Performance Analysis

There are no fans included as standard with the PC-O11, so what we have here is a blank slate and likely something that will be cooled at the very least with an AIO liquid-cooler if not something more powerful, as it's designed with water-cooling in mind from the get-go. As such, our out-of-box testing is more of a token test to assess airflow in comparison to other cases in their stock configuration rather than a do or die test - it would clearly perform better with fans or exotic cooling, but you'll need to factor those in to your budget, as active cooling is non-existent as standard.

As a result, we weren't too surprised by the case's poor performance in our graphs. It managed second from bottom in the CPU test, and the only worse result was a case where the included fans were turned off. It was way down the chart on the GPU delta T too, although it still managed a better result than others, which is embarrassing for those below it.

Another observation is that if you do air-cool the case, it might work to your advantage to point the CPU cooler upwards, as you can see above that the rear vent is extremely small and not as lined up with the cooler as it is with most cases.

Conclusion

Starting with our assessment of the PC-O11 Dynamic, for the cash it's superb. Yes, it's a fan-free blank slate and not complete out-of-the-box, and you'll need to add fans at the very least for your hardware not to get too hot under the collar, but the build quality and cooling potential are exceptional, and there's real elegance in the simplicity of its design. It's not the case for you if you need half a dozen hard disk mounts, but in pretty much every other area, including E-ATX and dual PSU support, a lot of other boxes are ticked.

The added Razer dimension is, for once, a complement to the design, although the logo is maybe a little questionable in such a prominent position given this is, after all, a Lian Li case. Still, the way it catches the light and how the light plays around the case and underneath it is very well done. Even better is that Lian Li hasn't seen fit to double the price just for adding RGB lighting and Razer Synapse compatibility compared to the stock PC-O11 Dynamic. In fact it only cost £35 more when we wrote this, meaning that if you're sold on the lighting it's definitely worth the extra cash. Whichever version of the PC-O11 you go for, though, it gets a big thumbs up from a case design perspective.