Corsair is one of those brand that everyone knows, because its all about mindshare. Corsair knows how to market them self. My personal view is that Corsair is overrated but saying they are bad or always expensive is bit misleading. They a lot of products, some good, some bad and some at good price and some overpriced. There fans I dont find that interesting due to high prices and performance and quality is not as established as other brands like Noctua or BeQuiet!. Its actually funny how Noctua Redux is my "budget" fan now considering those fans where premium fans 15 years ago.... You get long lasting bearings, good quality plastic, nice DC motors with good bearings at a good price. I dont get the 30-50 USD fans now with RGB, no one seems to ask for Maximum airflow for minimum noise level anymore.... For absolut budget I now just buy Sunon fans from Conrad or other vendors for 3-13USD a fan depending on size and bearing type and I add the connector and sleaving myself for a few more cents. One can often get them on sale so can at times get 2-3 fans for the price of a "PC Fan". Sure they lack PWM, RPM sens and RGB but sometimes you dont need that. Anyways fans is a high margin product in the PC space, thats a fact.
@@greebuh Corsair have plenty of great products for price. They have some of the best higher end ram/cost offerings, their PSUs are great quality and often priced below the market average, their cases are great, and believe it or not they have a plethora of good cheap non-rgb fans. The issue is that most content creators only test the shiny new objects and thus often overlook a lot of the less attention-grabbing but often better products on offer.
@@HanmaHeiro Corsair still has plenty of good stuff, just not all the top-shelf shinyness is good. Guess that's what happens when a company grows big. But I mean, for every overpriced iCue branded wealth taxed part they market, they have 10 other less-branded versions that are just as good and cost 5x less. The thing is, the echo chamber of content creation tends to only test out the shiniest objects available, so we only get a snippet of what they actually offer -usually the make-or-break type of components where they're either amazing, or ridiculous.
We are really at a point where fans are good enough that the quality of the noise matters far more than the quantity, it would be great to see you test stuff like relative peaks and the frequency distribution, fairly commonplace stuff now. The LCP probably makes little difference now but will prevent the fan warping/blades expanding over the years.
@Roman those Arctic P12 Max results does not seem in line with other reviews, are you using the first batch by any chance? They had this weird thing were the black model was using Double Ball bearings and the white one Fluid Dynamic bearings but now it seems they fixed that in the last revision and all variants uses FDB
Ohhh you found a proper use case for a 120mm CLC!! Just appreciate how Arctic has managed to design a smaller surface area motor, probably the longer fan blade on the market (120/140mm fans), only 5 of them and is still good enough for common mortals.
The larger surface area of the hub on some fans is intentional. In high pressure situations air can leak back near the hub. Gamers Nexus recently made a video where they interviewed Nvidia employee working with fans, the hub size is one thing discussed on the video.
@@J4nda Experienced this firsthand with EK Vardar Evo RGB 120mm fans. The pictures did not really show how massive the fan hubs are, and I thought they'd perform awful because I assumed there would be huge dead spots on the radiator beneath the hub compared to the Yate Loons they replaced. Turns out, nope, doesn't matter, the Vardars have so much static pressure that the hub size is irrelevant, I can run them at lower RPMs than the Yate Loons and have the same temperature at a lower noise level.
@@scarecrow5848 they are, I even prefer P12 slim over A12x15 on NH-L12S. It's not on Noctua's level of quality though. I have two P8 PWM units running right next to each other and at the same PWM ratio there's 100rpm difference. I used a lot of various units (F8, P8, F9, P12, P12 Slim, P14) and it was also more common to run into units that were making weird noises under specific conditions - this never happened to me with Noctua. Still, however, I had less issues with Arctic than I had with Bequiet or Fractal fans, which are more expensive (I'd just never buy bequiet again and Fractal fans that come with cases are replaced as the first thing). With Arctic you're getting like 95% of Noctua (performance and noise wise, I don't care about the useless stuff that comes with Noctua fans) for 25% of the money, which is a fantastic deal.
an 09:23 that noise seems to me almost exactly like typical cavitation noise, a characteristic of turbulent flow - this means there are some inefficient air vortexes happening at the back of the fan blades. This probably happens because those plastic radial fins in the back of the fan are not properly aligned with the airflow and are actually causing some counter-presure blockage in the air stream.
