Space for three tri-fan radiators, two glass panels, and one slick shell
Lian Li's O11 Dynamic Evolution case is a solid choice for show-system builders and storage pack rats, with admirable flexibility in terms of front-port and cooling-hardware placement.
Abbreviated variously as the "O11 Dynamic EVO" or "O11D EVO," Lian Li's new-for-'22 O11 Dynamic Evolution ($170) desktop PC case is such a radical evolution of the popular O11 showcase chassis of a decade ago that it's hard to call it the same case. A flexible design that allows users to flip the top and bottom panels for upside-down or traditional orientation is just the beginning of the options this unique chassis supports. It's a fine pick if you're looking for maximum visibility for your system innards; modest builds may want a model that allows for more cover-up. It will tax your system-planning and cable-routing skills to the max.
Words like left and right start to lose their meaning when you're talking about a PC case that can be flipped, but there's still a show side and a go side. The former is tempered glass in a tint that matches the face, while the plain side is colored in your choice of anodized black, painted white, or Harbor Gray "tinted brushed aluminum," which, according to both our eyes and our meters, is actually just painted. You won't see any brushed texture that might exist under the paint of the gray model we tested.
The coating is still attractive, mind you. But what you're paying for with this case, in part, is the superior flexibility. An example of the O11D EVO's flex is a so-called "front panel" section that can be fit into three corners of the chassis, depending on which direction you want to face forward. Connections on it include USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2, two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, and a combo audio jack.
The power, reset, and RGB control buttons are a little less flexible, being designed for access from only two positions. The RGB control is exclusive to the front-panel light bar, with the lower button selecting one of seven solid colors and the upper button returning control to a motherboard's addressable RGB (aRGB) header.
The metal side is vented in a way that hints at the O11D EVO's internal cooling configuration. The chassis frame has three 120mm radiator mounts, on the top, bottom, and side, with the last well-aligned with the metal panel's forward vent holes. In case you're wondering, that extra row of fan mounts does allow you to opt for a configuration with two 140mm fans as an alternative.
Rather than have the motherboard tray folded inward in front of the board, as in many other chassis, the O11D EVO's side-by-side compartments make room for the fold to go toward the power supply compartment instead. Two large cable passages face the rear of the power supply, obliging you to wrap cables around the tray to reach the motherboard's main power connection and the supplemental power headers of graphics cards, but the design also keeps those cables out of the way of the side radiator mount. A hard drive bracket between the side radiator and power supply bracket is designed to clear the inward edges of longer power supply bodies.
Lian Li specifies that the case can hold power supplies up to 220mm deep, and we measured 228mm of clearance between the PSU mount and a support bracket. Additional space behind that bracket gives more than 260mm of room for the power supply and protruding cables. We also found that the power-supply support bracket, located on the bottom of the case, makes a great loop for storing excess cable length.
Additional grommet-filled access holes above the board allow for EPS/ATX CPU power cables and the like to pass, while smaller holes below the motherboard's bottom edge (typically used for front-panel connections) have no grommets. A larger hole that enables motherboard access behind the CPU socket is temporarily blocked by a removable drive cage.
Sitting inside a second power supply mount, the removable drive cage includes two trays for 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch devices plus a set of 2.5-inch mounting points in its lid.
As with the drive mounts found throughout the rest of the case, drives are secured using rubber grommets and shoulder screws.
It seems as though the chassis' only single-purpose panel is on the rear, and it has a flexible slot bracket and adjustable 120mm fan mount in addition to the previously mentioned PSU mount and removable drive cage. There are no card separators between its eight slot covers; Lian Li sells an optional adapter that allows builders to remove the covers and mount a graphics card vertically in that space.
Now, if you prefer your motherboard to face right instead of left, the bottom panel can be removed and swapped with the top panel. One gripe is that the bottom panel's dust filter is the only one in the system and, being held in place with magnetic strips at its edges, is prone to falling off during handling. In this area, you'll also note additional square holes near two corners that allow the front-panel module to be relocated to either side.
The visible top and bottom panels are actually facades, each hiding an interior panel that contains a removable radiator support structure. Secured via screws on one end and tabs on the other, both radiator supports are designed to hold radiators with up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans. Both must be removed to reach the fan/radiator mounting points on the opposite edge.
The O11D EVO provides far too many mounting options to list in a simple features table. For example, Lian Li states that the bottom of the case can hold four 2.5-inch or two 3.5-inch drives; the side can hold four 2.5-inch or two 3.5-inch drives; the drive cage can hold three 2.5-inch or two 3.5-inch plus one 2.5-inch drive; and the cable-management bar can host two 2.5-inch drives—and that's before we start subtracting for the potential installation of a second power supply or side/bottom radiators. The actual limit stated by Lian Li is dictated by the number of screws and grommets included in the installation kit.
As you can see above, the O11D EVO comes with a metric ton of accessories and options. You get brackets for installing drives on the bottom and side radiator mounts, a thick rubber spacer block to support a second power supply against the first, and a thinner rubber sheet to prevent vibration between the lower power supply and side support bracket.
