It has been a long time since Lancool introduced a new case. Who does not know Lancool, under this name the manufacturer Lian Li offered budget housings some years ago. Especially the Lancool PC-K58 and -K62 were a very popular choice for gaming PCs. The main difference to all other Lian Li cases was the use of steel instead of aluminium. Thus the Lancool housings could be offered cheaper. Lian Li is now reviving this brand in the form of a new product series. The first LANCOOL type scion is appropriately named ONE and is a midi tower. The ONE is available in black, white and gold/champagne. The black version is also available with or without a digitally addressable LED strip in the front.
The Lian Li LANCOOL ONE Digital tested here is painted black and is priced at no longer available. The manufacturer promotes the case with a high hardware compatibility, a good airflow and through the use of aluminum and tempered glass with an attractive design. Whether a purchase of the LANCOOL ONE is worthwhile and how it generally performs, we will find out for you in the following test.
Technical Details
| Model: | Lian Li LANCOOL ONE Digital |
| Housing type: | Midi Tower |
| Dimensions: | 220 mm (W) x 472 mm (H) x 450 mm (D) |
| Weight: | 8.25 kg |
| Material: | Steel, Alumimium, Plastic, Hard glass |
| Color: | Black |
| Front connections | 1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 2x USB 3.0 Type-A, 1x RGB-LED control, 1x speaker, 1x microphone |
| Drive bays: | 2x 3,5″ (internal) 4x 2,5″ (internal) |
| Extension slots: | 7x horitontal, 2x vertical |
| Form factors: | E-ATX, ATX, mATX, mini-ITX |
| Ventilation: | Front: 3x 120 mm or 2x 140 mm Rear: 1x 120 mm Cover: 3x 120 mm or 2x 140 mm Power supply cover: 2x 120 mm |
| Radiators: | Front: 1x 360 mm, 1x 240 mm Lid: 1x 360 mm, 1x 240 mm Rear: 1x 120 mm |
| Max. CPU cooler height: | 175 mm |
| Max. Graphics card length: | 420 mm |
| Max. Power supply length: | 224 mm |
| Cable management space: | 16 – 28 mm |
| Place for front radiator: | 60 mm |
| Place for cover radiator: | 45 mm up to RAM/ 55 mm offset to mainboard |
| Price: | € 2,092.00 * |
| Special features: | Dust filter, cable management, RGB light strips in the front, glass side panel |
Scope of Delivery
The Lian Li LANCOOL One comes well and safely packed in a brown cardboard box with black writing and is wrapped in normal polystyrene blocks. Furthermore, the manufacturer has covered the side window with an additional protective film to prevent scratches. The supplied accessories were stored in a white cardboard box inside the hard disk cage. This box only contains all important screws and 10 black cable ties. Instructions are not included. But there is a QR code printed on the box, which links directly to the installation instructions.
Also included are two white 120mm fans, pre-installed mainboard spacers and an RGB strip in the front including a pre-installed control board.
Exterior Impression
The front part of the LANCOOL ONE is a real eye-catcher and should attract all attention. The front element is made of plastic, but was covered with two black plates of brushed aluminium. In addition, there is a diamond-shaped opening, which breaks up the restrained design without appearing exaggerated. This opening and the additional lateral fan openings in the front part should improve the air supply for the front fans. Up to three of these can be mounted in the front area. To protect the pre-installed 120 mm fan from dust, a magnetic dust filter made of mesh is located in front of it. This is easy to remove and clean after removing the front panel.
Now let’s take a look at the lid area. This is characterized by a large mesh grid, which should significantly increase the airflow in the housing. In order to remove the magnetically attached plastic frame including mesh grille, there is a small recessed grip on the rear wheel of the lid section over which the whole frame can be pulled upwards. These then conceal mounting rails for optional ceiling fans or possible radiators. Unfortunately the frame looks a bit cheap and rickety. Finally, Lian Li installed the I/O panel in the lid. There are a total of three USB ports (1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 2x USB 3.0 Type-A), one microphone and one headphone port each, a power button and a button for operating the RGB light strip.
The right side part of the Midi Tower is made of steel, completely closed and fastened to the body with two flat knurled screws. The left side part consists of 4 mm thick tempered glass and is slightly darkened. To facilitate the assembly of the side part, the pane is mounted on a thin steel frame. The frame is fastened from behind like a normal side panel with two knurled screws, which practically remain on the side panel. In addition, the steel frame has a layer of cellular rubber to prevent vibration transmission.
A very large dust filter has been implemented on the underside of the LANCOOL ONE for the power supply. This has a plastic frame, a pull-out aid and, unlike the dust filters in the front and lid, is made of a very fine fabric. So that the power supply unit gets enough fresh air, the Midi Tower stands on four solid plastic feet equipped with foam rubber. In addition, there are four screws and various holes on the underside for repositioning the HDD cage.
The back offers more or less standard equipment for a normal midi tower. The power supply unit is mounted at the bottom. Above are seven horizontal and two mandatory vertical PCI slot bezels for vertical graphics card mounting. Finally, the manufacturer installed the second pre-installed case fan with a frame width of 120 mm at the rear. This can be mounted at different positions due to several bores.
