Lian Li UNI Fan SL120 ARGB

Lian Li also provided a 3-pack of their 120 mm UNI Fans to add a touch of RGB flair to the chassis. They ship in a compact full-color box with an image of this unique fan on front and all the details and specifications on the rear.


The 3-pack comes with a 4-port ARGB controller, so you will get two pads to secure it inside the chassis, along with plenty of screws to install each fan. Unique to the UNI Fan is the lack of firmly attached cables, which allows you to daisy-chain multiples of these together. Thus, you will also receive connectors with leads for each fan. That said, I would have loved a cable that actually allows you to attach two of these directly, but slightly apart; for example, to attach a rear fan to three in the ceiling in a clean fashion. Lastly, there is a manual and some additional warranty information inside the box.


The fan controller comes with a SATA power cable, a lead to attach other ARGB components, and cables to connect it via USB and an ARGB header to your motherboard. The USB port means Lian Li also offers an application for control over the fans within Windows.


The controller itself has four sliders to easily disconnect any cables. On each side of the unit are two sets of plugs for the PWM fans, along with their special ARGB plugs. On the top, you will find the connections for power, USB, and ARGB motherboard control.


Looking at the fans themselves, they have quite the heft with slightly thicker frames than other 120 mm units to fit all the electronics and LEDs. As you can see, there is basically no gap between the fins and the housing, which speaks to the engineering confidence Lian Li has with these. A small fan hub minimizes the blind-spot, which is held in place by four supports.


Obviously, the pins and connectors are the extraordinary feature of the UNI Fans. This eliminates any cables between these and allows for a clean set of wires at the end of each fan grouping. Lian Li has engineered a sliding lock to attach fans to each other quickly and without the need of any tools. Each corner of these fans has rubber pads as an anti-vibration measure, and the exposed sides have diamond-cut aluminium plates as an added visual benefit.


Sliding a connector onto the right fan is just as easy as connecting two cooling units, and it is flush to where it should not interfere with any adjacent fans. If you look closely, you will see a few symbols to let you know which two sides go together, and to ensure you have aligned them well once attached. With all three UNI Fans attached together, it really becomes apparent how cool and useful this is. Not only is there no cable mess, but all the ARGB LEDs have now been fused into one long strip as well.


Adding the fans to the Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini in the ceiling is easy, no different from traditional units. Once turned on, the ARGB lights up in a subtle, non-obtrusive fashion for that added glow in the system. Thanks to the symmetrical LED diffusers, you will have a glow no matter whether you set these fans to be intake or exhaust units. Please note that we have benchmarked the Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini in its default out-of-the-box setup without any fans, as that is in line with how we test case temperature and noise here at TechPowerUp.

Software

Due to the fan controller and inclusion of USB 2.0, you may adjust all elements directly in Windows even if your system does not have ARGB capabilities, although control via a motherboard ARGB header is an option as well. The application itself is pretty straightforward, with each of the four ports represented by a set of four UNI Fans. While a bit confusing from a UI/UX perspective, it makes sense as there is no tangible way for the software to know if the port is empty or not without investing quite a bit more engineering effort into both the hardware and software. Within the application, you may adjust lighting, fan speed, LED brightness, and the direction of the LED animation for each of the four hub connections, down to a specific fan. Lastly, there is a setting that allows you to switch to motherboard control.