Review: Corsair QL120 and QL140 RGB fans

#5738338

The Goose

2019-12-06 13:52

Could these be used with the Corsair H115i platinum aio or do they need there own node controller. Thx in advance.

#5738339

RicHSAD

2019-12-06 13:57

These are good looking fans to use as side intake in the O11 Dynamic. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/DaFfBZQ_7xw91ITRQX5xuzxdbSAratJrFvynqX1DepN9lZf32GiEGPOo9YByzFMvvwrQHVadoEi4NFJmwOB8x58Yv7slNBNRtGLrA8f-IpE_L8y9JM_cXsh3iq4hnOLciPJ_1j5yRoeFS4E4jogfIZp8X3l5rm2kRHjdOYpr-KQ5bgdWl-UwInBpz12yGyZBLMWpctD3PKl5loi2BoEE5nNLtljMCbmGfpCUhoUS-LAxO7XTn-vbhEAWBMsBAJEqql21mmwob-Jt_9YeoBUCpDZAY5tMFfuLJ3SSIVyw3LDpwVo_GTIyBsaoLo8TUrEsZ03RwPGGTTPBB0GumRf1uPAKhC6que6UHIUND4RAg7ccgAJsnHCxSgJVdNtAU23WPJmBY9fYaZeQYqgnCFPtCQO9PlNB5hMMGJGQ0AqaArPdpXkFKKPfRcQWvfd1H6qJhzeoMQMruP5ol-JY0QZn2bF1aH-s596RIgKoKuGQV96n-_LifGgbXb8mj9iEVHSEhisltIPR4Qk29r1LWPMDz0quwBFD3pRl8dKnTH9R9MlOzu7khDM518-FWs0g6GwfyoOw1NH2Hza8USXUpc1FbWBisA-8jXV6Ewt0asAxO3BGtlP1zI3M0pdP2YSYIUXDVue4W1lE8JKmGOcY7MdP5oXDF5_iOY6Gc1g8kW52cUejBvcPVlb1uQ=w1124-h843-no

#5738349

Goiur

2019-12-06 14:34

I missed a Noctua fan in that mix. Im all in for performance/noise, so this RGB fans are out of my playground.

#5738352

insp1re2600

2019-12-06 14:39

Goiur:

I missed a Noctua fan in that mix. Im all in for performance/noise, so this RGB fans are out of my playground.

you can put a phanteks halos or similar on a noctua fan, done this a few times.

#5738378

alanm

2019-12-06 16:04

Wonder how they compare to the ML120/140s.

#5738386

kakiharaFRS

2019-12-06 16:30

as someone with a Lian-Li O11 Dynamic XL "pimp my ride" rgb build 😀 here are my toughts 1) the LL series looked beautiful but it forced you to orient your fans in only one way, the good looking side visible, which made for less than ideal airflow decisions (for example I had to make my "side" fans exhaust when really you want them as intake, it has been tested by hardware canucks) 2) the airflow of the LL120 is weak, if they are worse that's going to be a problem 3) if you use that kind of rgb fans it's recommended to have a push-pull config on your radiator for looks (front mounted) but also to help those weak airflow fans on the lian-li I have the radiator on the side fans emplacement with rgb visible inside and better non-rgb behind exhausting air (which is the wrong direction, it's sucking my gpu hot air to cool the cpu :/) but with the LL you didn't have a choice

#5738397

jura11

2019-12-06 17:11

alanm:

Wonder how they compare to the ML120/140s.

Hi there ML140 or ML120 are lot better fans, these ML fans are one of better fans there, I would stay away from LL or these fans if you are looking for radiator or case fans there, similarly I would stay from Thermaltake fans, they just don't push enough air through the radiator or case Hope this helps Thanks, Jura

#5738410

alanm

2019-12-06 18:03

jura11:

Hi there ML140 or ML120 are lot better fans, these ML fans are one of better fans there, I would stay away from LL or these fans if you are looking for radiator or case fans there, similarly I would stay from Thermaltake fans, they just don't push enough air through the radiator or case Hope this helps Thanks, Jura

Thanks, I already have 2 ML140 fans and they've made a world of difference in my case airflow.

#5738469

kakiharaFRS

2019-12-06 21:18

alanm:

Thanks, I already have 2 ML140 fans and they've made a world of difference in my case airflow.

