Final Thoughts on the Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2 Flow
As I said at the beginning of this review the original O11 Dynamic Mini came out in 2020, so it is was long overdue for an upgrade. The original even to this day is a great case, so I was interested to see what Lian Li changed. The two biggest improvements to me are the now angled bottom cooling bracket and making the case slightly larger to better accommodate certain hardware.
As someone who uses the original O11 Dynamic Mini as their daily driver I know that it can get a bit starved for air, which obviously effects temperatures. Having the angled cooling bracket allows for better airflow into the case and directs that air where it is needed. Also this bracket is now removable which makes installing your fans and doing maintenance a lot easier.
Making the case larger also allows for true 360mm radiator support when using an ATX motherboard. In my original O11 Dynamic Mini I actually had to get a 3D-printed offset bracket to install a 360mm radiator and things were tight! With the new version of the case that is not an issue at all! We also now have support for normal ATX power supplies. Even being a small case it was quite easy to work in as well, nothing really felt cramped at all.
Now the bottom angled cooling bracket will most likely block the bottom PCIe slot on your motherboard. So if you are someone who is using an expansion card you are going to want to keep that in mind. Also you are going to want to make sure you pre-route and connect any cables that you’ll connect to the bottom of your motherboard as they are hard to access once you get your motherboard installed.
Lian Li did move the I/O on the case to the bottom, but if you don’t like it there you can actually move it up to the top of the case. When it comes to performance we saw great results in our testing, they have definitely improved airflow with this case. And the included 5 fans with the Flow version of the case are very quiet.
When it comes to pricing Lian Li has priced the normal version of the case at $89.99 with the Flow version being $99.99. That is an incredible value considering you’ll get 5 pre-installed fans for only $10 more. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2 Flow Case a 9 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award!
Pros:
– Price
– Now supports 360mm radiator with ATX motherboards
– Easy to build in
– Angled cooling bracket and is removable
– Great performance
– 5 included fans in the Flow version
– I/O can be relocated
– Included GPU support bracket
– Now supports ATX power supplies
Cons:
– Bottom PCIe slot on an ATX motherboard will be blocked
A minor problem is that they don’t sell any matching fans yet so you can’t fill out the back and top fan slots with matching fans.
There also needs to be a clear understanding that the case does not support anything mounted in the traditional #1 slot (the one between the middle mounting screws) found on older motherboards. Many newer motherboard have dropped the #1 slot and use the space for m.2 mounts so the gpu goes in the #2 slot. But there are still some motherboards out there that have a #1 slot and that doesn’t work with this case.