Internal Impression
The interior of the LANCOOL ONE is very simple and open. Lian Li follows the current trend and uses a two chamber system. In the upper area the mainboard, expansion cards and possible radiators are fastened. To ensure that the interior still looks neat after the cabling, various cable management openings were incorporated around the mainboard tray and some of them even provided with rubber sleeves.
The second chamber is separated from the rest of the interior by a power supply cover and is intended to conceal the power supply, the hard disk cage and all connecting cables. Lian Li has equipped the top of the cover with modular elements for better airflow or for mounting radiators. Below the covers, there is a large fan grille and two mounting locations for 120 mm fans. If, on the other hand, the cover plates are left in place, they offer the possibility of mounting two SSDs.
Additional 2.5″ data memories can be mounted on the back of the mainboard tray on appropriate mounting frames. However, the solution for 3.5″ HDDs is somewhat disappointing. Lian Li provides a modular hard disk cage for this purpose. Unfortunately, the hard disks are simply pushed into the cage and screwed together. This means that there is no decoupling at all and smaller data carriers cannot be used here either. Considering the price of € 2,092.00 * for this midi tower, we would have liked a different solution here.
Furthermore, on the back there are various mounting points for cable ties, three practical Velcro strips for cable management and the control board for the RGB element in the front. The support points of the power supply unit are also equipped with soft decoupling strips made of foam rubber.
System Construction in Lian Li LANCOOL ONE
Now we come to system installation. As hardware I use a Intel Xeon 1230v3 on a Gigabyte H87M-D3H with 16GB RAM. The Xeon is represented by a LC-Power Cosmo Cool LC-CC-120 cooled. An HD 7850 2GB from Asus is responsible for the image output. The power supply does the non-modular be quiet! Pure Power with 400W. In order to enhance the cabling optically a little bit, single sleeved cable extensions from Phanteks.
The installation and wiring of all components was completed quickly. The main reasons for this were the good space conditions in the interior, a lot of space behind the mainboard tray and the pre-installed spacers for the mainboard. If the spacers have not been installed in a suitable way in the factory, Lian Li will enclose a screwdriver attachment in order to be able to change them. Overall, the system looks very neat and tidy after cabling. Only the stability of the rubber cuffs has to be criticized here. These slid very easily out of the corresponding openings.
Also neat is the support for high-end hardware. 175 mm for CPU coolers, 420 mm for graphics cards and 224 mm for power supplies are available in the LANCOOL ONE. Thus one should be able to accommodate almost every purchasable component in the Lian Li. This midi tower also offers high compatibility for water cooling. A 360 mm radiator in the front and a 240 mm radiator in the lid can thus be easily installed. However, the lid mounting depends strongly on the memory used and on the height of the VRM heat spreaders.
The Lian Li LANCOOL ONE supports a total of six data carriers. Four 2.5″ SSDs can be mounted either on the power supply cover or behind the mainboard tray. Two 3.5″ hard drives can be accommodated in the HDD cage next to the power supply unit. However, as mentioned in the previous section, the type of mounting used is not suitable for this price range. Due to the simple screw connection there is no decoupling and the vibrations are noticeably transmitted to the body.
Finally, we come to the temperature measurements. For this purpose I executed Prime95 and Furmark at a room temperature of 20 °C for 15 minutes. Afterwards the temperatures of processor and graphics card were determined with CPUID HWMonitor. During the test, the pre-installed fans ran at 100% or 1000 rpm. After 15 minutes, maximum temperatures of 64°C for the CPU and 63°C for the GPU were reached. These temperatures are absolutely in the green range and the background noise remains within reasonable limits. The pre-installed case fans, however, produced slight ambient noise during operation.
Lighting Options in the Lian Li LANCOOL ONE
With the LANCOOL One, Lian Li has opted for a rather restrained lighting system. Both fans are monochrome and have no LEDs. Only the diamond-shaped opening in the front is highlighted indirectly by a large strip of light. The colors are controlled by a small circuit board on the back. This board is supplied with power via a SATA power connector and also has an RGB header (3-pin) for digital control via a mainboard. Unfortunately the board has no further connections for RGB fans or RGB strips. If the used motherboard does not have an RGB header, you can switch the colors via a button in the I/O panel.
Conclusion on the Lian Li LANCOOL ONE
So has Lian Li developed a worthy successor to the old Lancool housings with the LANCOOL ONE? In our eyes, that was quite a success. The use of brushed aluminium in the front, the attractive design of the front panel and the indirect RBG lighting make the LANCOOL One a real eye-catcher. The offer is rounded off by a solid workmanship, plenty of space for hardware, a good airflow and a USB 3.1 Type-C in the I/O panel.
Unfortunately we didn’t like everything at LANCOOL ONE. There was criticism especially of the cheap looking mesh frame in the lid and the very bad implementation of the hard disk cage for 3.5″. We also disliked the lack of compatibility in order to be able to connect additional RGB fans or RGB strips to the existing circuit board.
For a price of € 2,092.00 * the LANCOOL ONE does a lot right. If you don’t want to mount 3.5″ devices and don’t intend to extend the RGB fairground lighting, the LANCOOL ONE is a chic housing with plenty of space and good workmanship.
Lian Li LANCOOL ONE Digital
Workmanship
Structure
Features
Cooling
Value for Money
The Lian Li LANCOOL One Digital is a chic and very spacious midi tower with a discreet RGB lighting and few weaknesses.
