Today AIO coolers are an increasingly competitive market segment with many big brands vying for supremacy at all price and performance tiers, so Lian Li needed to produce something special in the HydroShift LCD series to set itself apart. It’s a close run thing but we think they’ve done it through a few key features.

One of those features is not the 2.88-inch LCD panel. A sensor panel is a nifty inclusion but no manufacturer has successfully shown it to be critical to any particular setup, even with a plethora of built-in layouts and configuration options. If you have a project where this mini panel could be the centrepiece then it could absolutely tick all the boxes, but realistically it might not quite be there yet due to a lack of general flexibility. Remember, it’s not a just a small monitor display.

From a quality perspective though? Top notch; probably as good as you’ll see without transitioning to OLED.

Where we feel the HydroShift pulls ahead is just in how uncluttered you can make a PC system’s internals compared to competing solutions. No longer do you have to awkwardly de-emphasize the AIO’s hose or find some way to tuck it away with cable ties and standoffs, the HydroShift does that for you with no fuss in multiple different cooler orientations. It’s surprising just how much that lifts the whole system aesthetic and makes you more confident to show it off.



With this in mind we should also mention Lian Li’s UNIFAN daisy-chaining system. We cannot underplay just how convenient this is for creating a tidy system with minimal cable clutter while also helping cable management behind the motherboard tray. They unquestionably add a lot to the overall package cost but they’re very close to being worth it on their own.

Of course any AIO needs to perform when the chips are down and this model can certainly do that. Although not quite the absolute coolest AIO we’ve tested out the box, the HydroShift was significantly quieter at stock settings maintaining its best temps, speaking to both the quality of the fans and headroom should you choose a more aggressive fan curve.

Speaking of fan curves, the L-CONNECT 3 software is both refreshingly logical and cleanly laid out. Our only concern is that the HydroShift LCD models lean quite heavily on it for LCD display configuration, and so needs a commitment from the manufacturer of long-term software support to back up that 6-year warrant for all the cooler’s features.

Finally we should mention installation, but it really is trivial so long as you have a compatible case. Just a little bit of planning goes an awfully long way and the actual process itself is exceptionally straightforward. Don’t assume that your case is compatible however; even if it would support standard 360mm radiators, the added width of the HydroShift models might foul on the motherboard if radiator mounting points are sufficiently close to the case edge.

The Lian Li HydroShift LCD 360S earns our Creative and Performance awards.

Lian Li’s HydroShift LCD 360S is a 360mm AIO cooler that stays unobtrusive while still being the centrepiece of a system that looks as good as it performs. Great CPU cooling at low noise with a vibrant LCD panel are all draws, but its trump card is in keeping your internals more uncluttered than ever before. Begone sagging hoses, no more shall they pollute the eye-line in your spic-and-span system there to be seen but not heard.




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