Gadgetory

the way you can tell an overclocker mostly designed a case this one is that it has holes everywhere one mr. dare Bauer designed this case in conjunction with Lian Li we looked at it at CES 2018 and we're actually very impressed with it I think we gave it one of our awards for the show so this is the Leon leo 11 dynamic it also has an 11 air coming out in May or June and the dynamic is where we're starting today for a review and we were able to air cool it anyway so we're gonna look at this one and see how an extreme overclockers case holds up to our thermal battery before that this video is brought to you by the EVGA z10 mechanical keyboard the EVGA z10 includes a small display readout top and center capable of providing Hardware monitoring information and EVGA precision statistics the board comes with either kale brown or blue switches offers a column of programmable macro keys a volume slider a dimmer and a detachable wrist rest learn more at the link in the description below quick note getting started into this all of our lights are plugged into a battery back and right now because the electricity is out so the lighting may be a little bit different from Norley but whatever point it is we're looking at the OLF and dynamic today though all of an error is the one that I'm really interested in it has a mesh or a grille rather in the front and I believe the top that we saw at CES 2018 this is more meant for water cooling build so it's called the dynamic that comes to 0 fans it's a $130 MSRP it's $100 pre-order by the time this goes live pre-orders over so it's $130 case made by Lian Li which for them is quite cheap in cooperation with their Bauer and extreme overclocker who put in a lot of the legwork designing the case there are some pretty good features on it that we'll get to first off though for cooling support so up front of it's glass sides glass fortunately there are still holes in the case the bottom has support for three 120 millimeter fans they only sent nine of them I guess just to make sure we used fans and didn't test it stock with no fans and the left side here has space for a 360 radiator as well or 3 120 millimeter fans top has space for 3 120mm fans as well the back cannot support a fan you could get an 80 mil in there if you wanted to and kind of forcefully mount it but basically it's up to your own decisions to figure out how you're gonna cool the thing we tested a few different configurations one of them was all three fans on the bottom we budgeted it ourselves to three fans for all the thermal testing because basically we looked at it as well it's $130 case maybe you buy a minimum of 30 dollars worth of fans if you're spending this kind of money on a case so if you do that puts you at about 3 fans for kind of the mid-range to cheap stuff so we went with 3 fans for our budget for thermal testing because unreasonable to ask everything tried three in the bottom three in the side we tried two in the bottom one at the top all intake we tried one on the bottom on the side in tank and then one of the top exhaust lots of different things this case is actually really cool from a not necessarily thermally but from a test perspective because it gave us some unique insights that we don't normally see with other cases but let's go through the build quality in the feature set one of the first things we noticed is that when you remove the top panel here which is two screws as usually for a panel what you end up with is just a simple press to get the glass out this actually really cool and it's kind of sad that it's really cool because so many companies can't figure out how to mount tempered glass in a way that's not ugly or really poorly designed from a UX UI UX I guess scenario so glass is super easy to remove that's really nice they use basically just studs that mount into a socket so it's a round peg that goes into a socket same is true for this panel and for the front panel as well so you just kind of push it comes off no screws and it's not like that's gonna make sure cooling better or anything but functionally it's really well designed build quality's good and they clearly thought it out pretty well there are a few things where you can see decision points in the case - for example in the back Leoni is a couple of millimeters away from being able to support a 120 millimeter fan so you know hopefully anyway at some point in the design process someone said make this thing a little wider in support of 120 and ultimately they decided no they wanted a specific size semi compact case without getting into the ultra wide Corsair style double-wide trailer case that we've seen in the past so that's what they went with their four other features I guess I'll pop the glass off here just to show that's the same mechanism so my only complaint with all the popping panels is that with the glass it's impossible to do without getting smudges on it I don't know that there's a better solution to that but be prepared to clean it off all right so that's the bare case internally what we have is a standard layout at sports ATX motherboards and water cooling obviously so you can kind of mount the radiators wherever you want for the things like cable management this motherboard tray comes out really far