Lian Li/DAN A4-H2O

[Vilmir]

I have just received my A4-H2O after having ordered it last Thursday from caseking.de

I will now remount my unit, pictures of internals coming once I am finished.
First impressions:

1. the package is minimalist, which I appreciate a lot, no useless colored box or marketing material, straight to the point of transporting safely the case
2. it is a very light case for its size
3. the finition level is high and the borders of the panels do not have the sharpness issue reported with some preview units

 

[alexba]

@dondan nothing fancy - waiting for other hw. Still running my 8400 setup from the A4 in it

 

[couchpotato]

Just order one from Megekko.nl. Should arrive this weekend and have some fun building it.

 

[reloader-1]

Final question Dan - I have the rare opportunity to purchase either the 3090 or the 3080ti, Nvidia founders edition.

I know you’ve said the 3090 isn’t good for the case, but is it a complete “no” or more of a “higher temps, it works but not ideal”?

 

[pr0m3t]

Final question Dan - I have the rare opportunity to purchase either the 3090 or the 3080ti, Nvidia founders edition.

I know you’ve said the 3090 isn’t good for the case, but is it a complete “no” or more of a “higher temps, it works but not ideal”?

I would not advise it, it's a 3 slot card so it'll have no space to breathe. It will likely get loud and will throttle.

 

[Sldr]

Case is damn pretty!

 

[Sldr]

Didn’t take much pictures while building, one advice: just follow the manual

 

[dondan]

Final question Dan - I have the rare opportunity to purchase either the 3090 or the 3080ti, Nvidia founders edition.

I know you’ve said the 3090 isn’t good for the case, but is it a complete “no” or more of a “higher temps, it works but not ideal”?

I would go the 3080 FE route. Less noise, less money and very very good performance.


@Sldr:
I love the look ok the Asus pump. What are your temps?

 

[Sldr]

Specs here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bZxTH2

Cinebench settled on some 70°C on the CPU, peaked to 80°C or so when the AIO’s fans were still ramping up.

 

[zorael]

Spammed F5 and ordered from caseking as soon as the listing went up, arrived in Sweden yesterday 21/2. I just finished building it and I like it. Previous case was a Lazer3D LZ7 XTD, which wasn't bad but it scratched easily and I simply tired of it.

I went with the EK Basic AIO, because I don't believe in RGB. It's nice, but just like in that reviewer's video the heatsinks around the socket really interfere with it, so the hoses are quite literally pushing against the RAM sticks. Not ideal. (This is an ASUS Strix Z270-I.)

If like me you get Noctua F12 chromaxes to replace whatever fans your AIO comes with, be sure to mount them so the cables exit out toward the GPU side of the case. Because the extension cords *will* come loose when you're not looking, and having the fans in any other orientation will just make the cabling that much more difficult to access and remedy.

I'll take some pictures to show what I mean tomorrow when there's daylight.

I'm running prime95 overnight now and so far temps seem to peak at 75C. But then the fans are mostly running at 100%, so it's noisy. Processor is an old i7-8086K at 5 Ghz, with zero undervolt headroom (I tried), so I might just underclock it a bit to quieten it down.

 

[dondan]

The 8086K is a CPU that is hard to compare because die and headspreader arent't soldered. This is why delidding drops temps up to 20°C. I had a i7 8700 in the past that is also not soldered and had similar results.

 

[zorael]

The 8086K is a CPU that is hard to compare because die and headspreader arent't soldered. This is why delidding drops temps up to 20°C. I had a i7 8700 in the past that is also not soldered and had similar results.

Yes, it is delidded and has liquid metal applied.


One thing I forgot to mention was the front panel USB-C cable length; it can just barely reach the header at the corner of the motherboard, as shown in the pics. I had to sandwich it between the other cabling or it ended up short. It works, but for this motherboard you may want some extension cord, if they exist(?).

 

[zorael]

Yes, it is delidded and has liquid metal applied.


One thing I forgot to mention was the front panel USB-C cable length; it can just barely reach the header at the corner of the motherboard, as shown in the pics. I had to sandwich it between the other cabling or it ended up short. It works, but for this motherboard you may want some extension cord, if they exist(?).

I see now that the PSU is mounted backwards? Will have to revisit it.

 

[Sldr]

Here's an iPhone 13 Pro video of the sound of the RTX3080 in the A4-H2O while running a 3DMark Time Spy Stress Test.


(at the time of this post, the HD/4K versions are still processing)

 

[Vilmir]

I am still in the process of rebuilding my unit in the A4-H2O.
I ordered a Phanteks AIO 240 with the case, and I never used AIOs before on my AM4 motherboard.

The cooler stand-offs sold with the AIO are supposed to screw in my AM4 backplate, but the screw is so short on the stand-offs that only 2 can be screwed down to the backplate, and of course the 2 that can be screwed are not in a diagonal.
Is it a common problem with AM4 and AIOs?

 

[dark]

I am still in the process of rebuilding my unit in the A4-H2O.
I ordered a Phanteks AIO 240 with the case, and I never used AIOs before on my AM4 motherboard.

The cooler stand-offs sold with the AIO are supposed to screw in my AM4 backplate, but the screw is so short on the stand-offs that only 2 can be screwed down to the backplate, and of course the 2 that can be screwed are not in a diagonal.
Is it a common problem with AM4 and AIOs?

I have this problem with LGA 1200 using the NZXT Z53 AIO. At the moment I'm only holding down the AIO with two standoffs since the screws don't reach the other two. However; mine are screwed in diagonal.

 

[JustinDulay]

Went with the Phanteks 240MP as I wanted to route the hoses through the bottom. However, the Trident Z heatsinks are quite tall and sharp and actually damaged the braid on the tubes, so back to the top it is until I change my system.

 

[confusis]

Went with the Phanteks 240MP as I wanted to route the hoses through the bottom. However, the Trident Z heatsinks are quite tall and sharp and actually damaged the braid on the tubes, so back to the top it is until I change my system.

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/ea5kEVi" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/ea5kEVi">Dan A4-H20</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

FWIW @JustinDulay , just post the link to the gallery and it will auto embed - no need to try use script or CSS

 

[Sldr]

Took some pictures with the FLIR camera of a CAT S62 Pro.

Lian-Li A4-H2O FLIR images - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[GucksTV]

I will be releasing my german review of the case arround Sunday this week.
Lets see if the new DAN Case can hold up with its smaller predecessor!