I love all the work he puts into testing these products. He really puts in a lot of effort to save us time and get the information we all want. Thank you so much!
Glass is added to moulded plastics for to reduce flex and rigidity (I think those are the words you were looking for). As an engineer I can guess it's because the more arc you put in the front tip of the impeller, the less noise you may generally expect. Under high loads & RPMs the impeller can flex creating a different source of noise. The more rigid the impeller is, the smaller the gap between it and the internal annulus resulting in increased max static pressure the fan assembly can flow air at.
@@lefthornet As are the ARGB P12s. They're probably the best performing RGB fans for noise to performance bar none, and they're not at all pricey. As a bonus the lighting they provide looks great, but they are a tad too bright for my tastes.
I miss when Corsair was a strong competitor and actually offered good fans at a reasonable price (AF120/SP120). I switched to BeQuiet when I refreshed my system and never looked back.
For €50 I bought whole 9x TL-S12-S argb fans from thermalright It would be fun to see comparison of ultra budget fans vs the mainstream and expensive fans as in what do I gain for paying say €30 vs €5.50 for a fan
I've had this fan and like you mentioned the noise at 9:09 I returned it because when I am not gaming(system on idle) that noise just kept going and after 1 week I said (okay, that's enough). *Edit: After this, I bought Lian Li TL 120(non-LCD) fans and they have a different habit. at 800 ~ 960 and 1250+ Rpm, they make a humming noise that also does not sound good. I hope we will have better fans after this year.
I’ve been waiting for a review of the RX fans, nobody is doing it, and as you documented it is way way better than the QX. So thank you sir for a great break down of it’s performance 👊
In the tool industry, when they add glass fiber for reinforcing the plastic shell of the tool, it will feel and sound different when it's scraped or cut with a blade. I learned that from watching videos on tool teardown reviews. Also the bending of the fan blades that you were talking about, I think the word you are looking for is deflecting
The direction on the blades is the attack profile, the higher profile get more air but requires more torque, the lower profile requires less torque but moves less air.
@@mycosys I don't think the term AoA has any bearing on a PC fan or how it is made. That term refers to the angle of a wing in relation to incoming flow, not really a thing you find in most PCs.
Love my Arctic P12 Max fans. Fit them to my server to replace some jet engine default fans. Enough static pressure to pull air through a huge bunch of drive bays and keep the drives cool. High static pressure quiet fans are hard to find, and the P12 Max is my go to now. (and yes, their figures are better than Noctua)
Please can you start doing a max speed test when testing fans? I have 7 corsair fans I put to max on a custom loop for games. I don't care about how loud it is, I just want the coldest equipment.
I can't help but notice that some of the fans tested looked like they were optimised for high static pressure and some for air flow. Yet they were all tested in a high static pressure scenario. Judging by blade count and pitch, the Corsair fans look optimised for high airflow, not use as radiator fans. Additionally the dB measurement is misleading as it's not normalised for human frequency response. The fewer bladed, lower rpm fans will post higher dB, but will be less noticeable by human ears - especially when mounted in a case!
Thank you for this video! I was really curious if the prices make any sense for these fans. Meanwhile I am sticking with Arctic and Noctua depending on the budget per build.
The problem with the new RX is the electrical cables obstructing the airflow, they're just a worse version of older ,non link, Performance Elite fans. I went for the RX ones, because from the back side they still look great in a fish tank pc build.
LCP is supposed to be a stiffer material over the usual ABS, PC or PP materials, though dunno if it is superior against glass filled plastics. LCP allows the fan blade clearance against the frame to be narrower and have less "backfire" when the fan needs to generate static pressure: try this simple experiment - run the fan and put the airflow side directly on a table and feel air at the back, somehow recirculating around the area. Interesting to prove it!
That was one of his points. LCP is glass filled plastic, and for some reason it is the exact same molding as the RGB one, which isn't. At the trade show Corsair was talking bout all that (being stiffer and having the blades closer to the frame) and then they didn't do anything different from the normal plastic RGB version, so it was just marketing buzz word BS.