it's it's super deep but the reason is because there are two power supply mounts behind the motherboard tray so it's compartmentalized and the second power supply mount does not have to be used we're not using it presently it's basically there in case you for some reason maybe you're pushing enough current that you need to power supplies pretty rare use case exceptionally rare because you can't put two computers in here so it would just be if you need two power supplies for one computer which sounds like the kind of thing they're Bauer would need so I was like the kind of thing he said no guys I promise people really want this because he really wants it so anyway you're probably going to use it alternatively it does have a drive cage instead for the second power spot you can pull that move it into either cage power supply slot and then put the power supply whichever one you want well designed there and one of the features that although probably unused in 99% of use cases is a unique one there's a giant tail management bar on the back now technically they have cable tie-down points all over the backside you could properly route and tie down the cables in the back or we just smash it all down with kale management bar so that was well done and implemented the fan options we liked a lot and had pretty unique cooling performance as noted but it does come down to the air for what we want to see on the benches visually this one is one of the better tempered glass implementation we've seen they've managed to put the glass on without screws sticking out they've managed to do it without really annoying tool requirements like flathead screwdrivers and allen keys Corsair and Coolermaster and also the fact that they come to a sort of flush finish at the end makes it look more like a showroom case actually we think it looks better in this stock configuration than it did at CES with their case mod configuration it was a very cool mod props to the person who made it but the stock configuration looks good on its own because it shows off the components so well so other notes vertical GPU placement is something we noticed as soon as we saw the case there are multiple slots for the vertically oriented GPU its we mounted and all of them are set well away from the glass unlike other cases that tend to suffocate air-cooled GPUs by smashing them against the side panel the balancing key that shipped with our case is slightly different than the one depicted in the instruction manual it seems like one that Liana is trying to use for future case designs so they can reduce their tooling cost later the expansion slot nearest the motherboard is impossible to use with an ATX board because of clearance issues and there are mounting holes for the riser cable that don't correspond to any PCIe slots they're too far forward towards the class still we didn't have any problems fitting our extra wide em aside ten eighty in there and the two PCIe slots nearest the glass the ones we use for testing still offer much more GPU clearance than other cases we've seen well put the test bench up on the screen briefly this is what we use for standardized airflow testing and thermals the case is meant for liquid cooling but it still is something you could easily buy for an air-cooled case it's got plenty of fan mounting points it doesn't have to be used for water cooling just because it has glass in fact most of the other cases on the market would indicate that anyway so we have plenty of site intake options we have plenty of bottom top and take up or exhaust options which makes it pretty unique to test our configurations for this would be first of all we use the fans Leon Lee sent three of these we figured probably people will be buying these and to be fair it's what they're sending out with the air later anyways this gives us some early insight and will make it easier for us to compare this case versus the air version of the case later so we use these fans we put three in the side intake all three of them blow air straight in they hit the glass make a u-turn basically you lose some pressure every time you make a 90-degree turn you lose about 30% of your pressure so the air comes in makes a turn and it gets pulled through the CPU tower gets pulled through the video card there's not a lot of place for it to exhaust except naturally based on just air pressure you end up with a positive intake pressure so that would dictate that the air finds its way out through gaps naturally that would be gaps on the bottom the back and the top our other configuration was three fans in the bottom blowing straight up those are largely obstructed by the video card and so the CPU would perform worse in that scenario and then finally or actually the two final ones we had two in the bottom both pushing straight up into the GPU removing the one that was pushing air into the rest of the cabin and then we had one in the top right in front of CPU as intake pulling air down and then after that we did one more with a side intake a bottom intake and a top exhaust because it's any case so we wanted to test all of those let's get into the thermal and noise numbers next and then talk about the results one more note for the thermal testing before we get into it these fans spin