Lian Li built a sub-$100 case with flip panels and modular cable covers

Lian Li is no stranger to our roundup of the best mid-tower cases, and depending on how you feel about the aesthetic, the company's new Lancool II (stylized as LANCOOL II) might be a contender as well.

To be clear, I have not spent any hands on time with the Lancool II. I'm also undecided in how I feel about the front design. Part of me thinks it looks like some of the fugly gamer cases of old, and part of me thinks it's fine, adding a bit of flair without going too far over the top.

Case makers have gotten better about cramming more bells and whistles into sub-$100 enclosures, and in this instance, Lian Li opted for tempered glass side panels. What's somewhat unique about the implementation here is that they flip open, sort of like a car door (minus the handle).

Lian Li also includes a few cable management covers to tidy up right side of the PC. Since there's a tempered glass panel on that side as well, hastily plopping excess cabling behind the motherboard tray would get exposed. But with the included covers, it looks like you could still get away with doing that, and then hiding the mess underneath square and rectangular covers.

Motherboard support—E-ATX/ATX (width: under 280mm), m-ATX/ITX
PSU length—up to 210mm
GPU length—up to 384mm
CPU clearance—up to 176mm
Drive bays—4x 2.5-inch SSD + 3x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch HDD/SSD
I/O ports—2x LED control buttons, 1x audio, 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C
Dust filters—1x top, 1x front panel, 1x bottom
Included fans—3x 120mm (front, top, rear)
Dimensions—478 (D) x 229 (W) x 494 (H) mm

For cooling, the case supports up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans in the front, two 120mm fans above the PSU chamber, two 120mm/140mm fans up top, and one 120mm fan in the rear. Alternatively, builders can install up to a 360mm radiator in the front and/or a 120mm radiator in the rear, if going the liquid cooling route.

There appears to be a lot of flexibility here. In addition to the rear cable management amenities, there are multiple different locations to install storage drives. Builders can also purchase separately a kit for installing a graphics card vertically, though it's not clear how much that costs.

Both the black and white models are available to preorder on Newegg. Since they won't ship until mid-December, though, you might be better served waiting to see what of Black Friday deals emerge on cases next week, if you're in the market for one.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).