DAN A4 H2O	SPECIFICATIONS
DIMENSIONS	326 x 140 x 244mm (L x W x H)
VOLUME	11.1 Litres
MATERIALS	Aluminium & Steel
I/O	2x HD Audio USB 3.0 Type-A USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-C
MOTHERBOARD COMPATIBILITY	Mini-ITX
MAX CPU COOLER HEIGHT	55mm
EXPANSION SLOTS	3
MAX GPU LENGTH	322mm
MAX GPU THICKNESS	61mm (triple slot)
RADIATORS SUPPORTED	240mm
RADIATOR COMPATIBILITY	55mm thickness (radiator + fans)
POWER SUPPLY COMPATIBILITY	SFX / SFX-L
CASE FANS SUPPORTED	Top: 2x 120mm Bottom: 1x 92mm (fan mod / unofficial – replaces 2.5″ drive)
2.5 / 3.5” DRIVES SUPPORTED	1x 2.5″

DAN A4 H2O is 11L aluminium Mini-ITX case, created in collaboration with Lian-Li & DAN Cases. Prices start at US$129 for PCIe 3.0 and US$169.99 for PCIe 4.0 version. The A4 H2O is available via Newegg, CaseKing & Overclockers UK.

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CASE	DAN A4 H20 X3
MOTHERBOARD	GIGABYTE B660I AORUS PRO DDR4 (paid link)
CPU	Intel 12700K (paid link)
CPU COOLER	EK AIO Basic 240 (paid link)
GPU	RTX 3070 Ti (paid link)
GPU RISER	200mm PCIe 4.0 ITX Riser Cable (paid link)
PSU	Corsair SF 600 Platinum (paid link)
RAM	Crucial Ballistix, 16GB (2x8GB), 3600MHz, CL16 (paid link)
STORAGE	1TB M.2 NVME (paid link)
CASE FANS	Top: 2x Noctua NF-A12x25 chromax.Black (paid link) Bottom: Noctua NF-A9x14 (paid link)

We were able to install a 92x14mm Noctua fan in-place of the 2.5″ SSD using anti-vibration fan mounts. We set our 92mm fan to exhaust and AIO fans to intake. You can fit a 92x25mm fan if your using custom cables.

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THERMAL TESTING

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ISSUES

The DAN A4 H2O X3 is using custom PCIe riser cable with custom mounting points. It does not follow the typical ITX riser cable form factor that the majority of 3rd party cables will use. This is little unusual but okay.

The installed triple slot GPU PCIe riser stand-offs in the DAN A4 H20 X3 case have different tread size/style than intended. All PCIe stand-offs screws should use M3 (3mm thread) as pictured on left.

Due to Lian-Li installing incorrect triple slot GPU riser cable stand-offs at the factory in the X3 case variant; we were unable to install the included dual slot GPU stand-offs in the PCIe 3.0 stand-off mounting points as the thread size/style were not compatible with each other.

This also meant we were unable to install our compatible 200mm LINKUP PCIe 4.0 cable as the pre-installed triple slot GPU stand-offs were not compatible with PCIe 4.0 riser cable mounting points. We had to wait for Lian-Li to send the intended stand-offs before installing our LINKUP PCIe 4.0 riser cable.

Lian-Li have advised the wrong stand-offs were installed at the factory in the X3 case variant, but did not confirm how many units were affected by the issue. Upon further investigation from ourselves, it’s very likely that Lian-Li was unintentionally installing motherboard stand-offs and not GPU stand-offs in the X3 case variants. Other users have reported the same issue.

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Our cases right side panel would not line up flush with the top panel. Further inspection revealed the panel is bowed in the centre.

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The cases front panel would not sit completely flush in bottom left corner due to our GPU length: 320mm and/or that we were not using PCIe stand-offs due to the riser cable stand-off issues with detailed in previous sections.

CONCLUSION

The DAN A4 H2O is an excellent 11L case, but is not perfect.

With most PC cases, it has quality control issues. We expect issue to be ironed out as more units come off the line and further revisions are made.

Hopefully feedback gets addressed, rather than being swept under the carpet. However, it’s likely that Lian-Li wont do anything with our feedback as we don’t have huge influence for them to care.

Cooling performance is as expected for case of this size & hardware compatibility. Our build faired little better due to using unofficial 92mm bottom exhaust fan instead of 2.5″ SSD. One thing we noticed was having our GPU fans running increased CPU temperature in CPU only workloads.

But despite any issues, the A4 H2O is among the best SFFPC cases currently available and has an excellent pricetag to match.

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LIKED	DISLIKED
Design aesthetics	Case modularity (limited to GPU)
Case materials (aluminium vs SPCC)	Quality control (where to start)
11 litre case size (can accommodate seriously powerful hardware in very small footprint)	Case flexibility (primarily designed for AIOs, not air cooling)

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