@@Dan-Simms wait...LCP is JUST glass filled plastic? Say PC-GF30 or something? The industrial fans had been using those for a very long time, and I have yet to use a botique fan for PC builds (I use Nidec, San Ace because it is always hot around here) and always wondered why PC parts brand fans never used them to begin with. Boggles the mind.
@@ruikazane5123 LCP is not really about the chemical composition, the secret sauce is more about the machine/machine parameters and technique of moulding it. The temperature, The heating/cooling rate, time spent moulding it, etc, ... A few PC fans used mixtures like PC-GF30 before, but that's not LCP, neither those industrial nor DiY are the truly next-gen product, that LCP is. LCP is a step above all of them.
@@Dogzilla07 Thanks for clearing that out, otherwise I would be dumbfounded. Still, if it is that good, the industrial sector should have done with it first and prove it is worth it anyway...
Phanteks ftw. Best fans while being far cheaper than competitors. Not trying to sound like an advertisement or anything, but they have been my go to choice for a while now, for either cfm airflow or for static pressure, or both.
The T30 is the first time in years that I simply saw how the fans were designed, went online and immediately ordered 3 of them for my 360 to replace some old noisy corsair maglevs. Absolutely amazing fans that have held up wonderfully even with hours and hours of benching at 3K rpm. The only annoying thing about them is the switch is a pain to access but at least it's possible from the front unlike the SW Pro4 (one of the more disappointing fans I've purchased). Luckily you shouldn't need to adjust it very often but worth mentioning.
Not just their fans, its a company with a pretty awesome product stack all round. I miss their PWM to DC controlled fan speed controller for $20 AUD specifically
I think the fan blade is hitting the outer housing when it spins. I got a faulty Arctic that does this, just 1 out of 36x P12 and 10x P14. As it spins faster, the blade flattens out, essentially getting longer, and hits the outer housing. If thats the case, it is faulty
nice video again der8bauer! I am really curious if there will be a video for low profile fans 😁 sometimes i have the feeling they're underrated (i could be wrong, but would be nice to see a review video about it). if that will going to happen in the future 🙃
2:21 12% lower speed but 15% more performance Correct me if I'm wrong here, but CFM is only "volume of air moved" and doesn't include the pressure by which the fan manages it - so it's only half of what would constitute "performance," especially if placed on a radiator?
@@FedjaHvastija I just saw some reviews that compared to noctua fans phanteks T30 is a big chonker and for my mATX case is not good. Atm i'm using lian li sl infinity fans for 2 years now
@@KRYSS27 Yeah I'm not saying it's not a good fan, but 25mm and 30mm can't be compared side-by-side, there's a whole tier of difference in performance.
@11:40 If i may suggest, assuming the words you were unsure was for english listeners, But my thought was something like 'torsional rigidity/strength' ? I'm sure that Engineers use a very specific word to describe the twisting forces that are experience on a fan blade... but thats what i was thinking :)
How do the fans make 40.1 db of noise at 1000rpm but in the noise normalised test the fans are running at 1300rpm at 40db, this makes no sense. Please retest the results, something is wrong here.
Results are accurate. The test @1000rpm is measured at 10cm distance, while the noise normalized is measured at 30cm. The 1000rpm test was measured closer because they would all be very quiet at 30cm distance.
Hi, I was thinking about having these fans in Corsair 6500x, do you recommend the Lian li TL fans as a better alternative or...? If you have a better recommendation, please write too.
remember when all them corsair hydro water blocks cost more than EKs or similar but weighed 1/4 as much because they were made from air and pot metal ..... and leaked out the box
I have about $600 worth of iCue link 360 aio and fans sitting on my desk and was about to swap them with the LL120's before watching this haha. I tried to find some comparisons between older LL120's and new QX120's but couldn't find anything really so I bit the bullet. Hoping with my NZXT H9 Flow having 10 fans and breathing so good it still cools good 🥵🤞
Are these being pushed for radiators or case fans? Could be they just aren't great with static pressure. Not that I would buy them over the NFA12s or T30s.
could you please test if the clicking sound is caused by PWM mode? i swear i have ml120 fans that made that noise in PWM but not in voltage mode or whatever the alternative is... i may even still be running voltage mode as it was so long ago.
