Closer Examination

The Lian Li UNI Fan SL-INF 120 is clearly novel as no cables are seen hanging off the side, and it's also a somewhat unique 120 x 122.5 x 25 mm fan in that there are pins on one side that technically increase the width past the usual 120 mm, which doesn't matter with multi-fan configurations. I dare say the extra 2.5 mm won't change anything with single-fan installations either, yet it's something to be aware of. This is otherwise a square frame fan in black or white. Both colors use a PBT plastic frame and polycarbonate rotor in addition to two tinted acrylic strips on the sides with an aluminium trim as on Lian Li's AL fan series. There are protective peel-off plastic protectors over these as well as the front hub, which mostly failed to peel off properly. I had to use tweezers to get them out. Now you know what the replacement strips in the box are for should you want to pack them up for whatever reason or simply protect the reflective film over these surfaces responsible for the infinity mirror effect.


With the covers peeled off, there are highly reflective sections on the side and front hub for an infinity mirror lighting effect from LEDs placed behind. This explains the two ARGB LED strips on the front and circular LED ring on the back. The rotor has seven highly curved blades that seem to be designed with static pressure optimization in mind and have a relatively small gap to the frame itself. Unfortunately, the LEDs integrated into the frame and hub mean the rotor blades are shorter than usual, so this is another case of form dictating function. There are vibration-dampening rubber pads on the corners, and a branded aluminium sticker on the back is the only place with a Lian Li mention.

This also means we don't get any current draw ratings on the fans and have to rely on the product page. The fan is rated for an input current of 180 mA off the 12 VDC rail for the motor and another 600 mA from the 5 VDC rail for the 40 addressable RGB LEDs, making for a total of up to 5.16 W per fan! Given you have to use the UNI Hub that can provide up to 29 W and each fan isn't expected to take all of 5.16 W during operation, it should be able to run a good number of fans and also power the LEDs on the Lian Li AIO cooler pump, but there is no easy way to verify this because of the proprietary connectors. Likewise, the reviewer's guide only mentions a fluid dynamic bearing and nothing else, so it's presumably the same FDB bearing as on the older UNI Fan SL 120 with a magnetic frame and stabilizing ring reducing bearing noise at lower RPMs and minimizing vibrations from the rotor blades not being supported properly.


The two sides that don't have reflective strips are used to daisy-chain fans with interlocking plastic "keys" that fit into the open locks on the other end—simply align the mating sides of two fans and slot one into the other from the top or bottom. Then simply repeat the process with as many as four fans in a single chain for even quad 120 mm radiators. If you are a proponent of push-pull fan configurations on radiators, it's best to treat the two sides separately.


The next step is to connect a power module connector cable to the exposed side of the fan on the end, and here too the process is analogous with plastic keys that slot into and mate with the six exposed pins. One neat feature is the removable cover of this connector housing to move the cable to the other side entirely before placing the cover back on. As such, the direction the cable comes off the fans can be chosen to better route the cable around your case layout! Of interest and an improvement over the previous generation is also that the interlocking plastic keys are easily twisted and removed on the fan not using them, which frees up room past the fan frame and avoids interference with radiator ports or case panels.