Lian Li has taken the fan market by storm with their Uni-Fan lineup. A lot of that is just offering a simple design that cuts out a lot of the wiring needed with RGB fans. But they have also been creative with their different designs offering multiple different RGB designs. The one thing that is missing from their lineup are performance-focused fans, something that can compete with companies like Noctua and Be Quiet. Lian Li has filled that gap in their lineup with their new Uni Fan P28 fans which are noise and performance-oriented and also have fluid dynamic bearings. They still have the other uni-fan specific features like daisy changing and how they handle their wiring. So today I’m going to check out the P28 fans to see what they are all about.

Product Name: Lian Li Uni Fan P28

Review Sample Provided by: Lian Li

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

Photos and Features

Lian Li sent over both the black and white models of the Uni Fan P28 and both have a similar packaging design that looks just like past triple packs of Uni Fans. The big difference being the picture on the front of the box which doesn’t have any lighting like past Uni Fan designs. The black fans almost blend into the black background and the white model stands out. The box has blue trim on the sides. Up top, you can see that this is a triple pack with the icon in the right corner and also the 6-year warranty. Then down on the bottom edge, the model name is the largest font and the bottom right corner shows that these are 120 mm fans and has the color noted as well. The back of the box has another picture of the fan, this time not spinning with a specification listing below that, and on the right, they list off and explain some of the key features.

The top of both boxes is held closed with tape, once you cut that you can open the box up. Right up on top, all of the cables are visible with the documentation sitting between those and the fans. The fans are individually wrapped in bubble wrap bags to help protect them from any rubbing or damage.

The Uni Fan P28 comes with most of the same cables that other Uni Fans come with. There are three standard cables, these have the PWM 4-pin connection on one end and the small recessed plug on the other to connect to any of the fans. They are sleeved to match the fans as well so the black fans have black sleeving and the white fans have white sleeving. There is one of the daisy chain cables, these have the recessed fan plug-in on one end and the slide latch connection on the other to connect two fans together. Then the last cable plugs in inline with the 4-pin PWM cable and is a fan speed controller, unlike the other Uni Fans, the Uni Fan P28s don’t have any need for a lighting controller so that isn’t included this time around. There are three small baggies with black fan screws and then for documentation, you get a small sheet of paper with instructions on what comes in the box and how to link the fans together, and how to attach the two cable connection types. Interestingly the white cables which do have sleeving to match the white fans have a white plug on the fan side but the PWM plugs are still black.

The front of the Uni Fan P28 has smaller anti-vibration pads on the corners than the Uni Fan AL120 V2’s that I took a look at last. These also have a little styling to them with fangs in the shape facing towards the fan itself and two different thicknesses to the pad. Around the pad, there are accents as well molded into the housing. The fan design runs up closer to the edges of the housing and the blades are extremely tight to the housing as well whereas the AL120 V2 had a comparably small fan in the same 120mm form factor and a big gap between the blades and the housing. The fan blade design is also completely different with the AL120 V2 having 7 blades and the Uni Fan P28 having 9. The center housing has a transparent cover on it that has the Lian Li logo in white showing the metal center section through the logo and a peak at the gold around the bearing in the center. The Uni Fan P28 uses a fluid dynamic bearing design. I should also point out that the Uni Fan P28 is significantly heavier than the other Uni Fans, the plastic used seems to be different as well, especially for the fan blades. Their specifications list polycarbonate, PBT, and  Liquid-crystal polymer with the Liquid-crystal polymer being a new addition explaining the heavier-duty feel.

The back design has the same outer housing with the same styling there. The only change from the front of the Uni Fan P28 are the four supports that run from the housing to the motor in the center. The back also uses a transparent cover as well like the front. This has the P28 model name printed in white and it shows the three fan speeds that the included controller use. The fan mount has holes in it that look like it point to the fluid dynamic bearing. The Uni Fan P28 can run from 200 RPM up to 2600 RPM, this is a change from the 2000 RPM of the AL120 V2 and with that and the improved design each fan pushes 92 CFM compared to 77.3 CFM. The map air pressure is 4.79 mm H2O compared to 2.97 on the AL120 V2 as well. The 92 CFM is impressive, for comparison the be quiet Silent Wings Pro 4 that runs at 3000 RPM pushes 83.9, the Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC 3000 RPM on the other hand can push 110.4. Then for noise, Lian Li’s testing has it at 32.1 dB. 

What makes the Uni Fan P28 a Uni Fan design is of course on the sides. Two of the edges have aluminum panels on them with a brushed finish and the edges are machined as well as a diamond stripe down the center. But the two other sides are designed to link together. One side has two T-shaped slots in it where another Uni Fan can slide in and lock in place. That same side has four pins to contact the other fan and with the new V2 Uni Fan design, that spot also has a small hidden plug where you can plug a cable in. The other side has two T shaped raised hooks to latch with other fans and a contact pad with four contact stripes. The T’s are removable which was new with the v2 design as well, this is needed when you use the daisy chain cable that can hook to the fan or if you are installing the fans next to something tight. While the overall size of the Uni Fan P28 and any other Uni Fan is the same, they are thicker than a traditional fan by 3mm at 28mm in total. This is one reason that the Uni Fan P28 is able to edge a little more airflow out compared to some of the competing designs.