@der8auer EN - I just saw GNs report on EK.. I think you would be the perfect guy to take them under your wing and expand your awesomeness. Thank you and thank your lovely cats😻
Honestly, I wouldn't wish EK's corruption and mismanagement on Roman. Undoubtedly he would want no part of all of that, and he'd do so much better without it, of course.
Slovenia is a bit of a ways from Roman's neck of the woods and Teutons annexing East European industry isn't a good optic! 🙃 Gap in the market, mind, if he were to be so willing. But I think he has enough on his plate for his own gig now he's full-time with no Caseking side order.
The texture/patterning is reminiscent of PEO patterning on some 3d printer build plates that look nice but are functionally side or downgrades to preexisting cheap alternatives like PEI. If you wanted such patterning, I'm sure you could just do some stickers or something. Sounds like a job for D-brand. 😂
I would've thought that by now, most fans would be in max 15% range of each other. And whenever I get the chance, I comment that Arctic fans are 5 EUR, Corsair 30 EUR. And Arctic is located in the EU.
LCP is just marketing gumph for glass fibre/beads or carbon fibre mixed with a polymer usually nylon, but sometimes ABS+PC, it's dumb just call it what it is just say what polymer it is and the fill rate.
Unfortunately even at reduced prices, Corsair has to compete with Thermalright’s TL-C12C-S that has great looking LEDs that uses regular 3-pin ARGB (no software required), has daisy chaining on the ARGB and PWM headers, performs great relative to other ARGB fans, and in the US is only ~$13 to $14 for a pack of 3. Alternatively if you need to reduce cable clutter, SAMA sells their “linked-fan” lineup for ~$25 to ~$28 relatively frequently on Newegg in the US, and still works decent as a case fan Corsair makes some great stuff, but the price discrepancy between their cases and their fans is just off-putting at this point
G'day Roman, Poor Performance & Using Proprietary connections to lock you into quite a few of their products while being STOOPIDLY Expensive are the reasons I don't buy any Corsair Products
I know this is off topic but I do t know how else to ask. Could you do a cast on what to safely use I. Your custom water loops to protect your blocks and radiators?
would be nice to include some cheap ID Cooling or similar fan for 5 usd for the comparison so you can see how much you overpay for the difference (if any substantial)
I stopped caring about fans when i tried Arctic P12, having an overkill custom loop allowed me to use 5 Euro Arctic P12 at rpm ranges so low that the pc is so silent i stopped using headphones and i have to look if the fans are spinning to know if the pc is on or off.
For the other Australians out the non RGB variant fans typical pricing is Arctic $15, Corsair $49, Phanteks $45 and Noctua $69. If you aren't going RGB there is basically no reason to go for anything other than the Arctic fans, other than aesthetics and even then it doesn't make sense unless you are building a full Noctua PC in all it's brown and beige glory.
The RX and QX are part of the iCue system. They direct link to each other requiring no cable between them. If you need a fan in another location you plug in a cable from either a fan or the hub its a rather elegant system. I have an iCue link H170i LCD (420 radiator with 3x140mm fans with lots of RGB) the fans are essentially silent probably because the fans are larger they run slower.
I love your show, been watching forever. But it's time to change the intro song. It's not bad at all, it's way to bass heavy and loud. It makes my sound system explode every time it plays and I'd watch your stuff on autoplay if it wasn't for the song and me having to rush over to turn the volume down. Even just a reduction in the song's volume would be great. Hope you don't take offense to this.
thank you! I always thought Corsair fans are overpriced so generally would opt for Arctic P12, but since you are explaining all the details and differences it helps to comprehend where the high price is coming from.
Conclusion: Corsair makes overpriced fans. Not good, just overpriced.
Corsair is on collapsing trend. Quality is becoming worse year by year.
every company ever @@andreiprimu
@@andreiprimu enshittification
@@DatSun.Nah bro, Noctua is still up there.
Corsair is one of those brand that everyone knows, because its all about mindshare.