Also in the kit: four EVO-branded reusable cable straps, a case badge with Lian Li and "Der 8auer(Opens in a new window) " co-branding, the user manual, ratcheting cable ties, a motherboard and power-supply screw set, a set of shoulder screws for 2.5-inch drives, a pack of rubber grommets to fit up to nine drives, and a pack of 3.5-inch-drive shoulder screws, plus a set of screws for the drive cage's 60mm fan mount. Lian Li doesn't specify that those last screws are sized to hold 25mm-thick fans, but we thought we should mention that and spare you the trial and error.
The front-panel light bar is powered by a SATA-style lead that's too short to photograph within the case-cable group below...
Remaining leads are intended for motherboard mounting, including a combined front-panel LED/button group; HD Audio for the front combo port; USB 3.2 Gen 2 for the front Type-C port; USB 3.2 Gen 1 for the dual front-panel Type-A ports; and aRGB for motherboard control of the light bar. We'd like to thank Lian Li for conforming its front-panel button group to Intel's decades-old standard, since all major motherboard brands (including Asus) now use it.
Lian Li says the O11D EVO supports Extended ATX (EATX) motherboards up to 11 inches deep, but the full spec for EATX is 13 inches, and motherboards that fall between that size and ATX get labeled in a confusing manner. Our build shows there's plenty of room for motherboards of nearly any depth as long as the radiator mount on the side is left empty. Of course, using that mount is key to making this case look spectacular.
Notice, too, that with roughly 85mm of clearance between the top edge of the motherboard and the radiator mount, you'll have enough space left over to mount a second set of fans in a push-pull configuration. There's also 34mm of horizontal clearance between the motherboard surface and 120mm fans, so even sandwiching a 38mm-thick radiator between two 25mm layers of fans is possible.
Besides illustrating how our lighted components look through the O11D EVO's tempered glass, our finished system photo shows just how much light can get through its side-panel vents. That could create a grand visual for builders willing to put RGB fans on both sides of their radiators as well as those installing a single layer of fans without the radiator.
So with our hands-on testing done, on to see how it performs in terms of heat and noise. Our test configuration is as follows, using the ATX board:
Even though the O11D EVO has no fans of its own, it still flows enough air through our radiator to place between the quiet-design SilverStone Seta Q1 and two fan-equipped gaming cases, the Cooler Master HAF 500 and the Corsair iCUE 5000T...
Adding your own case fans would, of course, be beneficial.
In terms of voltage-regulator temperature, the O11D EVO again barely trails the fan-equipped gaming cases...
The quiet Seta Q1 is at a disadvantage here, since we chose to front-mount our cooler to keep that case's top-panel noise baffle in place (in keeping with the purpose of that case).
A check of GPU temperatures also shows the superiority of top-panel fans on three of the builds, while barely registering a deficit for the Lian Li's lack of included intake fans.
The glass side of the O11D EVO is slightly quieter than the Cooler Master's, while the vented side is slightly noisier. Both fall within earshot of the quiet-design Seta Q1, while the Corsair gets penalized for having more powerful fans than either the HAF 500 or Seta Q1.
Since it's designed to be equipped with the user's choice of hardware, including fans, the Lian Li 011D EVO presented a slight testing challenge in terms of comparing it to cases delivered with a loadout of their own fans. It overcame that challenge by flowing sufficient air in "exhaust only" mode using nothing more than the same closed-loop cooler that we'd used to evaluate those other cases.
Still, we'd suggest you ideally add fans to the bottom mount, the side mount, or both. The Lian Li is, after all, designed to hold up to three large radiators. And because of the extreme glass visibility, it practically begs for LED fans galore, whether mounted straight on the case or on radiators.
The O11 is designed for more than just adding a few fans, though. We'd recommend a more elaborate build with three 120mm intake fans on the bottom, since that's where the dust filter is located, plus some kind of radiator and fan combo on the top to aid in voltage-regulator cooling.
That leaves us feeling a bit mixed about the side mount, however, because as great as it looks if you were to put an RGB-lit cooler or fan set there, using it will likely create a dust problem. Even those who choose to mount their own filter internally between the side panel and radiator bracket may notice dust collecting around the vent holes in short order. And while using it in exhaust orientation is another option, having six exhaust fans and only three intakes will cause the system to draw dust in through all of the case's other openings. Then again, most of those are on the back, and creative PC builders could figure out a filtration scheme for them.
Overall, maybe we're overthinking it. The O11D EVO's prime customers are show-system builders who regularly blow their PCs out with compressed air. You could possibly boost the case's practicality by using higher-flow fans on the bottom or ignoring the side radiator mount, but, after all, we're looking at a case that can support more drives than most people own. For builders who use the side drive mount instead of radiators, this chassis could be the best of both "show-off" and "storage."
But really, given all the glass, you get the O11 to show off your components like LED-lit zoo denizens. For that, it succeeds admirably—and won't hurt you much on thermal or acoustic performance.
Lian Li's O11 Dynamic Evolution case is a solid choice for show-system builders and storage pack rats, with admirable flexibility in terms of front-port and cooling-hardware placement.
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