Lian Li Embraces Glass And RGB Lighting With The Alpha 550 Case

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Lian Li released the Alpha 550, a budget-oriented mid-tower case that’s clad in glass on four sides.

Unlike the premium aluminum cases Lian Li is commonly known for, the Alpha series is targeted towards the mainstream price backet. Alpha series cases focus more on performance and practicality than premium quality and styling. Lian Li’s new Alpha 550 is yet another mid-tower that plays to the fans-behind-glass motif, because cases like this seem to be all the rage now. The case has glass side panels and glass cutouts at the front and top. The outline of three LED fans behind a crisscross pattern (which is actually the dust filter) and an LED strip accent at the top front panel are the defining styling elements of this otherwise conventional case.

That conventionality carries over the Alpha 550’s interior. The mid-tower fits the expected amount of computing hardware: a motherboard up to standard ATX, a PSU up to 250mm, and GPUs up to 400 x 170mm. The case has eight conventionally oriented PCI slots, but two additional vertical slots allow a single GPU to be mounted in a rotated orientation. Lian Li does not include a PCI-e riser cable, however. As for storage, the 550 can hold only two 3.5” hard drives but up to five 2.5” drives.

Cooling in the Alpha 550 is also conventional. Three of Lian Li’s 120mm Bora RGB fans come pre-installed at the front. These are wired to the case’s built-in, pre-programmed RGB controller that is not compatible with third-party lighting ecosystems. The rear of the case has a pre-installed non-RGB 120mm fan, and the top of the case can accommodate three 120/140mm fans. Tight headroom leaves the front of the case as the only place that can fit a radiator.

The Lian Li Alpha 550 is available now at Newegg in black and white versions for $193 and $220, respectively.