Corsair knows how to market them self.
My personal view is that Corsair is overrated but saying they are bad or always expensive is bit misleading.
They a lot of products, some good, some bad and some at good price and some overpriced.
There fans I dont find that interesting due to high prices and performance and quality is not as established as other brands like Noctua or BeQuiet!.
Its actually funny how Noctua Redux is my "budget" fan now considering those fans where premium fans 15 years ago....
You get long lasting bearings, good quality plastic, nice DC motors with good bearings at a good price.
I dont get the 30-50 USD fans now with RGB, no one seems to ask for Maximum airflow for minimum noise level anymore....
For absolut budget I now just buy Sunon fans from Conrad or other vendors for 3-13USD a fan depending on size and bearing type and I add the connector and sleaving myself for a few more cents.
One can often get them on sale so can at times get 2-3 fans for the price of a "PC Fan".
Sure they lack PWM, RPM sens and RGB but sometimes you dont need that.
Anyways fans is a high margin product in the PC space, thats a fact.
Yet again corsair prioritizes aesthetics over performance and charges ridiculously for it.
Been running full Arctic for years now, and im very happy with them :D. I dont need RGB, can't beat a $5 140mm fan.
On the other hand, been running full phanteks t30 for homelab and PC now that I FINALLY MOvED it into the rack.
Corsair's fans are all about looks and *profit* over performance.
You mean Corsair, not just their fans. The entire company is profit over performance.
@@greebuh the only things that I would see myself buying from them are some PC cases‚ some of them can get some nice discounts.
@@greebuh Corsair have plenty of great products for price. They have some of the best higher end ram/cost offerings, their PSUs are great quality and often priced below the market average, their cases are great, and believe it or not they have a plethora of good cheap non-rgb fans. The issue is that most content creators only test the shiny new objects and thus often overlook a lot of the less attention-grabbing but often better products on offer.
@@greebuh
1000D, 5000D and 7000D are quite nice cases tho
econ 101 is down the hall commrade.
Corsair is just over hyped over expensive.
And you have to buy into the expensive proprietary connectors on top.
@@SomeThingOrMaybeAnother yes, that is the cherry on the cake. I kever buy Corsair again. They look like Asus ROG, also overpriced crap.
It really is. Before I got back into the scene, I thought Corsair was the hotness to get
@@HanmaHeiro Corsair still has plenty of good stuff, just not all the top-shelf shinyness is good. Guess that's what happens when a company grows big. But I mean, for every overpriced iCue branded wealth taxed part they market, they have 10 other less-branded versions that are just as good and cost 5x less. The thing is, the echo chamber of content creation tends to only test out the shiniest objects available, so we only get a snippet of what they actually offer -usually the make-or-break type of components where they're either amazing, or ridiculous.
@@Real_MisterSir ah good to know. I'm not in need of a PSU but I do trust Corsair has quality ones there. Thanks
We are really at a point where fans are good enough that the quality of the noise matters far more than the quantity, it would be great to see you test stuff like relative peaks and the frequency distribution, fairly commonplace stuff now. The LCP probably makes little difference now but will prevent the fan warping/blades expanding over the years.
@Roman those Arctic P12 Max results does not seem in line with other reviews, are you using the first batch by any chance? They had this weird thing were the black model was using Double Ball bearings and the white one Fluid Dynamic bearings but now it seems they fixed that in the last revision and all variants uses FDB
Ohhh you found a proper use case for a 120mm CLC!!
Just appreciate how Arctic has managed to design a smaller surface area motor, probably the longer fan blade on the market (120/140mm fans), only 5 of them and is still good enough for common mortals.
yeah, I love arctic's fans! have their 420 sized CLC II
The larger surface area of the hub on some fans is intentional. In high pressure situations air can leak back near the hub. Gamers Nexus recently made a video where they interviewed Nvidia employee working with fans, the hub size is one thing discussed on the video.
@@J4nda even so, arctic's fans are great. honestly.
