Our Verdict
88%
A good-looking, great-performing cooler for a surprisingly reasonable price.
Better-known for its cases than CPU coolers, the first liquid cooler we’ve seen from Lian Li impressed us from the outset with some solid-feeling fans equipped with anti-vibration mounts, not to mention a brushed aluminium-encased radiator and pump. It looks fantastic, and unlike most of the radiators included with other coolers of this type, you’d actually want to make the 240mm model here the centrepiece of your PC.
The Lian Li Galahad’s lighting is high-quality and accurate, with vivid colours that look better than the lighting from cheaper coolers such as the Antec Neptune 240, and the semi-transparent fan blades diffuse the colours attractively as well. What’s more, the pump unit has a large ring of densely packed circles, which allow the light to shine through them. Plus, if you prefer to cover up the Lian Li logo, there’s a magnetic aluminium cap you can place on top instead, which still allows the lighting to be visible.
Installation is a little more involved than usual, with more components needed than average, but it’s a pain-free process and it’s particularly easy on Socket AM4, where the cooler makes use of the existing socket mounting mechanism (although it’s not compatible with previous AMD sockets). You also get a separate tube of thermal paste included in the box, so you won’t have to buy more if you upgrade your CPU in the future and need to reseat the cooler.
The only issue with the installation process is that you need to deal with a number of cables to hook up all the various bits. There are splitter cables for the fans, but the pump will need a header of its own. The RGB lighting cables do thankfully have a three-way splitter, so you can control both the fans and pump from a single source, although there’s still quite a bit of cable spaghetti to tidy away.
Meanwhile, lighting control can be performed using your motherboard’s software and connecting the cooler’s 3-pin RGB connector to a header on your motherboard, or by using the basic included RGB controller. The end result is a setup that easily matches the Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capellix in terms of lighting prowess, but not in the fan control department, thanks to the Corsair cooler’s software control system.
Conclusion
With a reasonable price tag, excellent cooling and great build quality, the Lian Li Galahad 240mm is our pick if you have around £100 to spend on a CPU cooler, and don’t need the extra features offered by coolers such as the Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capellix. Its lighting is fantastic and it can tame the latest CPUs from Intel and AMD with ease, while including a few extras to make your life a little easier when dealing with its mass of cables.
Price
£110
Scores
LGA1200:
COOLING: 39/40 | FEATURES: 18/20 | DESIGN: 14/20 | VALUE: 17/20
AM4:
COOLING: 38/40 | FEATURES: 18/20 | DESIGN: 15/20 | VALUE: 17/20
Pros
- Excellent cooling
- Fantastic RGB lighting
- Great-looking pump and radiator
Cons
- No software control
- Lots of cables to deal with
- More than average number of installation components
Lian Li Galahad 240mm specifications
- Intel compatibility: LGA1200, LGA115x, LGA2066, LGA2011
- AMD compatibility: Socket AM4
- Radiator size with fans (mm): 120 x 277 x 52 (W x D x H)
- Fans: 2 x 120mm
- Stated noise: 32dBA