Corsair iCUE Link RX120 RGB 120 mm Fan

[VSG]

Corsair's new RX120 RGB fans build upon the iCUE Link ecosystem to have easy grouping and cable-less connections and use a performance-optimized design paired with 8 ARGB LEDs per fan. The net result is an RGB fan with all the lighting effects you'd ever want and very good performance across a long RPM range too.

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[Chrispy_]

"...including the iCUE Link system hub which sells for $60 by itself. This tells me the triple kit is heavily subsidized or, more likely, the system hub is just overpriced if you decide to buy it separately."

It's overpriced. There's a ridiculous amount of margin on RGBLED and the system hub is one of the worst offenders. It's a classic case of huge markup because once you buy one iCUE thing you're trapped in the proprietary cable and proprietary software ecosystem. Call it sunk cost fallacy or Stockholm syndrome, people keep spending for overpriced, proprietary stuff.

If you don't get trapped, you don't have to pay.

 

[Udyr]

The Sailboat logo boutique does it again.

This is another case of: "lets price it this way and see how many suckers we lure in".

 

[KellyNyanbinary]

Any Thermalright ARGB fan will outperform this thing for a fraction of the cost. If you want cable-less daisy chaining, Lian Li Uni AL would accomplish the same while performing better and for slightly less money.

 

[TechLurker]

Meh, for 70.99, or a for a limited time, 55.99, one could buy a 3 pack of overkill SuperFlower Megacools and have plenty of untapped raw power and no RGB crud. Or if some actual quality to cost is warranted, HYTE's new THIC FP12 Fans come in at 110 USD average for a 3-pack + control hub, but feature microchips in each fan and a smart control hub that lets it do plenty more control and features than what the Corsairs can do, and in some testing, have shown clear superior performance. The only issue is that they are 32mm thick, which is already entering server fan thickness levels.

 

[Broken Processor]

Phanteks T30 still best for radiators after all this time. Well unless you want RGB. I'm slowly ditching all my RGB stuff it's fun to play with but it's only a distraction.

 

[Chrispy_]

Phanteks T30 still best for radiators after all this time. Well unless you want RGB. I'm slowly ditching all my RGB stuff it's fun to play with but it's only a distraction.

I think that's the thing, it's a fun distraction to build RGBLED once or twice, but it costs money and effort. The money could be spent on actual performance rather than lighting, and the effort could be spent actually enjoying the system for gaming.

If you enjoy setting up lights for yourself then I'm not going to knock it, but realistically how many people are you ever going to show it off to, and how much do you care about what's not on your screen(s)?

 

[fb020997]

Still can’t find any good upgrade for my Vardar Evo RGBs. Yeah, the’re extremely loud, but they move a ton of air through my rads (and they never go full-tilt, as I control them by the water temp).
I have super strict requirements though:
-25mm thick (as I can’t fit anything thicker under the GPU, since the pump touches one of the lower fans)
-At least the same airflow through rads as my current Vardars
-Decently quieter than my Vardars
-RGB (but I set them on a static white color)
-Non-proprietary connectors/hubs (or adapters for the standard 3 pin ARGB connector)

 

[Chrispy_]

Still can’t find any good upgrade for my Vardar Evo RGBs. Yeah, the’re extremely loud, but they move a ton of air through my rads (and they never go full-tilt, as I control them by the water temp).
I have super strict requirements though:
-25mm thick (as I can’t fit anything thicker under the GPU, since the pump touches one of the lower fans)
-At least the same airflow through rads as my current Vardars
-Decently quieter than my Vardars
-RGB (but I set them on a static white color)
-Non-proprietary connectors/hubs (or adapters for the standard 3 pin ARGB connector)

Hate to say it, but trial and error.
Fan reviews are useful to distill fans into a price/performance curve but the actual tone of a fan and how annoying it sounds is a function of

• your unique hearing curve - since frequency sensitivity varies person-to-person, and for an individual as they age
• your case (ie, how many reflections and interactions do the sound waves have to make to escape your case)
• the fin density, dimensions, and layout of the radiator you're using
• fan RPM, since the transition from laminar to turbulent flow will depend on your RPM and to a lesser extent the SPR of the radiator/heatsink.

Turbulent air is typically desirable through a radiator for breaking down insulating boundary layers, but undesirable from the trailing edge of a rotor's vane since that just wastes energy as white noise.

What reviews can tell you is stuff like motor noise. If you buy powerful fans that have a loud motor at lower speeds, then never run those fans at max RPM, you're both wasting the fan's potential, and suffering the additional noise of a growly/loud motor. The biggest loss of performance to avoid at all costs is ring lighting that eats into the fan rotor diameter. Having hub-LEDs isn't too serious because there's no meaningful airflow from the vanes near the hub anyway.

 

[fb020997]

Hate to say it, but trial and error.
Fan reviews are useful to distill fans into a price/performance curve but the actual tone of a fan and how annoying it sounds is a function of

• your unique hearing curve - since frequency sensitivity varies person-to-person, and for an individual as they age
• your case (ie, how many reflections and interactions do the sound waves have to make to escape your case)
• the fin density, dimensions, and layout of the radiator you're using
• fan RPM, since the transition from laminar to turbulent flow will depend on your RPM and to a lesser extent the SPR of the radiator/heatsink.

Turbulent air is typically desirable through a radiator for breaking down insulating boundary layers, but undesirable from the trailing edge of a rotor's vane since that just wastes energy as white noise.

What reviews can tell you is stuff like motor noise. If you buy powerful fans that have a loud motor at lower speeds, then never run those fans at max RPM, you're both wasting the fan's potential, and suffering the additional noise of a growly/loud motor. The biggest loss of performance to avoid at all costs is ring lighting that eats into the fan rotor diameter. Having hub-LEDs isn't too serious because there's no meaningful airflow from the vanes near the hub anyway.

Thanks for the answer.
The noise I hear from the fans is purely caused by the airflow, not motor (thankfully, I’ve heard some fans where the cogging sound from the motor was way worse than the airflow one). One of the causes would be all the turbulence inside the case (like the GPU over the two bottom fans on the rad), and the other would be the fans theirselves, as they’re quite an old design (basically the first Vardars, but with a ginormous hub). Also, they’re very noisy only over 60-70% PWM, not under thankfully.

Speaking about the fan curve, and the waste of not using them at full speed…
I have an overkill cooling system (1x420+2x240 for a 7900XT+5800X3D), and you betcha I don’t want all the 8 fans running at full tilt when gaming! My curve is based on water temp, with a sensor right out of the GPU. They’re either off (Vardars) or at their minimum speed (Lancool III ARGB stock ones) until 30°C water temp, then increase exponentially with the temp until around either 40 or 42°C, don’t remember currently). So they never run that much over half their speed, and judging by the graph, the Vardars are still unbeatable as far as airflow goes for being 25mm rgb fans!

Though the front rad is quite a bit obstructed by the massive res… I may have exaggerated a bit on the size, as it’s the tallest Alphacool res. Also, the top and front fan frames (and top grille) of my case are EXTREMELY restrictive, with tons of useless metal obstructing airflow. I’m definitely going to dremel a ton of useless crap away when I’m upgrading to a 9800X3D+AM5, so that would definitely lower turbulence.