@@J4nda Experienced this firsthand with EK Vardar Evo RGB 120mm fans. The pictures did not really show how massive the fan hubs are, and I thought they'd perform awful because I assumed there would be huge dead spots on the radiator beneath the hub compared to the Yate Loons they replaced. Turns out, nope, doesn't matter, the Vardars have so much static pressure that the hub size is irrelevant, I can run them at lower RPMs than the Yate Loons and have the same temperature at a lower noise level.
@@scarecrow5848 they are, I even prefer P12 slim over A12x15 on NH-L12S.
It's not on Noctua's level of quality though. I have two P8 PWM units running right next to each other and at the same PWM ratio there's 100rpm difference. I used a lot of various units (F8, P8, F9, P12, P12 Slim, P14) and it was also more common to run into units that were making weird noises under specific conditions - this never happened to me with Noctua. Still, however, I had less issues with Arctic than I had with Bequiet or Fractal fans, which are more expensive (I'd just never buy bequiet again and Fractal fans that come with cases are replaced as the first thing).
With Arctic you're getting like 95% of Noctua (performance and noise wise, I don't care about the useless stuff that comes with Noctua fans) for 25% of the money, which is a fantastic deal.
an 09:23 that noise seems to me almost exactly like typical cavitation noise, a characteristic of turbulent flow - this means there are some inefficient air vortexes happening at the back of the fan blades. This probably happens because those plastic radial fins in the back of the fan are not properly aligned with the airflow and are actually causing some counter-presure blockage in the air stream.
I love all the work he puts into testing these products. He really puts in a lot of effort to save us time and get the information we all want. Thank you so much!
NF-A12x25 still the king of standard size 120mm fans.
Glass is added to moulded plastics for to reduce flex and rigidity (I think those are the words you were looking for).
As an engineer I can guess it's because the more arc you put in the front tip of the impeller, the less noise you may generally expect. Under high loads & RPMs the impeller can flex creating a different source of noise. The more rigid the impeller is, the smaller the gap between it and the internal annulus resulting in increased max static pressure the fan assembly can flow air at.
I'm sticking with $5 P12's for nearly any scenario.
P12 Max are great too btw, the 5 pack is like 35.99 so about ~7 per fan
@@lefthornet As are the ARGB P12s. They're probably the best performing RGB fans for noise to performance bar none, and they're not at all pricey. As a bonus the lighting they provide looks great, but they are a tad too bright for my tastes.
I miss when Corsair was a strong competitor and actually offered good fans at a reasonable price (AF120/SP120). I switched to BeQuiet when I refreshed my system and never looked back.
For €50 I bought whole 9x TL-S12-S argb fans from thermalright It would be fun to see comparison of ultra budget fans vs the mainstream and expensive fans as in what do I gain for paying say €30 vs €5.50 for a fan
Or 2 Cheap Fans Push + Pull vs 1 Expensive Fan Push or Pull
@@LoTrusconi Or 2x360mm with expensive fans or 3x360mm with cheap fans ( I went for the last still not sure if did the right thing 😅)
I've had this fan and like you mentioned the noise at 9:09 I returned it because when I am not gaming(system on idle) that noise just kept going and after 1 week I said (okay, that's enough).
*Edit: After this, I bought Lian Li TL 120(non-LCD) fans and they have a different habit. at 800 ~ 960 and 1250+ Rpm, they make a humming noise that also does not sound good. I hope we will have better fans after this year.
Wow I can’t believe how still good the p12 series are. And when you consider the price… just wow
Phanteks t30 is the GOAT 120mm fan and the 3 packs is a good deal. I’m hoping they’ll repeat the same GOATness for 140mm size 😍
is that Phanteks fan cracked in the center? Seems like it on video 😅
I’ve been waiting for a review of the RX fans, nobody is doing it, and as you documented it is way way better than the QX. So thank you sir for a great break down of it’s performance 👊
In the tool industry, when they add glass fiber for reinforcing the plastic shell of the tool, it will feel and sound different when it's scraped or cut with a blade. I learned that from watching videos on tool teardown reviews. Also the bending of the fan blades that you were talking about, I think the word you are looking for is deflecting
looking forward to the fan factory tour. kinda got sucked into comparing fans and now i'm really curious
I just use Arctics only, amazing for the money. But I bet Shungite fans will find it's buyers. Great video
The direction on the blades is the attack profile, the higher profile get more air but requires more torque, the lower profile requires less torque but moves less air.
