Lian Li has been making a picture perfect comeback in the last several years with a lean product stack, innovative cases and price points that are very enticing. The same certainly holds true for the Lancool 216 RGB. At $110 MSRP, the case offers everything a classic mid-tower in this price segment should, but goes well beyond that baseline with tons of additional features. This means that the chassis has an excellent price/performance ratio.

Starting with the outside, the fine mesh panels alongside the bundled fans of 140 and 160 mm size offer great cooling capabilities, albeit not being the quietest when in idle. But considering the results, the ability to further tweak the fan curve in your motherboard bios makes that issue nearly irrelevant. The one thing that one could argued to be missing from a case of this price segment is the ability to have built-in ARGB control, which Lian Li only offers if you spend a little extra money buying the secondary I/O bracket, which also offers two additional USB ports. However, that lack of functionality is once again not a dealbreaker considering the slew of other unique features you get.

On the interior, things may look pretty traditional at first sight with the classic layout, but the differentiation of the Lian Li Lancool 216 RGB is certainly found in the details. From the ability to install your motherboard in two possible height positions, to the grommet cable routing plate which may be flipped for an uncompromising E-ATX build experience, Lian Li has thought these details through well. That results in excellent and flexible liquid cooling possibilities, and lots of space with a very clean cable management result. Lastly, considering that all the usual elements like the hard drive bays, SSD mounting, liquid cooling brackets and fan/ARGB PCB are all well designed, we could go on and on about the upsides of the case. As such, the Lian Li Lancool 216 RGB deserves both the Editor's Choice and Budget Awards