Lian Li launches L-shaped power supplies for dual-chamber PC cases

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Lian Li Edge Series PSU Lineup
(Image credit: YouTube - Lian Li)

Lian Li has unveiled a new PSU lineup designed primarily for dual-chamber cases featuring vertical PSU mounts, like its O11 series. The new PSU lineup, dubbed the Edge series, features an L-shaped form factor with all the main power connectors mounted on the bottom rather than the side. Lian Li's goal with these new PSUs is to give builders easier access to the power connectors behind the PSU when mounted vertically.

Lian Li's design philosophy dramatically differs from most ordinary PSUs today. All of the main power connectors, including the ATX 24-pin, EPS 8-pin, PCIe supplementary power connectors, and miscellaneous power connectors (powering things like SATA or Molex adapters), have been moved to a bottom interface that juts out from the bottom of the PSU.

This new design reportedly improves cable accessibility — in chassis with vertical PSU mounts after builders build their PCs, making it easier to re-arrange cables that have already been plugged in. This is especially true of the power cables traditionally installed on the bottom row of connectors on a regular power supply. Lian Li's Edge series PSUs flip the orientation of these connectors, making it easy to access both rows of cables.

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Lian Li Edge Series PSUs
(Image credit: YouTube - Lian Li)

Lian Li has also implemented an internal USB hub into its new PSUs installed where the power connectors would typically be. These internal USB connectors are designed to expand the system's overall internal USB header count and power additional peripherals like RGB controllers, all-in-one liquid coolers, and fan controllers. These additional headers will be handy with motherboards that lack many USB 2.0 headers, which is usually the case with older low-end and mid-range motherboards.

The new Edge series will comprise four SKUs, featuring a 1300W flagship model, a 1000W version, and two 850W variants, one with sleeved cables and one without sleeved wires. (The 1300W and 1000W versions only come with sleeved cables.) Lian Li's new PSU lineup also has a native 12VHPWR power connector and cable for powering Nvidia's latest RTX 40 series GPUs.

Despite their elongated look, the PSU shroud has been shortened to accommodate the L-shaped design, so these units are still compatible with standard ATX PSU mounts. Release date and pricing have not been announced.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Notton
    My initial thought was "oh, they are reinventing BTX?", and "this is dumb", but after thinking a bit more, I like it.
    You can mount all the connectors on the same PCB as the rest of the PSU, and not have to worry about internal cables to get a riser board wired up.
    I'm not sold on the built-in internal USB hub, because it doesn't let you pull telemetry from the PSU itself. That's a huge missed opportunity, IMO.

    And I disagree that it's an L-shape, it's more of a b/d/p-shape.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    I haven't looked at dual-chambered cases in depth, but I can already see a huge missed opportunity. The point of having 2 chambers should be to separate cooling of the CPU and GPU, by having a place to mount the CPU radiator where it gets fresh airflow and exhausts directly to the case exterior.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Notton said:
    I'm not sold on the built-in internal USB hub, because it doesn't let you pull telemetry from the PSU itself. That's a huge missed opportunity, IMO.
    This was a huge missed opportunity with ATX 3.0, in my opinion. They could've just used I2C or I3C over one of the wires from the PSU to the motherboard. I think there even is some communication, but they failed to standardize on full telemetry (I'm thinking of something like how storage devices have SMART).
    Reply
  • Greg7579
    Great! I just built in Lian Li's new gigantic case ( O11D EVO XL) and used a 1300 W Corsair Shift PSU. Having this thing would have been 1000 times better. You know that the PSU is hidden back behind the panel on the blind side of the case and plugging stuff in was awkward. This would be great. I might actually go back in and do this even though it is already built and running fine. This looks too cool to pass up. I assume the 12vHPWR is the new 2x6 version with the new 2xs cable to match....
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    Notton said:
    My initial thought was "oh, they are reinventing BTX?", and "this is dumb", but after thinking a bit more, I like it.
    You can mount all the connectors on the same PCB as the rest of the PSU, and not have to worry about internal cables to get a riser board wired up.
    I'm not sold on the built-in internal USB hub, because it doesn't let you pull telemetry from the PSU itself. That's a huge missed opportunity, IMO.

    And I disagree that it's an L-shape, it's more of a b/d/p-shape.
    Not what I was thinking when they said L-shaped either, to me it is more like a PSU with a foot.
    Reply
  • TechLurker
    I like the concept for the most part, especially having some USB expansion to power USB-based devices or if one runs additional fan controllers/aRGB controllers, would allow for plugging those into it and reducing the nest of wires going to the mobo.

    I think it would be great if Seasonic could do a similar addition to their Syncro PSU line, since they already move the connectors to the backplane unit, leaving the base unit free to add USB headers.
    Reply