Rainbow Puke MAX with Lian Li 217 INF + Extras
Behold, the maximum amount of Lian Li rainbow puke that I could feasibly fit in one case! It’s a floor dweller, so no ‘view’ case like many of the top builds posted here, but it gets the job done and then some. Lian Li gear includes:
- Lancool 217 INF
- HydroShift II LCD-C 360 TL
- UNI FAN TL 120 Wireless × 3 bottom intake (regular blade)
- Strimer Wireless 24-pin ATX
- Strimer Wireless 16-12 for GPU
Computer gear is a pre-RAMpocalypse transplant:
- MSI Z790 Edge TI Max WiFi
- Intel i9-14900K
- Asus TUF 5070 TI OC
- T-Force Delta RGB 48 Gb 7200 CL34
- Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB
- Seasonic Vertex GX 1200W
- Alienware AW3423DWF
What I like
Full-load cooling and noise performance. Versus the same computer in the previous air-cooled setup (Fractal Torrent Compact, Noctua NH-D15, Noctua bottom and rear fans), the switch to an AIO is much better at full load; at equal noise things run much cooler, at equal temps things are much quieter. Great for gaming and overnight encodes.
Looks! The infinity mirrors are great, and the RGB colors are deep and rich. Even while I am stuck with rainbow puke, it makes me grin.
Convenience. Case was a joy to build, particularly the removable top AIO/fan bracket, and the ample cable routing space. FAR easier to work on than the cramped space in the Torrent Compact.
Regular blade fans. Yes, I know, I bought the wrong fans for the bottom intake, they should be reverse blade. But the noise/airflow curves of the reverse blades are much worse than the regular, so I was happy to sacrifice the looks for performance here.
What I don’t like
Idle noise. Even with everything dialled down as slow and quiet as possible, the fan motor and AIO pump noise is louder than my old air-cooled rig. Worse for quiet late-night work.
Ramp up/down behaviour. The ramping behaviour of Lian Li fans is awful. The HUGE instantaneous jumps in fan speed make using CPU temp untenable. Using water temp is more stable, but the back-and-forth between, say, 29-30°C water, still results in audible fan ramping and AIO pump acceleration. Implementing a rolling temperature average, or gentle PID-like behaviour for more gradual acceleration/deceleration, would improve things dramatically.
Strimer brightness. When using Quick Sync lighting, the Strimer are much brighter than the other Lian Li gear. A ±brightness offset for individual groups within Quick Sync would be wonderful.
Other RGB control. The latest L-Connect OpenRGB can detect but not control my MSI motherboard, and I refuse to install MSI Centre for additional RGB control. This means my RAM is always rainbow, hence sticking with max rainbow for everything. Once OpenRGB can reliably/directly control the MSI lighting, I will probably pick a much more subtle color scheme.