will get better thermals? That is what I got from the video.
How can i control the front rgb with the rgb controller? So if i want to connect it with rgb software. Its not showing up the 3 front rgb fan. Pls help
I know the video is one year old, sorry I'm late.
But I'm thinking about buying a 3 fan bundle , to replace the none RGB one and 2 in the bottom. Doing this with a 240 aio on the top and the 3 stock fans up front.
My brother pointed me to this video and I liked how you break down the different setups. I then found the Mesh II reveiw you did a year or so back and am sad I didn't find it sooner as I have that case and wish I had found that video sooner. I basically came to the same results you did but I only had the 240 rad to play around with. I found that the bottom fans help but not enough for my build to bother as I too like having my card mounted in the vertical position and placing the veritcal mount in the raised position looks terrible to me. Yes it runs a degree or two hotter but after watching your Lancoool III review I wonder if I can offset that with a push/pull setup on my rad.
For air cooling with the stock fans, does it make any difference to have the fans in front mounted on the inward side of the front bracket (about 1" closer to components) vs. the outward side of the bracket (as they come stock)?
Thank you sir, excellent video.
Wow amazing job
Thank you! 😊
It's really fascinating how these tests prove that there can be too much of a good thing.
It's a shame that the most aesthetic build is actually not super great in terms of thermals. You would think more on the bottom would be good. Why do you suppose this is?
Is it possible to fit a 420mm radiator at the front of the case, not just 3x140mm fans? Or does the extra size and cabling of the radiator make it impossible to fit at the front?
Great video! Exactly the information I was after. One question, when installed in the front could the radiator be flipped so the pipes are at the bottom?
fantastic video!!! keep it up...subscribed
I've been trying to find out if, if the III actually has better airflow than the II, if you'd actually gain -1 degree or two. Because I have a II (thanks to your old video) an im wondering should I do a complete rebuild or just add new components into my Cool ii. cheers
there is no test for aio top exhaust, 3x bottom intake, 3x front intake, 1 rear echaust, horizontal GPU mount?
What power supply is that you’re using?
4 degree coolers CPU when set to intake is a little more dramatic of a difference than I was expecting.
Great video, could you link the Vertical GPu mounting Kit that you used? I've seen another and yours has the less sag I've seen.
I wonder if in the configuration with the fans mounted to the top and bottom, if that would have more of an impact with a vertically mounted blower style gpu, since it would be exhausting its hot air directly out of the case, if the bottom mounted fans would be able to allow it to pull in cooler air, as well as not blowing warmer air from the gpu across the cpu, ram, etc. (though that would probably be a moot point, since those aren't manufactured anymore).
Love to watch your setup on the Lancool III. I've just upgraded my gig to i9-13900K and 3090Ti, but my old case bequiet Dark Base Pro 900 and H150i PRO seem not good for the temp and airflow. I'm considering between the Lancool 3 and Corsair 5000D Airflow. Which one do you prefer for the airflow and temp?
The >10C difference between air and AIO is huge, but I don't find what's the full wattage of the CPU, I suspect it's near 200W so the aircooler gets overwhelmed; with a less power hungry chip (say an AMD one lol) I think the difference wil be
Amazing presentation
this video answered so many questions I had on my mind after I had decided to build my new rig on the Lancool III.
Excellent content, Thanks a lot for all your work!
a much deserved like and Sub!
Will this fit a corsair h170i in the front?
Funny, I got cooler temps in an air cooled setup by adding 3 Noctua A12x25s above the PSU shroud. I'm running 3 Noctua A14s in the front and 1 in the back. DH-15 for the CPU cooler and no top fans. I was considering more fans on the top but I don't think it is worth it as my temps are fine and I don't want to mess with the positive pressure.
Will you do something like this the phanteks g500a please
is there an explanation why fans on the bottom make the cpu temperature worse?
that sure took a lot of time...great job
Christopher's reviews are fantastically exhaustive and thorough.
Yes, thanks
Thanks
its very interesting cause top mount for aio is must be best
Very nice thanks for that
I can't do the push/pull configuration using the corsair ML 120 RGB fans in the front panel of this case because they won't fit, what did you do to get the push/pull to work?
When u did the test with the fans that come pre-installed, did you have them plugged into the sata cable for power or pluged into one of the chassie fan headers on the motherboard
Great video.
You know I like the review but how can you really judge the airflow when most people have an AIO that allows more air flow. I wish you would have tested both!
Excellent 👏👏👏
Nice Video. Would like to see the set fancurve for stable silent mode. Also one for amd perhaps. Thanks
Best test!