Lian Li GA II LCD 360 in review – Square, practical, good?

Methodology

Cooling an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X at various levels of power consumption, joined by 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (2x8GB) DDR4 memory on an MSI B550 Tomahawk (BIOS 7C91vAB). The Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB runs in zero-fan mode for the CPU stress tests only, and a Fractal Design Ion Gold 750W serves as the power source. The whole thing is housed in the Thermaltake Core P3 as an open benchtable.

The test system runs Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (build 19045.2251). All data sets are captured with HWInfo64 v7.34-4930 – 5000ms logging, the specified temperature is derived from the sensor CPU Die (Average). Since I don’t have air conditioning, the values in the graphs are the delta between room temperature and CPU temperature. This allows a fair comparison of all cooling systems, even if the ambient temperature is different. Thethermal paste included with the cooler or pre-applied is used in each case.

I determine the sound level with a Voltcraft SL-200 meter at a distance of 40cm, which operates in 125ms cycles in Lo mode. The room was measured at 33.2 dB(A), an external sample table helps with the breakdown .

Benchmarks

In the first test run, a loudness of 40 dB(A) was set at 40cm from the center of the pump and fans on the radiator, in my setup that’s 53% PWM on the radiator fans and 100% PWM on the pump:

 

And after that, this cooler still gets to show what it can do in terms of cooling performance at the highest speed, regardless of volume. Amaximum of 59.6 dB(A) was achieved at 100% PWM and 40cm distance.

A full comparison to other coolers can be found here:

Roundup and re-measurement of all tested CPU air and water coolers

Summary and conclusion

We already know the good cooling performance from the similar Trinity Performance, whoever found that too plain now gets the exact visual opposite here. Personally, I prefer displays next to the computer rather than in it, but that’s a matter of taste

But I would like to emphasize the 385mm long hoses and movable angles on the radiator, which allow a much higher flexibility during installation. The accompanying software is so far okay and offers a variety of further customizable templates, although some of them look a bit clumsy or the font is too exotic for me.

Shortly before the release, the date was pushed back a few days and prices are not yet available, so an evaluation in this regard is somewhat difficult. Apparently there is still some movement behind the scenes. Assuming thatthe variant without IPS screen and RGB fan is currently priced at around 170€, the GA II LCD should be quite far in the upper price segment.

The review sample was provided by Lian Li without obligation. There was and is no influence on the tests and results. Therewas also no compensation for expenses and no obligation to publish.