The Lian Li Lancool II is a beautiful chassis right out of the box. Don't let its name fool you as the Lancool II has very little in common with the Lancool One and is not a generational evolution. Thus, both cases are meant to exist alongside each other under the Lancool sub-brand/family of enclosures from Lian Li.

The first thing you will notice is the build quality when unboxing the enclosure. It employs steel all around, including for the top panel and front cover. On top of that, all ventilated areas are covered in either magnetic dust filters or removable ones. Both sides are well engineered with cool flip-down panels on the bottom thirds of the chassis, while the rest are covered by clear, hinge-equipped glass panels. All of these are held in place magnetically, so gaining access to the interior is easy as well. Another absolutely beautiful feature are the individual covers on the backside of the motherboard, which result in the chassis looking clean all around even when stuffed full of hardware.

On the interior, the level of detail and engineering continues with a 3-bay HDD cage on the bottom of the chassis, which may be moved to allow for utmost flexibility when it comes to your choice of liquid cooling, Thanks to the fairly large bottom compartment, fans you would install on top of the divider do actually get access to some fresh air as well, but will block you from easily accessing the bottom edge of an ATX motherboard. Speaking of hardware, besides room for a full-size board, the case will easily hold long GPUs, large air cooling, and a potent PSU without issue. Add the fact that both the front and top are meant to be utilized for either air or liquid-coolinbg setups and the Lian Li Lancool II presents itself as a well-balanced chassis. To round things off, the built-in RGB controller is functional, expandable and may also be controlled by the motherboard making it rather universal in its use.

If there is an issue I have, it is the loud fans, even if it is nice to see the inclusion of three such units in a chassis of this price class. Lian Li could have opted for a better balance between noise and performance here. Some may also be annoyed by the fact that there is a hole for the USB-C port in the top that is covered by a somewhat unsightly rubber grommet.

That brings us to the final consideration of pricing. All-in-all, the Lian Li Lancool II clocks in at a mere $90, which is extremely affordable, while offering well-thought-out engineering, a great material mix, and plenty of features. On top of that, the additional accessories are thoughtful and mostly well priced to boot.