I did also take pictures of the black Uni Fan P28 design as well just the same as I did with the white model. Physically they are the same design other than the color. For the front of the fan, this does also include the center sticker which on the white model has a white print, here it is black. But the bearing and metal center section is still visible through the clear logo.

The back was similar with the design being the same, the anti-vibration pads are black to match and the center cover here has a smoke tint to the translucent white on the white model.

Like with the front and back, the sides are all the same design as on the white P28 but there is one big change for the sides. The aluminum panels on two of the four sides do still have a brushed aluminum finish with the machined edges and diamond machined stripe down the middle, but the brushed aluminum finish here is black not the pure aluminum finish from the white model.

Here is a look at both the black and white Uni Fan P28s linked together in rows of three. This is the genius of the Uni Fan design, all three of these fans are linked together and you just have to run one cable to power them. This keeps a clean look and also makes mounting things simpler as you could get away with just four mounting screws for the three fans if you wanted, I might run two more near the center just to prevent any vibrations however.

If you were curious how the daisy chain cable connects to the Uni Fan design here is a look. You have to remove the T-shaped clip which you can twist and remove. Then the cable has its own T-shaped hooks on the cable that slide and lock the connection into place. The other end then plugs into your other fans on the side. This design allows you to run a top row of Uni Fans and then link to the rear fan for example or even more than that if you want to keep your fan wiring extremely simple and unified with just one PWM plug.

Performance

For testing my focus was on the overall noise performance of the Uni Fan P28s, I would love to confirm the airflow numbers that Lian Li has listed but we don’t have the equipment for that. I will say however that the 3 and 6 fan testing had so much airflow that I struggled to keep the fans standing up during our tests. Being able to link them together is part of this, but is also the amount of airflow as well as the pressure that the fans can produce.

For the noise testing, I ran tests with one fan, 3 fans, and all six fans running and this did end up showing one issue that I will get to in just a minute. Then for each round of tests, I tested at 100% fan speed and 50% fan speed using the motherboard controller. Then with the fan speed set to 100% again I tested with the included in-line fan controller on the medium and low settings, the high setting is just the 100% fan speed so all three are tested. I also documented the fan RPM for each test. The 2600 RPM fan speed that the P28s are listed at wasn’t ever reached, the fastest they ran for me was 2566 RPM on the 1 and 3 fan speed tests. With one fan the P28 came in at 44.9 decibels for that test, adding two more fans brought that up to 50.7, and with 6 fans in total it was 54.4 dB. The issue I noticed was when running 6 fans all linked together the RPMs were lower than with the single and triple fan results, clearly at that point you are starting to push the limits of what one plug is capable of, that could be from our motherboard or from the daisy chained design, either way, it is something to keep in mind. It wasn’t enough to affect performance in any significant way but going beyond 6 fans would be a concern.

Interestingly the 50% fan speed ended up being close to what the included controller would do on its lowest setting. This makes the medium setting which drops the RPM down to 2163 RPM a nice happy medium if you are looking for fast speeds but want to leave a little headroom to be able to bump things up on a hot day. 

Overall and Final Verdict

The original Uni Fan designs and even the newer v2 designs all do an amazing job at keeping wiring simple and having great styling and lighting but they don’t compete with the higher-end performance-focused fans on the market. Lian Li’s new Uni Fan P28 lineup on the other hand makes huge strides in doing just that. Their build quality is great and the P28s are surprisingly hefty with a lot more weight to them than the other Uni Fan designs. Even without lighting or mirrors, they do still have some styling and you can get them in both black and white to match your build. But it is their performance that surprised me the most, with so much airflow and pressure that they wanted to blow themselves over when more than one fan was linked together. Speaking of linking fans together, they still offer the normal benefits of the Uni Fan design that links fans together with no wiring giving you just one wire for multiple fans and the ability to daisy chain groups together as well. This makes a clean install simple to do for any skill level.

I didn’t have too many issues or complaints with the Lian Li P28s. I had a small note that the white fan cables did still end up having black connectors used on the motherboard side where every other detail on the fans and cables is all white. The same goes for the included fan speed controller that runs in line as well which is black for both the black and white models. Beyond that, I did notice that the P28s do lose some RPM as you start to get up into higher fan counts. I wasn’t able to determine if this was on the fan side or motherboard side, but either way, daisy chaining a high number of high-performance fans does start to push the limits of things. The performance drop was only noticeable when looking at the RPM numbers, it wasn’t a big concern. But if I were planning on linking more than the 6 that I linked together I might be more likely to split them across two connections just to be safe.

For pricing you can get the P28 fans individually or in triple packs. The triple pack comes with the fan controller and the daisy chain cable. That pack is also a better value, a single fan is $25.99 and the triple pack is $74.99 and this goes for both the black and white models. For not being an RGB fan a lot of people may see those prices and be surprised, but they are in line with pricing from the competition when it comes to high-end performance fans. For example, the be quiet Silent Wings 4 high-speed fans are $23.90 and the Silent Wings 4 Pro fans are $31.90. Noctua’s NF-F12 iPPC 3000 RPM fans are $27.95 as well, neither of those link together like the Uni Fan P28s do, but they are similar in quality and performance otherwise. I’m glad to see Lian Li focus on performance and hope in the future we may be able to see a model that combines some of the lighting of the normal Uni Fan lineup with the performance that we see with the P28s.

Live Pricing: HERE

Author Bio

Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org

Editor-in-chief

You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.