Installation of the Lian Li HydroShift LCD 360S
As with most AIOs, the installation of the Lian Li HydroShift LCD 360S is a pretty straightforward process. As DIY PC building seems to be getting more popular each and every day, the option of AIO liquid coolers is sure to entice those wanting to have a more advanced build, and easy installation will go a long way towards not scaring off first-time builders. As I mentioned when I covered the included accessories, Lian Li has included all of the necessary mounting hardware for a large list of both Intel and AMD processors, but they did not include an installation guide or manual with my review sample. Thankfully, after years of installs and being familiar with the previous Lian Li connections, I had no trouble getting this cooler into my test system. I have seen quite a few companies move to digital versions of their product manuals, and while I appreciate their reduced waste, I still prefer a physical copy of installation instructions. Hopefully Lian Li either provides a physical copy for retail customers, or provides a QR code to a digital version – neither of which was provided to me.
Our testing is performed with fans in a push configuration, and thankfully that is how Lian Li had them installed from the factory. Again, this is a pretty handy feature that takes a bit of work out of the installation process, but just be prepared to do some extra work if you are wanting to change the placement and orientation of the fans in your build, as you will need to also think about the tubing shroud and brackets on the radiator.
From the factory, the HydroShift LCD 360S has a universal mounting bracket installed, so my first step of CPU block installation was to install the AMD mounting brackets on my motherboard for my Ryzen 7 1800X test system. I do like this option, as it results in less unused hardware across platforms, and makes installation a bit easier since you don’t have to worry about swapping out the block hardware and making sure you have the correct orientations, etc.
As I mentioned earlier, Lian Li provides a stencil, paste, and spreader in order to apply thermal paste to the base of the cooler. This is a bit different than simply installing a cooler with pre-applied paste, or just putting paste on your CPU and letting pressure do the rest. The stencil method takes a bit more time in order to line up the pattern on the bottom of the cooler, and to spread the paste evenly over all of the cutouts.
That being said, it does result in a nice looking pattern of paste that is laid out in a manner that Lian Li recommends.
Placing the cooler onto the CPU, I was able to line up the screws on the pump bracket with the white plastic AMD mounting bracket and tighten it down via the screws in the four corners.
Next up is attaching the radiator to the top of our case, which is usually a simple task. Unfortunately, I found this to be a lot more frustrating than usual, due to the “tubeless aesthetic” and the way the tubing comes off of the radiator. There is really only about half of the tubing length to work with compared to traditional AIO setups, and to make matters worse, the top-mounted fittings on the pump housing take up additional space where the tubing exits the radiator shroud.
Lian Li advises that your installation location needs to support 140mm wide radiators, even on this 360 x 120mm radiator, as the extra width for the tubing being routed adds quite a bit of extra size to this setup. And while my Fractal Design Define R6 case does support up to 420mm radiators at the top, I found it to be quite challenging to shoehorn everything into place. I do feel like the tubing is bent more than I would like, but I also feel a bit better about it knowing that Lian Li used the improved tubing that can handle tougher bends, as well as the fact that !SPOILER ALERT! this unit performed great.
With that out of the way, next you just take the twelve included screws, align them with the appropriate mounting points on your case, and tighten.
In order to power the HydroShift’s pump, the single 4-pin PWM cable attaches to the motherboard CPU fan header. To power the LCD screen and radiator fans, I needed to connect the SATA power cable to my power supply, and connect the cable coming off of the fans to the female PWM plug on the combo cable. Additionally, the USB 2.0 cable connects to an available motherboard header. All of this connectivity is used to power and control the entire unit via L-Connect 3.
Lastly, a plastic pump mount cover slides over the mounting hardware for a cleaner finished look.
