With the SUP01, Lian Li has taken a novel approach to PC cooling: take your components, move them away from one another, and then add independent cooling for each. Oh, and they stood everything upright for a small footprint!
Now Come on Guys, Break It Up
Now, we all know that your GPU and CPU are the toastiest components in a PC. The average CPU temperature is expected to be around 70-80 degrees, whilst your GPU can hover around 65-75 degrees. Yet, in most PC cases, we stick these two space heater wannabes together in a single chamber and just throw as much airflow at them as we can to try and keep them cool.
Well, what if there was another way to do this? What if you moved the GPU and CPU cooling away from your motherboard? With the SUP01, you can! This case has not one, not even two, but three distinct chambers for cooling separate gaming PC hardware.
OK GPU, You Go to the Front of the Class
The GPU is moved away from its standard horizontal mounting position and placed at the front of the case. Putting it here means your graphics card is seated directly against the mesh front panel, giving it all the access it needs to cool fresh air. Once the air has passed through the GPU’s cooler, it is exhausted through the side mesh panel by three pre-installed 120mm fans.
Thanks to a highly adaptable GPU bracket, you can fit a wide variety of modern GPUs in this chamber. Using this, you can mount graphics cards up to 400mm long. What’s more, you can install a card of any thickness, as this bracket offers a choice of seven expansion slot positions for low-profile cards or four for standard-profile GPUs. Furthermore, your card will be held securely in place by a bracing bracket at the top of the chamber, which also be adjusted according to a GPU’s length and thickness.
If you think that moving the GPU away from the motherboard will hinder its performance, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The SUP01 comes with a 510mm PCIe Gen 4 riser cable that stretches from the GPU chamber, all the way back to the main compartment. With this cable’s phenomenal transmission speeds of up to 31.5GB/s, you’ll be able to enjoy fantastic gaming even during the most epic battles.
CPU AiO, to the Back with You
To keep the hottest component cool, Lian Li has dedicated a chamber for housing an AiO radiator. Within this compartment, you can install either a 280mm or 360mm long radiator, alongside either two 140mm or three 120mm fans.
For the best performance, Lian Li recommends mounting the radiator as close as possible to the mesh, with the fans set up for a push configuration. By mounting it this way, the fans have ample access to fresh air via the opening at the rear of the case. This can then be channelled through the radiator to be exhausted out the side mesh panel.
Motherboard… You’re Good There in the Middle
Finally, the main compartment of the case is dedicated to your motherboard and other core components, like RAM and M.2 drives. As this hardware is generally not as toasty as the GPU or CPU, convection cooling, where warm air rises through the top of the case, is generally enough to keep this hardware cool.
However, you can add extra cooling to this compartment if you’re using hardware that can get warm. Like a high-end M.2 drive, for example. You can mount a 120mm fan using the included external fan bracket to provide additional airflow through this chamber.
OK Class, Sit Up Straight
So, on top of this unique cooling layout, the Lian Li SUP01 also uses a vertical alignment, instead of the standard horizontal. This means that all the components in the case stand up straight, rather than lying down. Thanks to this layout, the SUP01 boasts a much smaller footprint than a traditional tower case, with a width of 212mm and depth of just 403.45mm. What’s more, by being taller than it is deep, this case can facilitate full-sized ATX motherboards, which generally wouldn’t be possible in other cases of a similar size.
And You’re Looking Good
Lian Li produces some of the best-looking cases you can find, and the SUP01 continues this trend. Many features are dedicated to aesthetics. Starting with the cable management options, the SUP01 looks at other cases with their 3-4 Velcro straps and laughs in their general direction, boasting around a dozen straps and dedicated cable clips. Your cable runs will never have looked so good.
It’s not just the cables that this case hides, but your storage drives, too. You can install up to two 2.5″ SSDs or 3.5″ HDDs in a drive cage, which are then concealed by the solid PSU shroud. A fairly standard arrangement. The SUP01 takes a step further, though, as two more 2.5″ SSDs can be mounted on top of the PSU shroud. Once installed, you can hide these SSDs using a removable panel with a mirror finish, giving the already tall SUP01 the illusion of even greater depth.
No case is complete these days without a splash of colour. The Lian Li SUP01 includes two vivid RGB lighting strips. One is attached to the top of the PSU shroud, running all along the front and side of the case. Meanwhile, the second is on the PCIe riser cable connector for the motherboard. These lighting strips can be controlled either through a pair of buttons on the front I/O or synced to your motherboard for software control.
Ready for Your Report?
Are you tempted to grab a Lian Li SUP01 for its innovative cooling design? Then head over to Overclockers UK and grab yourself one. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Lian Li SUP01
- Triple-chamber design
- Vertical layout for minimal footprint
- Supports GPUs up to 400mm long
- Three pre-installed 120mm daisy-chained fans
- Includes a 510mm PCIe Gen 4 riser cable
- 6 min read
Simon Procter
Author
Having been a gaming nut for longer than he cares to think, Simon landed his dream job over a year ago at Overclockers UK. Since then, he has written many product pages and category texts. He even gets released from the basement to write the odd cheeky blog post. When not working, you can often find him entrenched in World of Warcraft, visiting friends to have his butt whooped in a board game, or with his nose buried in a book.
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