Review: Lan-Li A3 mATX PC case

For Christmas I decided to upgrade my parents PC with a new hard drive, removing the SSD and replacing it with a M.2, and changing the case from my incredibly old (15+ years) Thermaltake case. The old Thermaltake case was a full tower with a hot-swap on top but their PC is a mATX board with a super cheap Nvidea GT710. The case was too large for what was inside so I decided to buy them a new one.

mATX cases tend to be cut down versions of full tower cases which are either RGB display cases, RGB nightmares, cases with a design aesthetic from a 90’s office or incredibly expensive. As the case is for a home PC used to browse the web a RGB display case was not needed but I didn’t want to compromise and go for a cheap shell. Lan-Li had released the a3 in March 2024, but the edition launched had a cheap looking plastic front. Mods were available on Etsy for something more fitting, but the price of those was the same as the case itself. The wood fronts were announced later in the year they were vented and looked the part so I put an order in for one.

This is not an in-depth review, more of a casual builders’ review. Pop any questions you might have in the comments section and I will try my best to answer them.

THE MAIN CHAMBER

This case is basically a larger version of a Cooler Master MasterBox NR200 (a 18 litre case I chose for my iTX build) coming in at 26.3 litres. There is no room around the back of the motherboard tray for cable management and the PSU placement is at the front of the case in a cage. Building my iTX PC was one of the more enjoyable build experiences I’ve had as I had to make two attempts to get a build I was happy with because of the space constraints. For that build I managed to squeeze in a 1060 GPU, a 240mm radiator, three SSD’s along with a SFX form factor PSU. The Lan-Li A3 case has considerably more room and the case has plenty of room for both cables, up to ten 120mm fans (larger sizes can be fitted), RGB lighting if needed and PWM/lighting controllers.

Whilst this case is built for the M-ATX form factor, it will also fit Mini ITX boards as well. The case dimensions are 194mm (w) x 443mm (l) x 306mm (h).

Visual cable management was not a main concern with this build as I went for the full mesh side option (there is an acrylic glass option for those looking for an RGB build) but I still wanted the inside to be clean once the sides were on. Shrouds do a substantial amount of the heavy lifting to hide cables, and as the power supply in this build was non-modular I was anticipating a bit of mess on the bottom of the case. This turned out to be less of an issue than anticipated as the PSU bracket position can be changed which greatly helps with cable management. With larger graphics cards you will be forced to think a little harder about cable management, but for people with a larger graphics cards you should be using a fully modular PSU which will give you fewer cables to manage.

THE POWER SUPPLY BRACKET

Smaller cases bring with them the challenge of fitting everything in the case. Whilst this isnt an iTX case, consideration is still needed when deciding where to put the PSU. And credit is due here for Lan-Li as you have a surprising number of options.

What I was not expecting was being able to move the PSU bracket. The purpose of this is to set the position of the PSU dependent upon what you want to place above it and below it. So to accommodate a 360mm AIO you lower the PSU to allow it to fit, which is a nice feature to have. Should you have a large GPU and a AIO, then being able to position the PSU will allow you to fit all three pieces into the case successfully.

As the PSU was non-modular in this build, a higher position allowed me to stow all the cables that were not used as neatly as possible underneath the PSU itself.

This is not the only position you can mount the PSU in. Using supplied stand offs you can mount the PSU on the hard drive bracket. To do this you need to rotate the PSU into a non-standard position which will change the direction the PSU cables run from the bottom of the PSU to the side pointing out into the case. This might not be a feasible position if you have a large graphics card. You will also sacrifice a hard drive storage slot for this as well.

Another issue I anticipate with this exhausted air has no where to go so it will blow against the hard drive plate. This can be mitigated with fan placement above, but it isn’t an ideal solution. What would have been nice is some gaps in the hard drive plate to allow air through it and out of the case. I suspect this was not a consideration, as the early release versions of this case have a solid plastic front with no air management.

The power cable also becomes an issue again as you either need to run it across the PSU intake or run it across the mobo.

This position is the best option if you are running a radiator in the side mounted position with a small to mid-sized GPU.

Also worth noting is the bracket used to install the PSU hooks into the chassis. This means you don’t have to perform an awkward hold and screw scenario when installing or removing the PSU. Once the bracket is in place, it is secured with two small screws.

The only draw back to this entire arrangement was the angle of the plug to the power cable extender. It does not matter which way around you place the PSU, the extender points outwards into the case side. This puts pressure on the plug itself, but you won’t see any warping in the case sides. The plug is a 90 degree type which allows the cable to run underneath a radiator, but from testing multiple positions having it angled in the opposite direction would have been beneficial.

The configuration I settled on was having the intake facing the front of the case with the exhaust pointing upwards. I then had a case fan set to draw air out of the case placed above the PSU to assist with exhaustive air flow from the case.

HARD DRIVE STORAGE

There are two main placements for hard drives. Two drives can be mounted on the hard drive plate, and there is a hard drive placement on the bottom of the case for either an SSD or a HDD. The hard drive plate can be moved up and down in the same way as the PSU bracket, and it can be placed on the front of the case as seen above. For a case this size this is an ample number of drive slots. Current gen motherboards have more than one M.2 slot and if you are basing your build around this case then look for a motherboard with a rear side m.2 slot as well.

GPU PORTS

The GPU ports use replaceable covers which is another positive (I personally can’t stand the one use types) and there are two spare covers included in the bits box. The locking door mechanism, to be honest, I’ve never really liked these but this case does have one of those. GPU’s can be mounted vertically, but vertical mounting is offset inside the case which is probably not the best solution for most and is not required if you are going for a non-visible build. The bits box also includes a GPU support stand if your card is one effected by GPU sag.

For reference, the specs state a GPU with a length of 415mm.

WHATS IN THE BOX?

From memory the case was securely packed using the usual moulded polystyrene foam inserts with the case wrapped in a plastic bag protecting the finish. The photo below shows the parts included. There are no fans included, so you will either need to reuse if swapping case or purchase new ones. There are two PSU adaptor brackets: an ATX offset bracket and an SFX adaptor bracket. You get the usual bits box with all the required screws and offsets needed. In this pack you also get a small GPU support bracket and a GPU support base as well.

FRONT PANEL AND CONNECTOR

The front panel is a standard affair with a neat balanced layout. On here you will find two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a power button, a mic port, a HD audio port and a USB 3.1 Type-C port. The panel is located at the bottom of the front of the case. This means the cables that attach to the motherboard runs along the bottom of the case on the inside reducing the amount of cable management required. The Power Connector is a single unit connector which means it plugs straight on to the mother board without the need to plug individual cables in.