I have ML,LL,QL,bequiet,noctua etc...4 drawers full of them, I'm a fan hoarder >< I'll repeat this whenever someone seems to be hesitating : LL and QL are look above function fans if you go RGB either go full RGB no matter the cost (lower performance) or don't do RGB at all, RGB is a pain to wire and configure there's no point going half way, apps are also heavy on the cpu if you value performance the ML are very powerful but noisy if you value silence I recommend bequiet or noctua I personnally like bequiet sound better, they make a pure "moving air" smooth noise, which you can hear at high rpm but it's not whine-y and not annoying there are in-between too, bequiet for example makes the "pure wings" which are silent-ish performance fans, again you hear them but the noise is bearable compared to other brands

#5738479

jura11

2019-12-06 22:06

kakiharaFRS:

I have ML,LL,QL,bequiet,noctua etc...4 drawers full of them, I'm a fan hoarder >< I'll repeat this whenever someone seems to be hesitating : LL and QL are look above function fans if you go RGB either go full RGB no matter the cost (lower performance) or don't do RGB at all, RGB is a pain to wire and configure there's no point going half way, apps are also heavy on the cpu if you value performance the ML are very powerful but noisy if you value silence I recommend bequiet or noctua I personnally like bequiet sound better, they make a pure "moving air" smooth noise, which you can hear at high rpm but it's not whine-y and not annoying there are in-between too, bequiet for example makes the "pure wings" which are silent-ish performance fans, again you hear them but the noise is bearable compared to other brands

Agree with BeQuiet fans, have used them too on several loops, tried like Pure Wings or Silent Wings 3 and SW3 I like a lot like for radiators ir as case fans Noctua A12x25 are another great fan which I can only recommend, nice sound profile under load or idle, Phanteks PH-F120MP are another great fan, push nive amount of air through the radiator or case restriction, Thermalright TY-143SQ or TY-147ASQ fans have used them on radiators or as case fans, I use them on Phanteks Enthoo Primo or current Caselabs M8 with pedestal Corsair ML120 noisy, this depends, at max RPM or speed, they're noisy as any other fan which can ramp up to 1800-2500RPM, some fans at max RPM have still nice sound profile like Thermalright fans or some Phanteks or Noctua fans, usually I run these fans as max 600-950RPM(usually they sit in 600-650RPM) and they're not noisy fans at max speed or RPM off course they're noisy If budget is low then I would suggest get Arctic Cooling P12 PWM, running these fans on MO-ra3 360mm and on Hardware Labs SR-2 360mm radiators and they're quiet fans and push nice amount of air through the radiators Hope this helps Thanks, Jura

#5738481

alanm

2019-12-06 22:17

kakiharaFRS:

I have ML,LL,QL,bequiet,noctua etc...4 drawers full of them, I'm a fan hoarder >< I'll repeat this whenever someone seems to be hesitating : LL and QL are look above function fans if you go RGB either go full RGB no matter the cost (lower performance) or don't do RGB at all, RGB is a pain to wire and configure there's no point going half way, apps are also heavy on the cpu if you value performance the ML are very powerful but noisy if you value silence I recommend bequiet or noctua I personnally like bequiet sound better, they make a pure "moving air" smooth noise, which you can hear at high rpm but it's not whine-y and not annoying there are in-between too, bequiet for example makes the "pure wings" which are silent-ish performance fans, again you hear them but the noise is bearable compared to other brands

I dont run the MLs at full blast, so they are not noisy to me. Re RGBs, have no use for them and never will.

#5738644

Mufflore

2019-12-07 17:32

Arctic recently released their new P-Fan series with high static pressure for heatsinks/radiators while not being loud. They have very low vibration and a 10 year warranty to boot! I cant find any reviews yet. Worth a look if you are after performance, no RGB though https://www.arctic.ac/uk_en/products/cooling/case-fan.html

#5738658

wavetrex

2019-12-07 18:37

These look gorgeous... Who knows, 2020 might be the year of RGB for me too... so far I've shown serious restraint (with just keyboard/mouse being RGB, for a very specific purpose - indicator of what's going on in my supported games)

