Lian Li Galahad II 360 LCD AIO cooler review: Taming the 14900K

Today’s review will cover Lian Li’s latest AIO cooler, the Galahad II 360 LCD. We’ve recently tested the company’s GA II 280 LCD and the non-LCD GA II 360 and found both to perform among the best AIOs on the market. Given this latest cooler’s similarity to those previous models, I already know that this cooler is going to perform well on the i7-13700K testing rig we usually use for cooler testing. So I wanted to do things a bit differently this time around and explore how the  Galahad II 360 LCD handles the hottest CPU on the market, Intel’s Core i9-14900K.

I’ll investigate how Intel’s i9-14900K performs with coolers of all classes – SFF cooling, air cooling, and liquid cooling – to see just what sort of temperatures and power consumption you can expect with Intel’s i9-14900K. We’ll also briefly cover undervolting. 

But first, let’s take a look at the features of Lian Li’s Galahad II 360 LCD before diving into the benchmarks.

Cooler specifications

Packing and included contents 

Included in the box with the cooler are the following:

• 360mm AIO
• Three 120mm fans
• Mounting for modern AMD and Intel Platforms
• Pre-applied Thermal Paste
• Cable management ties
• PWM splitter cable
• Fan Hub (SL-INF version only)

Lian Li sells two versions of the GA II LCD 360, the SL-INF model pictured here for $289, which includes the fancier SL-INF fans with side infinity mirror illumination and a more standard version, without the fan hub/control box, which is available for $249 USD. Other than the lack of infinity mirrors on the standard version, there are a few differences between the fans. The SL-INF version’s fans are rated at 29 dBA, 1 dBA less than the standard version. However, the standard version’s fans have higher static pressure ratings with 3.26mmH20 vs 2.66 on the SL-INF version along with higher amounts of airflow with a rating of 79.9 CFM vs 61.3 CFM. 

Given that, otherwise, the radiator and pump used in both units were the same, this might mean that the standard version would have a slight edge in the most intensive workloads - but for most users, performance differences between these units will be minimal.

I had originally tested the SL-INF version, but I ran into a few issues with the unit that Lian Li sent. The company then sent the standard model as replacement, which I’ve tested with Intel’s i9-14900K, along with a few other coolers to get a sense of what it takes to cool Intel’s flagship CPU.

Features of Lian Li’s Galahad II LCD 360mm AIO

LCD Display CPU Block

The most eye-catching feature of this AIO is, as its name implies, the vibrant LCD display panel on the top of the CPU block. It’s a square 2.88-inch (480 x 480-pixel) IPS screen.

L-Connect 3 Software Suite

To utilize the IPS display, you’ll need to download the latest version of Lian Li’s L-Connect software, which also offers (optional) integration to control fan and pump speeds as well as ARGB lighting settings.

You’ll find a wide variety of customization options for the LCD display offered within the software. You can choose from a variety of effects, and even upload a video up to 3 minutes long.

 8th generation Asetek liquid pump 

The Galahad II LCD features the latest (8th generation) Asetek water pump, which the company claims delivers up to a 2°C/100W improvement compared to its previous generation design.

• Upgraded pump utilizes a three-phase motor for higher liquid flow and quieter operation
• Optimized design increases overall surface area and decreases flow impedance
• Under-the-hood enhancements for quieter operation versus previous generations

Full RAM compatibility

Like most other AIOs on the market, the Galahad II LCD is compatible with any height of DDR4 or DDR5 RAM modules, as it doesn’t interfere or overhang DIMM modules.

Fan Control Hub (SL-INF version only)

The SL-INF version of this cooler includes a hardware hub allowing control and syncronized lighting of additional fans, if you prefer. 

Large Copper Contact Plate, Rotatable Tubing 

This AIO has a copper CPU contact plate with a design that’s been optimized for the latest Intel and AMD CPUs. The tubing that connects to the CPU block and radiator is rotatable, allowing for easier installation.

LGA1700 Socket Bending

There are many factors other than the CPU cooler that can influence your cooling performance, including the case you use and the fans installed in it. A system's motherboard can also influence this, especially if it suffers from bending, which results in poor cooler contact with the CPU. 

To prevent bending from impacting our cooling results, we’ve installed Thermalright’s LGA 1700 contact frame into our testing rig. If your motherboard is affected by bending, your thermal results will be worse than those shown below. Not all motherboards are affected equally by this issue. I tested Raptor Lake CPUs in two motherboards. And while one of them showed significant thermal improvements after installing Thermalright’s LGA1700 contact frame, the other motherboard showed no difference in temperatures whatsoever! Check out our review of the contact frame for more information.

Testing methodology

Today's highest-end CPUs, whether Intel or AMD, are difficult to cool in intensive workloads. In the past. reaching 95 degrees Celsius or more on a desktop CPU might have been a cause for concern. But with today’s top-end CPUs, this is considered normal operation. Similar behavior has been present in laptops for years due to cooling limitations in tight spaces.

All testing is performed with a 23 degrees C ambient room temperature. Multiple thermal tests are run on each CPU to test the cooler in a variety of conditions, and acoustic measurements are taken with each result.

This article is intended to provide a brief overview of cooling Intel’s i9-14900K and how different classes of coolers perform. This article won’t cover noise levels, if you’re interested in the noise levels of different coolers please refer to our latest review of Corsair’s A115 air cooler or Silverstone’s IceMyst AIOs.

Todays tests include:

1. Brief undervolting tests

2. “Out of the box” / Default configuration thermal testing with no power limits enforced

3. Thermal results in power-limited scenarios

a.) Power limited to 200W to emulate a medium intensity workload

b.) Power limited to 125W to emulate a low intensity workload

The thermal results included are for 10-minute testing runs. To be sure that was sufficiently long to tax the cooler, we tested both Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE and DeepCool’s LT720 with a 30-minute Cinebench test with Intel’s i9-13900K for both 10 minutes and 30 minutes. The results didn’t change much at all with the longer test: The average clock speeds maintained dropped by 29 MHz on DeepCool’s LT720 and 31 MHz on Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE. That’s an incredibly small 0.6% difference in clock speeds maintained, a margin of error difference that tells us that the 10-minute tests are indeed long enough to properly test the coolers.

Testing configuration – Intel LGA1700 platform