Lian Li’s O11 Compact Vision is the latest addition to the PC case maker’s popular O11 series, bringing a refined take on the dual-chamber mid-tower case at a price of around $139.99. Positioned as a slightly more compact alternative to the O11 Dynamic EVO, it trims a bit of height while maintaining the O11’s signature focus on expansive cooling support and extreme interior visibility. This case can host an army of fans and radiators, but with no included fans and an optional glass top that you can interchange with a mesh panel, it’s clear this case is designed for enthusiasts who plan to fine-tune their airflow setup at their own expense. While the “aquarium”-style O11 Vision Compact excels in flexibility and premium aesthetics, prospective buyers should be ready to invest in additional cooling to get the best out of it–and reserve cable-routing time to make it all look great.
Design: More Compact, Less ‘Dynamic’
We never quite pinned down what it was that supposedly made Lian Li’s previously reviewed O11 Dynamic EVO so “dynamic,” but it was an exemplar of dual-chamber case design, with its spacious interior and modest 18.2-inch height. The Vision Compact fits most of the same hardware into similar dimensions, with the main difference a further shrink in overall height to only 17.6 inches. That’s still, by no means, small, but it’s an inch or two shorter than the average mid-tower, while still reserving enough space above the motherboard for a thick radiator to sit comfortably.
The Vision Compact’s “front panel” features are actually located on the front (not always true in the PC case world), with the power button near the top of its right edge and the ports/jacks far down below, located on the front of one of the case feet. That power button has a lighted diffuser for its power-on indicator LED, and the other connections comprise a headset jack (headphone and microphone on a single cable), USB Type-C (with a Gen 2×2 motherboard connection), and two USB 3.x Type-A ports.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
A full-length dust filter slides out from beneath the Vision Compact’s left side for easy cleaning. Because this is the case’s only dust filter, fastidious builders might want to plan this mounting position for their main air intake.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The top panel sits so far above the motherboard mounting area that the extra space on the back panel makes room for two 120mm exhaust fans, one above the other. Lian Li has moved the power supply to a second chamber situated behind the motherboard tray. The rear also offers the standard ATX allotment of expansion slots (seven).
Also seen from this angle, two perforated sections of the steel right side panel (at the front and rear) ventilate the power supply bay and a side-facing internal fan bracket.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Like its right side panel, the O11 Vision Compact’s default top panel is punched with a grid of cooling perforations and has no underlying dust filter. One note: We removed the front glass to more easily reach and remove the protective plastic film Lian Li applied to its back side, but we recommend not taking that step if you’re able to get to it from inside, because getting to this point also requires removing the front trim strip.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The “Vision” part of the case’s name comes from an optional glass top panel that users who don’t want the top ventilation can swap into place. Installing this glass panel requires the existing panel be removed first, then the top fan bracket, then a vertical riser that runs from the fan bracket to the bottom panel.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The fan bracket under the factory-mounted top panel is designed to hold up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans in a 96mm-high space above the motherboard. That allows room for builders to put a row of 25mm-thick fans on each side of a 45mm-thick radiator up to 419mm long. As most radiators are around 40mm (plus or minus 6mm) longer than their fan sets, that’s enough space for every 360mm-class AIO liquid cooler we can think of.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
There’s also enough room for a 360mm-format radiator (up to 411mm long) or three 120mm fans in front of the motherboard, and that measurement also happens to be just a little longer than the largest 360mm AIO we can think of. The motherboard tray itself is cut through with holes to support the reverse-facing connectors of Asus Back to the Future (BTF) and MSI Project Zero motherboards, and grommet-lined cable passages a bit farther from the edge of the motherboard’s mounting space are placed for access to things like ATX12V connectors.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Putting a radiator behind the O11 Vision Compact’s side bracket doesn’t make much sense with regard to tube routing, so Lian Li made the bracket reversible. Cooling configurations up to 111mm thick will fit between the reversed bracket and a graphics card, though users who want to make their cooler appear flush with the motherboard should target a total thickness of 79mm. That latter measurement also happens to be the average thickness of an AIO radiator (28mm) plus two layers of fans (51mm)…hmm! The bottom panel can also be home to a 360mm radiator or three 120mm fans.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Behind the right side panel are the side fan/radiator bay, the power supply bay we mentioned earlier, two drive bays, and a hinged divider that’s drilled to hold two additional 2.5-inch drives. Also back here is a badge showing off Lian Li’s collaboration with PCMR for this chassis.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Lian Li attached the O11 Vision Compact’s hardware kit to the back of that hinged divider, filling one of the two 2.5-inch drive mounts and consuming some of the additional cable space. (It’s packed this way for shipping convenience, not to suggest the builder should keep it there.)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Secured to the back panel via three sliding screws and a single (knurled) fixing screw, each of the drive bays is individually removable. and each supports the builder’s choice of either a 3.5-inch or a 2.5-inch internal drive.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Building With the Lian Li O11 Vision Compact
The installation kit we mentioned includes a bag of mixed hardware with coarse-threaded fan screws and three extra standoffs, plus the expected assortment of M3 and #6-32 mounting screws. There’s a lot more, though: a bag of additional shoulder screws for mounting drives onto vibration-damping grommets, the grommets themselves, a #2 Phillips-to-hex adapter socket for standoffs, three replacement snaps for the top of the right side panel, and some cable ties. Also included are a thank you card, a brief installation guide, and that glass top panel.
