Closer Examination

The Lian Li UNI FAN P28 comes in black or white colors and I have the former here in this 3-pack SKU. The white version gives you white frames and impeller alike so those wanting an all-white PC build will no doubt be happy with those. Do note that these fans are 28 mm thick—all of 3 mm more than the standard 25 mm thickness employed by fans sold in the PC consumer industry but enough to create problems if you are not expecting it. I will also mention that Lian Li rates the other two dimensions as 120 x 120 mm but this is not true. One side is indeed 120 mm wide, at least when you remove any unused plastic "keys" on the sides used as guide points for connecting fans together. The other side where you see a slit frame is 124 mm wide so you should plan on having these fans oriented so the frame sides are facing away from any obstruction if possible. There's another reason to do so as we will see on the next page. I will give Lian Li props for placing the fan mounting holes inset into the fan corners to where radiator screws meant for 25 mm fans will still work fine. Of course, this is assuming the screw head can fit through the opening in the corner anyway else you will have to purchase replacement screws. We then see the rotor itself that is made of liquid crystalline polymer to allow for minimal creep over longer periods of use and thus enabling the individual fan blades to get real close to the inner side of the frame itself—a gap of 0.6 mm is all you see between the nine highly curved blades and the frame. Do not simply assume this is based off the Gentle Typhoon/NF-A12x25 or any other such similar looking fan though as it takes a lot more than just a similar rotor to get the overall fan performance to a high level. A Lian Li sticker on the front hub adds branding and we see rubber pads on the corners to dampen vibrations.


Here we see the three different sides on each fans, with two sides having the aesthetic frame and the other two with the connections—pads and pogo pins—to allow multiple fans next to each other or even individually. The plastic keys slide into the recess on the fan next to it and can also be removed on the outermost fan where it is redundant. This means there won't be any obstruction to, say, radiator ports if you are installing these fans that way. We saw this before on the UNI FAN SL INFINITY and it's good to see the feature still retained here.


On the back we see the usual four stator vanes that are curved and yet perpendicular to the neighboring ones where they coincide. There is further branding on this translucent hub cover with P28 printed on the top and L/M/H at the bottom with the accompanying max speeds in these three modes as a reminder. I would have thought L/M/H was simply Low/Medium/High but Lian Li for whatever reason has it as Silent/Normal/Performance—just a funny thing more than anything else. The UNI FAN P28 defaults to the highest max speed of 2600 RPM without the controller. I also noted the absence of any current/power draw numbers anywhere on the fan, the cables, and even the product page. I am not sure this is legal in some countries but Lian Li apparently knows better. For what it's worth, the fans consume a max of ~0.25 A each including start-up boost when in the 2600 RPM mode. This means you should account for 3 W per fan and thus it's best to run three fans max per 1 A fan header, four might be risking it. Lian Li is using a fluid dynamic bearing inside with a metal bearing shell and a reinforced rotor shaft that itself is decoupled via graphite and rubber pads for a smoother and quieter operation. This also promises longevity and we get a nice six year warranty to help boost confidence in these fans.


Setting up the fans is simple once you know the rhythm. First begin with connecting fans together if you have multiple, and I will mention here that Lian Li has opted to use a different connector positioning on these fans compared to the UNI FAN SL INFINITY at least, preventing the two models from being combined—not sure about any other Lian Li fans though! In this case it's the same overall process in that you line up the male pins and female pad connector and slide them in place from the top going down. The fan on the end that has the exposed pins also has an accessible 4-pin header inset in the frame that the weird cable connector from before now slips into while also covering the four exposed pins outside. The end result is a fairly clean cable coming out of the fan (or fan group). I recommend going with 3-4 fans per group max anyway and there would thus be a single cable coming out of the group. This cable has a 4-pin PWM connector on the end which can be plugged into a fan header or, if you have the Lian Li controller accessory which is magnetic—you can easily place this on your motherboard tray on the back—into this controller cable as seen above to change the max RPM of the fans. Note that the fan header on your motherboard or equivalent controller will only see one fan per group when it comes to fan RPM and setting up custom fan curves.


If you have multiple groups of fans then you can use the provided extension cable which has pins in a locking plastic connector that goes over the pads on the last fan of one group and the other end has the 4-pin connector going into the respective header on the first fan in the other group. This allows for multiple fan groups to now be tied together so, as long as power delivery is not an issue, the net result is a single cable going from all these fans to the motherboard/fan controller.