really fast 1900 rpm which puts us at total system noise of 48 DBA when everything's going and because of that it's quite a bit louder than everything else on the chart even though we always test everything with max fan speeds unless otherwise stated so we did 100% speeds for comparative numbers with the LIA mio 11 dynamic by itself and then we did a 40 dB a noise normalized set of numbers for something that's toward the top end in terms of noise of all the other cases this gives us more comparative data because it sort of levels the playing field in terms of noise or loudness as opposed to just blasting out the loudest possible configuration and instantly winning all charts starting with standalone torture thermals on the CPU the Leon leo 11 dynamic configured for air cooling posts a wide range of results from 49 degrees to 67 degrees Celsius over ambient except for 40 DBA testing all the other tests were at 100% fan speeds strictly for fan placement comparisons we found that the three outside panel intake fans perform the best with a forty nine degree over ambient CPU results which is closest file by side intake fans at 40 DB a significantly slower and quieter 65% PWM so that was running at 54 degrees configuring one top exhaust behind the CPU one bottom intake below the GPU core and on one side and take near the tower cooler we operated that 58 degrees over ambiens about four degrees warmer than the muted side intake configuration at 40 DBA going on with full bottom intake was worse for the CPU as all the air gets shoved into the GPU and the only output is warmed air and radiative heat into the tower cooler going with to bottom intake and one top intake proves the worst results of a complete lack of any exhaust options outside of some air recirculating and eventually drafting outward so that's what's going on here if you're curious it's because of the way the GPU with an open phase cooler has nowhere to send its air because relatively close to the glass close enough that the PCIe cables are in fact touching the glass because it's a plus-size PCB and so what happens is a lot of that air gets stuck in the bottom compartment and some of it eventually drafts up and gets pulled through the CPU that's why you see the performance we see where these sight intakes do the best because there's a clear path in and out of the case and that is just a complete positive pressure from the front air flow that forces air out all the cracks that can find like the bottom of the case for the GPU when it's pushing air out of the cooler comparatively and focusing primarily on 40 DBA testing the Leon leo 11 dynamic performed marginally above average with full side intake testing at 54 degrees Celsius over ambient this is functionally equal to the measure of icy stock dark base 700 p.m. o2 and eight 700 I there's nothing special about with this performance metric aside from the fact that we still have Headroom to cool better of course louder fans this point is indicated by the 100% fan speed test all 48 DBA of it at 49 degrees Celsius over ambient brute-forcing doesn't get us to the top of the chart still despite burning out about 8 DBA over the next grouping of loud cases but this case is also meant for water cooling it's when Leon Lee ships their air version of the O 11 that will focus on air cooling even more and was originally suggested as shipping with six 120 fans not sure if that speck stayed though the case can be made to perform reasonably well for the dynamic and that's a pretty strong point for it for something that is showy and liquid quilling focused it can still cool really well from an air flow standpoint you'll just have to add fans carefully and in the right positions looking at GPU thermals first against itself the Leon leo 11 posted a range of 48 to 57 degrees above ambient with the three side intake fans again performed best at forty eight point one degrees the muffled side intake operated next best at 51 degrees with a three bottom intake fans performing shockingly poorly after further inspection we realized that this was for two reasons one there's limited distance between the bottom of the case and the desk resulting in a heavier requirement for a high static pressure and overall reduced access to air to the GPU may take air in but it's having trouble again pushing there out with this configuration the GPU horizontally blocks most airflow upwards as well so it becomes something of a closed loop that can recirculate air it's like a firewall you ideally want some exhaust or direct ventilation from elsewhere in the case our custom configurations performed worst with the two bottom and one intake top setup operating at 57 degrees over ambient comparatively the Leon leo 11 dynamic ends up between the coarser 570 X at 1550 rpm the view 71 and the venerable Silverstone are l06 not a bad place to be this positioning is at 40 DBA for the Leon E case which is also roughly the same noise levels the RL 0 6 and the throne take view 37 these three cases are functioning oice normalized and have nearly equivalent performance going to 100% fan speed and 48 DBA gots us most the way to the top but not quite all the way up there the case does fine and it isn't overwhelming in any capacity of the word when it configured