creating a silent aircooled Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL

Mr Carrot · 25 Jul 2021 at 14:14

Hi guys considering my next build for the Q4 CPU releases and am looking to bin my current case and move to an XL, I am particularly taken with the front glass and hidden PSU, and hidden hot-swapping drives for 4 8tb ssds so I think I am locked into this case at this point.

Now I also have an aversion to AIO coolers - after an intensely annoying experience with Swiftech which led me back onto aircooling and i've had a dark rock pro 4 for a few years which has been incredibly silent and looking to reuse that.

Now obviously aircooling in a liquid cooling focussed case is a bit of an issue so wondering would this work:

3 side mounted 120mm silent wings 3 pwm - mounted into a pwm fan splitter into the mobo

3 bottom mounted 120 mm silent wings 3 pwm - mounted into a pwm fan splitter into the mobo

1 rear mounted 120mm silent wings 3 pwm right into mobo

(I have 4 of these fans already)

Now is this potentially too many fans? Would putting 140mm in the bottom be better than three 120s for creating the correct pressure gradient? Should I put some on the top too?

Not too worried about cost just looking for it to be silent.

Graphics card is a 3090 suprim.

Or am I making a mistake on this case for air? There's an alternative in the 7000d airflow but aesthetically it's a plastic mess vs the metal and glass of the lian li.

Pocket10s · 25 Jul 2021 at 17:43

If your air cooling, why the XL? Theres going to be a lot of empty space.

I don't think it's too many fans - it's how the case is designed and best used. I'd maybe switch the one rear to 3x top to get the heat from that 3090 swiftly out the case

Mr Carrot · 25 Jul 2021 at 19:18

- I like the asthetic of the hidden psu, the storage behind the mobo for HDD cages (I have 4 hdd and three SSD) etc. - the suprim is a BIG card too. I have a large space for the case to fill as part of the room aesthtic up against a lot of chunky electronic and furniture so a small case will look a bit...twee.

Currently have an antec p380 there - love the machined aluminium look but it's struggling in terms of airflow and cable management, window size etc. is very dated.
https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/chassis/83365-antec-p380/

3 exhaust on top makes some sense but wouldn't it be drawing up hot air into the intake fans for the CPU cooler?

Pocket10s · 25 Jul 2021 at 23:43

What CPU cooler are you planning to use?

Even with a big card, the standard O11 would be plenty of space. The XL is only really if you are having a lot of radiators for watercooling; but of course it's up to you. I own a ITX case so I'm quite adverse to wasted space haha.

In my experience, it won't draw up hot air but more give the hot air a better chance to escape while drawing cooler air in. The real answer in any of these scenarios is of course just to test it.

Deluxe1 · 26 Jul 2021 at 13:09

Standard O11:

EsaT · 26 Jul 2021 at 17:42

With those horribly restricting stamped meshes to constrict fans you're going to want lots of fans to have airflow at low speeds.
Fans are like 2/3rds blocked.

Pocket10s said:
...the standard O11 would be plenty of space.

Exactly opposite is true:
Because of that very undynamic different for the sake of different design standard O11 has absolutely crappy space for tower cooler compared to case dimensions.

Pocket10s · 27 Jul 2021 at 00:53

EsaT said:
With those horribly restricting stamped meshes to constrict fans you're going to want lots of fans to have airflow at low speeds.
Fans are like 2/3rds blocked.

Exactly opposite is true:
Because of that very undynamic different for the sake of different design standard O11 has absolutely crappy space for tower cooler compared to case dimensions.

Hmmm your right, I take my initial statement back. It still looks to me a huge waste of empty space but that's my opinion. Maybe a better case layout would suit better, like a Fractal Meshify; that way you can get a D15S in there.

Drumroll · 29 Jul 2021 at 17:40

Nothing wrong with the XL.
The regular O11 won't allow big CPU aircoolers, may struggle with some large GPUs and the bottom clearance cripple the fans there.
The XL works great for air, despite being a watercooled aimed case.
I would always recommend bottom intake to provide cool air for the GPU.
Side intake works good for the case as a whole.
Top exhaust.
Check cooler clearance as I think the regular O11 won't fit your cooler.

Mr Carrot · 9 Aug 2021 at 20:28

Thanks for the feedback guys - it looks like I am wed to an XL to fit in a dark rock pro 4 (or equiv) giant air cooler.

Unless Lian Li are going to release a revision of the case with better mesh in the next few months (which would be nice) It looks like I am going to go with

6* 120mm intake bottom and side. 4* 120mm exhaust (rear and top).