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(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
A nine-pin combined button/indicator LED and an HD Audio connector, a paired USB 3.x Gen 1, and a USB 3.x Gen 2×2 cable connect our test motherboard to the O11 Vision Compact’s front panel.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
We followed our typical hardware installation, mounting our closed-loop CPU cooler’s radiator above the motherboard so that its fans would pull some of the heat away from its voltage regulator, noting that the top fan mount of this case is roughly twice as distant from the motherboard’s top edge as we’d expect to see in a typical case. Our foot-long graphics card barely overlapping the edge of the side fan mount would be of little consequence to those hoping to use that mount, given that the gap behind the card is up to 111mm deep.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The finished build looks well enough when lit, but we think that most users who want this level of component visibility will also want to fill the side mount with some lighted fans. So factor in that cost.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Since the glass panel is included both in the product’s packaging and name, we decided to test the case in that configuration, too. Here’s a picture of the pieces we removed to install the top glass, minus the seven screws that held them together:
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The O11 Vision Compact can hold many fans, but it includes none. To keep air flowing over our motherboard’s voltage regulator without the top mount in place, we moved our closed-loop CPU cooler’s fans to the back panel and oriented them to pull air through its radiator. We understand that the cooling system likely would have worked better with the fans blowing through the radiator and back panel from the inside, but our radiator would not fit in that orientation: See how snugly it fits between our graphics card and to case’s top edge.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
We would need much more component lighting to see the visual benefit of switching from a vented to a glass top panel, and an idea that we have for solving that issue would lead us into an all-out building article to which we declare: Not today!
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Testing the Lian Li O11 Vision Compact
The above build used all of the hardware of our latest ATX case test configuration…
The first problem of comparing the O11 Vision Compact to other cases is that most of those have pre-installed fans. The second problem is that the top of the radiator had to be higher than the water pump to ensure that air bubbles would not get trapped in the pump (which would have rendered it ineffective). Replacing the top fan mount with the optional solid glass panel left us the rear and side panels as the only viable alternative radiator mounting locations.
The lack of extra fans left the as-delivered O11 Vision Compact tied with the fourth-place Tryx Luca L70 in cooling performance, and replacing its top with glass made its performance look even worse. While the former could be addressed by installing intake fans on the bottom, the latter—glass-topped performance—would be best addressed by mounting the radiator on the side and adding fans to the rear. Unfortunately, side-mounted intake fans bypass the case’s air filtration, not to mention the effect those extra fans might have on noise.
You see, the O11 Vision Compact’s lack of fans did make it relatively quiet, particularly when compared to the similarly designed Montech King 65 Pro. Adding the glass top lowered the noise from the closed side but increased it from the open side, almost as if the noise was bouncing around looking for the vented side from which to escape.
Verdict: Elegant Look, Just Add Your Own Air
The O11 Vision comes up short only in that it lacks parts that you might have been planning to replace anyway, particularly if your plans include an elaborate multi-radiator cooling system. None of the compared cases has its ability to hold three 360mm-format radiators, and none includes its alternative glass top. Since most of PC builders won’t need to fit a third 360mm radiator, and since those that do won’t be able to make use of its glass top option, we’ll recommend, as ever, that you buy whichever case most closely matches your specific build desires.
That said, the O11 Vision Compact deserves kudos for fitting this much flexibility into a case this short. And if you want to go all-in on visibility with the glass top, you still have quite a lot of fan- and radiator-mounting potential beside the motherboard, on the bottom, and on the rear panel to go RGB-wild while keeping up a lot of airflow.
Lian Li O11 Vision Compact
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The Bottom Line
Lian Li’s O11 Vision Compact, a stunning, high-visibility “aquarium” PC case with up to three sides of glass, is also the most reasonably sized and priced chassis we’ve seen that supports three radiators.
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