Lian Li Side ARGB Kit

The Lian Li Side ARGB kit is an accessory that launched alongside the UNI FAN P28. The product page mentions it was specifically designed for these fans and those used on the Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360 AIO CPU cooler, but that cooler uses the UNI FAN P28 fans itself, so in reality it's just one fan that these are compatible with! I was sent a triple pack that ships in a relatively simple box which confirms also that these require an additional component to be used with Lian Li's software suite while being directly compatible with motherboard headers with what is inside. These also come in black or white colors to match the fans and there is a handy manual inside that helps with installation.


This triple pack includes three side ARGB strips that are ~120 x 13 x 28 mm in size in addition to more cables and bridge/cover parts. The side strip has a white interface on one end that provides power to the LEDs inside and a black interface on the other end which takes power from a white interface it is daisy-chained to, thus allowing these strips to also be synced up end-to-end similar to the fans. The cables provided connect to these interfaces and then go to either another group of strips via an extension cable or to a standard 3-pin, 5 V ARGB LED header itself.


The stock aluminium/plastic frame strips on the UNI FAN P28 can be removed by simply prying them out from the corner as seen above. But since we only have enough to do one ARGB strip per fan, you need to carefully plan out the wiring in advance. Installing the strips is easy enough in that you just push them in place although here too be sure to go white to black interface in order of the fans being connected together. Once done, simply connect the fans as before and now you will see a gap at the top between the black and white interfaces where the bridge connector/cover comes in place. Carefully match the shape to the space created and push it in place to make for a near-seamless design. This does result in the fans going from 124 mm width on that side to 129 mm though, so keep that in mind. Going with a two-sided installation if you have compatible fans/extra ARGB strips will result in 136 mm spacing being required.


The black interface exposed on the end gets the smaller cover to keep things tidy whereas the white interface on the other end of the fan group requires the cable itself which is pushed in from the top similar to the bridge. It's an involved process thus and one that may take longer and cause potential frustrations too with all the different connections in place, but the end result is fewer overall cables and a cleaner group of fans without any real gaps between the fans. The ARGB cable needs to be connected to the adapter cable that has the 3-pin LED header for LED control in addition to the other fan cable providing a 4-pin PWM header itself—complicated solutions that eventually lead to standard connectors.


Seen above are the three provided Lian Li UNI FAN P28 fans and side ARGB strips power on and lit up. I have to say I am not impressed with what these ARGB strips do. I get that the fans are dark bodies without anything integrated to help the LEDs transmit more light but the net effect is worse than attaching discrete LED strips that are going to not only be brighter but also send more light out the other direction compared to what these do. This side ARGB triple pack costs $20 so, as far as I am concerned, you need to be a big Lian Li fan or embedded deep in the brand's ecosystem to justify the purchase.