with three well-placed intake fans but it's doing ok with the baseline 40 DB a side intake configuration moving on to 3d mark firestrike extreme now the GPU hit 53 degrees Celsius delta T / ambiens in our FS e test that's again roughly equivalent to the view 37 as well as the h5 under B mesh that's among the best scores on our chart for this one especially for modern cases temperatures while rendering with on the CPU mirrored the results of the CV torture test thirty-eight point three degrees Celsius and it's smack in the middle of the chart again liquid cooling or cranking up the fans would improve this number but this degree of CPU cooling is fine for daily use GPU accelerated around Raiden brought the GPU to twenty-five point two degrees Celsius delta T putting it in a favorable position between the age 700 I and the RV zero - it's not the best score on the chart but it's oddly good considering that there's no fan pointed directly into the GPU as there isn't a half X for example we'd initially Peg's the side intake fan slots as a way to show off a fancy radiator but it seems like they can also do a great job in terms of actual functional cooling the stock will have been dynamic in terms of noise levels now has no offense so in a way it's completely silent aside from system noise that put it around with the in wind 303 is when it has zero fans you're looking at system noise and the ability to contain it and how well that's done but we did use three fans for the Leon Lee review as they supply them and these are probably the same fans that'll be used in the Leon leo Levin air later on normally we keep fan speeds maxed out for noise test but those are at 48 DBA because it's 1900 rpm which is absolutely blows away everything else on the chart other than the PMO want the noise normalized tests offer decent performance at 40 DBA which is loud to average for the cases we've tested depending on how you feel subjectively about that the 11 dynamic is different that's great there are tons of manufacturers playing it safe at every price point with samey cases but Leon Lee has avoided falling into that rut for better or for worse performance is much better than we thought it would be especially for a water cooling case and the case is well suited for liquid cooling radiators and open loops if that's what you prefer the vertical GPU mount typically a weak point for cooling performance was handled excellently we're looking forward to the release of the mesh front at 11 air later which will be better suited for our test bench and its price we're not final on but originally at CES what we're told is between 140 and a hundred and sixty dollars we're also told that come with six fans which is a hell of a lot of fans so we'll see if that holds true even with three though it's shaping out to be a really interesting case to test from a feature standpoint the O 11 dynamic has a lot of cool stuff just in terms of being well designed that we don't see on a lot of other modern cases we can think probably dare Bauer for a lot of that he's a proper enthusiast and he frankly isn't someone who designs products all day so he's not going to be blinded by things like keeping costs down or worrying about moq or bomb or any of those other aspects of product manufacturing he's gonna put forward the specs and I'm Leon Lee will take care of it hopefully and it came out really well so a backside has some interesting features that we went over earlier with the kale management bar that's well positioned it's got two power supply it mounts although we don't suspect anyone will really use those for the most part it's a unique feature and cooling has enough ventilation options that if you work on it and you put some time into it you can come out with a really well ventilated system we would suggest side mounts as intake here actually we thought that would be one of the worst performing ones but it worked pretty well and we'll talk about this more with the air version of the case later at 130 dollars it's extremely competitive at the hundred dollar pre-order price it's an easy purchase for the build quality it's superb you do obviously lack the included fans but you can make that up easily and at a hundred dollar pre-order 130 even for the retail price those are both pretty good price points a couple of notes for competition the if they don't take vo 71 that we actually liked a lot more than we thought we would is presently $125 after sales and rebates that's a really good case for the price at 125 bucks so that's a direct competitor in terms of using it for liquid cooling and price not for form factor so keep that in mind other alternatives if you want to look at them and the 150 range the H 500 people e near there depending on what sales are going on we've liked the mesh a lot more than the H 500 P and M zxe has a couple of options as well so that's primarily what we're looking at for immediate competition with the Lian leo 11 dynamic as always subscribe for more go to patreon.com/scishow sexist helps out directly go to store dock cameras access dot net to pick a point of our mod mats and the power is going out now and as noted earlier we're on a UPS for battery because the electricity is out battery's dead huh see you all next time you