Introduction
GIGABYTE has sampled us a companion piece of hardware with our recent review of the GIGABYTE X870E AERO X3D DARK WOOD Motherboard to evaluate as a great combo option for overall system aesthetics. A very large, heavy box was dropped off by our friendly UPS driver in addition to the motherboard. Inside, we found the LIAN LI LANCOOL 217 Black Genuine Walnut Trimmed mid-tower ATX PC Gaming Case.
This case is an excellent choice to help show off the GIGABYTE X870E AERO X3D DARK WOOD Motherboard, as you will see as we progress through the details of this PC case. LIAN LI doesn’t need much introduction. I doubt you would have to look far to find a case or two in your basement made by LIAN LI, or some fans, or maybe an AIO cooler or a PSU. This case is a mid-ATX-sized case, also capable of housing back-mounted motherboards, currently listed at $119.
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 quite thick. The case is bagged and then placed inside two large foam inserts. There was no apparent damage to the case.
Inside the case are two accessory packages. One is a long, thin carton which houses an instruction manual, the front magnetic dust screen, and several fan adapter brackets, as well as an adapter bracket for vertical GPU mounting. The second is a nifty little plastic box that houses all the nuts and bolts needed in assembly. This is a really nice change-up from the usual plastic bag.
LIAN LI LANCOOL 217 Highlights
The LIAN LI LANCOOL is a mid-ATX case. Although this is apparently the size classification, this case is very roomy, and as you will see, designed very intelligently. (Overall measurements: 19 3/4H x 19L x 9 1/2W inches or 482 x 238 x 503mm) Obviously, the first things that jump out are the real-wood walnut accent pieces along the front and top panels, as well as the full 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 allow as much air flow as possible. The bottom panels of the side pieces are also mesh for drawing in outside air. The case is supplied with five preinstalled fans. Two 170mm in the front, two 120mm on the bottom, and one 140mm at the rear. These are LIAN LI branded fans. The fans all connect to an included fan controller mounted at the top-back. There are 6 fan headers and RGB headers, and a SATA power connector. The motherboard tray has a large opening in the back and a number of cut-outs that will allow rear-connect motherboards to be used. The tray is capable of mounting E-ATX motherboards, and with a simple modification, an SSI motherboard.
The bottom PSU compartment is capable of mounting your PSU either front-facing or side-facing. The space is fairly vast if 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 plenty 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 includes 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 if you decide to have the case on the floor.
For installations, LIAN LI provides a multitude of cable anchors along the most common cable routes. These include thin velcro straps, thick velcro straps, metal spring-tension clasps, and rubber grommets. All of these are anchored to the case. LIAN LI also includes suggested cable route diagrams in the instruction booklet, which was actually quite helpful. We mention this because, on first glance, the space behind the motherboard is actually limited. Once we employed all the routes suggested in the booklet, we had plenty of room to work.