The Meshify C from Fractal Design is a very popular mid-tower chassis for under $100 and there is no doubt it to be among the best when it comes to things like airflow which is its trademark feature. The Lian Li’s Lancool II is another well-known mid-tower case which brings some unique aspects that makes it a worthy choice for $100.
It’s easy to get confused between the Lancool II and Meshify C but if you know your needs well and the major differences between the two, it will become easier for you to choose between the two for your next build. To compare the two cases head to head, I have compared them in 5-6 different things to make the comparison fair and clearer.
In the end, you can read the summary alternatively, if you want to save time but it will be just an overview of what you will be getting with any of these.
Construction
The Lancool II is made up of 0.8mm SGCC steel and the Meshify C is also made up of Steel components mostly along with some ABS plastic components. Both are sturdy and use tempered glass side panel for a clear view of the interior but the Lancool II features dual tempered glass panels.
Lancool II is significantly bigger in size with dimensions as 478 X 229 X 494mmm(LxWXH) whereas the Meshify C is compact with dimensions as 409 x 217 x 453mm(LxWXH) including feet, protrusions and screws.
Design concept
Lancool II is made with a very innovative concept for extraordinary support for components and cable management. It’s a little modular and although it has the most trending and common interior look, it tries to get support for more components from wherever it can from the available space inside.
It is made keeping in mind that it allows maximum cooling support and is designed in a way to support the maximum amount of components regardless of their sizes, which resulted in its bigger size. Meshify C, on the other hand, can support the most common sized components but lacks much modularity and adjustment features which don’t allow every type of component to be installed simultaneously and narrows the list of supported components.
Meshify C although is also designed for increasing the cooling capacity, it is inclined more towards air cooling than liquid. Moreover, the accessibility to the components in Lancool II is much better than Meshify C due to the inclusion of separate and un-connected segments.
Components support
The Lancool II is spacious and supports large components such as E-ATX motherboards, graphics card clearance up to 384mm, cooler clearance up to 176mm, reservoirs and more.
Meshify C also supports decently sized components but can’t support E-ATX motherboards. It has a graphics card clearance of up to 315mm and cooler clearance of up to 170mm but can’t allow reservoirs except by modding.
In the Lancool II, you can install up to 2x 2.5″ SSDs at the back of motherboard tray, 2x 2.5″ SSDs on the right-side panel shroud and 2x 3.5″/2.5″ drives in the PSU shroud. In Meshify C, it’s limited to 3x 2.5″ SSDs on the motherboard tray and 2x 3.5″ hard drives in the PSU shroud.
Lancool II has better accessibility to the storage drives as the bottom sections on both the sides are separated from the main side panels and the side panels easily open from one side due to hinged at the rear.
Cooling support
There are more fan and radiator slots in the Lancool II than the Meshify C and it comes with 3x 120mm pre-installed fans compared to 2 in Meshify C. Both use non-RGB fans by default and while the Meshify C has one fan at the rear and front each, the Lancool II has one fan each at the front, top and rear.
The total number of fans the Lancool II can support is 7-8 depending upon the size of fans you choose from either 120mm or 140mm. Meshify C can support 6-7 fans similarly and the one less fan support is due to only one fan slot at the bottom compared to 2 in the Lancool II.
Lancool II can equip up to 1x 360/280/240mm radiator at the front and 1x 240mm radiator at the top which is the same as in the Meshify C. The difference here is that you can adjust the fans and radiator of the top in the Lancool II to the middle or left depending upon the size of the memory kit you will be using.
Moreover, Lancool II has more space for installing thick radiators at the front and the front multi-way fan/radiator bracket can be moved backwards or forward for either increasing direct cooling or allowing thick radiators.
The front panel on the Meshify C is better in terms of cool air intake as it features a proper and completely vented front panel with an angular design to increase the airflow while Lancool II features a total of 70mm vented front panel area leaving most of the mid area as an obstruction to the intake air. It should be noted that the Lancool II is around 17mm wider than the Meshify C but the latter excels in better air intake.
Cable management and Aesthetics
Lancool II is two steps ahead in easily managing the cables and hiding them effectively. It features a flippable two-way cable management bar to allow easy cable routing from the mid. Moreover, it uses two cover plates at the back for hiding all the major cables from the sight and has multiple routing holes on the PSU shroud for all types of cable connections.
Meshify C also provides decent cable managing features such as velcro straps, multiple big routing holes with rubber grommets for a clean look and up to 35mm of clearance at the back.
With clean cable management features in both the cases, both can have a very neat build with proper planning and the tempered glass panel will allow you to look inside. The angular front panel on the Meshify C makes it look better although the design from the outside is simple and it doesn’t come with any RGB lighting or RGB fans.
The Lancool II, on the other hand, comes with ARGB header at the front panel and two buttons for controlling the RGB peripherals.
[box type=”shadow” align=”alignleft” class=”100%” width=””]Lian Li Lancool II overview
Lancool II is a big and very spacious case with 4 different sections to access the components easily. It can allow several storage drives and can equip liquid water loop much easily than the Meshify C. Having an inbuilt ARGB header and controller buttons, it can sync different ARGB components with the motherboard and with 2x 35mm wide vents at the front panel, a decent amount of air intake will make the system run cool.
[/box] [box type=”shadow” align=”alignleft” class=”100%” width=””]Fractal Design Meshify C overview
Meshify C can support standard components and features fine cable management system with multiple routing holes and velcro straps. It although isn’t as feature-packed as the Lancool II but has a fully ventilated front panel with the angular design to increase the air intake.
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