Introduction
GIGABYTE has sampled us a companion piece of hardware with our recent review of the GIGABYTE X870E AERO X3D DARK WOOD Motherboard to guage as an awesome combo option for overall system aesthetics. A really large, heavy box was dropped off by our friendly UPS driver along with the motherboard. Inside, we found the LIAN LI LANCOOL 217 Black Real Walnut Trimmed mid-tower ATX PC Gaming Case.
This case is a wonderful selection to assist exhibit the GIGABYTE X870E AERO X3D DARK WOOD Motherboard, as you will notice as we progress through the main points of this PC case. LIAN LI doesn’t need much introduction. I doubt you would need to look far to seek out a case or two in your basement made by LIAN LI, or some fans, or perhaps an AIO cooler or a PSU. This case is a mid-ATX-sized case, also able to housing back-mounted motherboards, currently listed at $119.
Lian Li LANCOOL 217 Real Walnut Wood Computer Case
Packaging and Contents
The case was sent to us from GIGABYTE. It arrived double-boxed and, as we stated, very large and heavy. The packaging was undisturbed. Inside was the retail boxing. The box itself shows the case, some dimensional drawings, and features. The cardboard is sort of thick. The case is bagged after which placed inside two large foam inserts. There was no apparent damage to the case.
Contained in the case are two accessory packages. One is a protracted, thin carton which houses an guide, the front magnetic dust screen, and a number of other fan adapter brackets, in addition to an adapter bracket for vertical GPU mounting. The second is a nifty little plastic box that houses all of the nuts and bolts needed in assembly. It is a very nice change-up from the standard plastic bag.
LIAN LI LANCOOL 217 Highlights
The LIAN LI LANCOOL is a mid-ATX case. Although this is outwardly the dimensions classification, this case may be very roomy, and as you will notice, designed very intelligently. (Overall measurements: 19 3/4H x 19L x 9 1/2W inches or 482 x 238 x 503mm) Obviously, the primary things that jump out are the real-wood walnut accent pieces along the front and top panels, in addition to the total tempered glass left side panel. The inner workings are equally impressive.
Obviously, this case has a design with its sights set on cooling. The front and top of the case are meshed to permit as much air flow as possible. The underside panels of the side pieces are also mesh for drawing in outside air. The case is supplied with five preinstalled fans. Two 170mm within the front, two 120mm on the underside, and one 140mm on the rear. These are LIAN LI branded fans. The fans all connect with an included fan controller mounted on the top-back. There are 6 fan headers and RGB headers, and a SATA power connector. The motherboard tray has a big opening within the back and quite a few cut-outs that can allow rear-connect motherboards for use. The tray is able to mounting E-ATX motherboards, and with an easy modification, an SSI motherboard.
The underside PSU compartment is able to mounting your PSU either front-facing or side-facing. The space is fairly vast should you remove the included HDD cages. With some thought, one could use this space to mount a pump-reservoir combination for a custom water cooling loop. The case has loads of room for radiators. HDD/SSDs are given mounting cradles in front of the PSU or behind the motherboard.
The I/O is mounted on the lower left front of the case. It features a power switch, two USB-A 3.2, a USB-C port, and the audio/microphone jack. LIAN LI has also included a top-mounted power switch should you resolve to have the case on the ground.
For installations, LIAN LI provides a mess of cable anchors along probably the most common cable routes. These include thin velcro straps, thick velcro straps, metal spring-tension clasps, and rubber grommets. All of those are anchored to the case. LIAN LI also includes suggested cable route diagrams within the instruction booklet, which was actually quite helpful. We mention this because, on first glance, the space behind the motherboard is definitely limited. Once we employed all of the routes suggested within the booklet, we had loads of room to work.