#5739205

kakiharaFRS

2019-12-09 17:53

got them spent half a day swapping 10 fans and the verdict is....buy LL instead the LL "good side" looks way better than either side of the QL you can see visible led "spots" all around on the QL making the brightness and colors uneven rotating color transition isn't as smooth as in the LL (spiral rainbow effect) their only positive thing is that you can see the rgb from both sides for my specific current build I was a bit forced to at least get 4 (because you can only drive 1 fan type per rgb hub you can't mix models and I have 6+4 already on 2 hubs) but yeah not an upgrade which for the price is disappointing to say the least I would only buy them if you have very visible fans that face the wrong direction (fro airflow purpose) would not buy again and actually I cancelled an order of QL140 the good thing of today will be that I finally found what was causing my 10% cpu usage on iCue On your Corsair RGB memory ICue settings, disable "enable full software control" it will remove your ability to make complex layered effects or prevent you from customizing each individual led, without full control led color is "by stick" but you'll gain 8% cpu usage

#5739281

darrenj

2019-12-09 21:29

Glad I bought the Fractal Design Prisma AL 120 instead. The AL140 seems to very good

#5739576

kakiharaFRS

2019-12-10 16:03

video link showing you how to regain no less than 8% cpu usage from iCue, if you used one of their RGB memory kit that is

https://youtu.be/Cipj9genxHk

I'm no Buildzoid or hardware expert but I had the same problem trying to use G.Skill "audio visualizer" effect my guess is it comes from the trickery they used to control rgb leds on a socket/slot that was never designed for that, this is why I was losing 500 cinebenchR20 and had way worse 3dmark timespy and firestrike than the same cpu/motherboard before I had my rgb "craze" with 8-10% cpu constantly taken, you lost roughly 10% in benchmarks and fps, which matches the loss in scores I had from 5000->4500 etc... p.s. I used the code function as I don't hink Hilbert likes imbedded videos but the forum system keeps auto-detecting youtube

#5740330

Mufflore

2019-12-11 22:54

kakiharaFRS:

video link showing you how to regain no less than 8% cpu usage from iCue, if you used one of their RGB memory kit that is
https://youtu.be/Cipj9genxHk
I'm no Buildzoid or hardware expert but I had the same problem trying to use G.Skill "audio visualizer" effect my guess is it comes from the trickery they used to control rgb leds on a socket/slot that was never designed for that, this is why I was losing 500 cinebenchR20 and had way worse 3dmark timespy and firestrike than the same cpu/motherboard before I had my rgb "craze" with 8-10% cpu constantly taken, you lost roughly 10% in benchmarks and fps, which matches the loss in scores I had from 5000->4500 etc... p.s. I used the code function as I don't hink Hilbert likes imbedded videos but the forum system keeps auto-detecting youtube

Do you have link for the audio vizualizer? I use a g.skill RGB keyboard and havent got this feature yet, its something I hoped for.

#5751062

kakiharaFRS

2020-01-15 17:43

Mufflore:

Do you have link for the audio vizualizer? I use a g.skill RGB keyboard and havent got this feature yet, its something I hoped for.

no sorry it's a color scheme G.Skill memory has by default in G.Skill app, keyboards are something else, Corsair has the same thing only the behind monitor rgb led strings have it or their headset and both have a different one that you cannot use with anything else... Lian-Li o11 Dynamic XL 7x QL120 https://ibb.co/QCQdJJd https://ibb.co/PTgbM8M https://ibb.co/Lp7svV1 yes they are all intake, yes it's weird, no it's not what I wanted to do or initially did but it's what works best in benchmarks and temps so whatever works best works for me the fact that the bottom and top fans are offset is also something that works best like that I litterally have more points in benchmarks just for that >< additional information : I could use the full software control for the RGB memory with threadripper as unlike a 9900k it only uses like 2% cpu not 10+ but I still don't as it's buggy and often breaks for no visible reason until you reboot (red triangle in icue and frozen memory lighting)

#5752229

Mufflore

2020-01-19 22:50

kakiharaFRS:

no sorry it's a color scheme G.Skill memory has by default in G.Skill app, keyboards are something else, Corsair has the same thing only the behind monitor rgb led strings have it or their headset and both have a different one that you cannot use with anything else... Lian-Li o11 Dynamic XL 7x QL120 https://ibb.co/QCQdJJd https://ibb.co/PTgbM8M https://ibb.co/Lp7svV1 yes they are all intake, yes it's weird, no it's not what I wanted to do or initially did but it's what works best in benchmarks and temps so whatever works best works for me the fact that the bottom and top fans are offset is also something that works best like that I litterally have more points in benchmarks just for that >< additional information : I could use the full software control for the RGB memory with threadripper as unlike a 9900k it only uses like 2% cpu not 10+ but I still don't as it's buggy and often breaks for no visible reason until you reboot (red triangle in icue and frozen memory lighting)

Thanks for the info.