Wouldn't that be the pitch of the blades?
@@--_DJ_-- Yes, AoA is a relative pitch
@@mycosys I don't think the term AoA has any bearing on a PC fan or how it is made. That term refers to the angle of a wing in relation to incoming flow, not really a thing you find in most PCs.
@@--_DJ_-- dude, how do you think a fan works??? Its an aerofoil.
Go watch the recent PC fan Engineering vid frm GN at the _minimum_
@@mycosys What did I write that has anything to do with how they work? Terms is the topic of discussion... Please try to think before commenting.
11:40 Deflection... or Change in Pitch
"high creep resistance & high stiffness" would have worked for describing the advantage of lcp
@@wingcommanderbob8268 👍
Love my Arctic P12 Max fans. Fit them to my server to replace some jet engine default fans. Enough static pressure to pull air through a huge bunch of drive bays and keep the drives cool. High static pressure quiet fans are hard to find, and the P12 Max is my go to now. (and yes, their figures are better than Noctua)
Please can you start doing a max speed test when testing fans? I have 7 corsair fans I put to max on a custom loop for games. I don't care about how loud it is, I just want the coldest equipment.
I'm a big fan of yours 😂
Noctua all day every day. Just wish they made 30mm or thicker fans both in 120 and 140mm. A 140mm 30mm+ is on my wish list to use on Corsair One
Thank you so much for this video!
I can't help but notice that some of the fans tested looked like they were optimised for high static pressure and some for air flow. Yet they were all tested in a high static pressure scenario. Judging by blade count and pitch, the Corsair fans look optimised for high airflow, not use as radiator fans. Additionally the dB measurement is misleading as it's not normalised for human frequency response. The fewer bladed, lower rpm fans will post higher dB, but will be less noticeable by human ears - especially when mounted in a case!
Thank you for this video! I was really curious if the prices make any sense for these fans. Meanwhile I am sticking with Arctic and Noctua depending on the budget per build.
not phanteks ? arctic p12 is about 5-6 euro per fan where i live. but phanteks t30 is 35 euro and by derbaurs graphs it seems a good investment ? no ?
@@voxdeus Are you getting 6-7x more performance with the T30s over the P12s? Or a 6-7x longer warranty?
@@calvin659idk are you ? also the p12s arent made with premium meterials .
The problem with the new RX is the electrical cables obstructing the airflow, they're just a worse version of older ,non link, Performance Elite fans. I went for the RX ones, because from the back side they still look great in a fish tank pc build.
LCP is supposed to be a stiffer material over the usual ABS, PC or PP materials, though dunno if it is superior against glass filled plastics. LCP allows the fan blade clearance against the frame to be narrower and have less "backfire" when the fan needs to generate static pressure: try this simple experiment - run the fan and put the airflow side directly on a table and feel air at the back, somehow recirculating around the area. Interesting to prove it!
That was one of his points. LCP is glass filled plastic, and for some reason it is the exact same molding as the RGB one, which isn't. At the trade show Corsair was talking bout all that (being stiffer and having the blades closer to the frame) and then they didn't do anything different from the normal plastic RGB version, so it was just marketing buzz word BS.
@@Dan-Simms wait...LCP is JUST glass filled plastic? Say PC-GF30 or something? The industrial fans had been using those for a very long time, and I have yet to use a botique fan for PC builds (I use Nidec, San Ace because it is always hot around here) and always wondered why PC parts brand fans never used them to begin with. Boggles the mind.
@@ruikazane5123 LCP is not really about the chemical composition, the secret sauce is more about the machine/machine parameters and technique of moulding it. The temperature, The heating/cooling rate, time spent moulding it, etc, ...
A few PC fans used mixtures like PC-GF30 before, but that's not LCP, neither those industrial nor DiY are the truly next-gen product, that LCP is. LCP is a step above all of them.
@@Dogzilla07 Thanks for clearing that out, otherwise I would be dumbfounded. Still, if it is that good, the industrial sector should have done with it first and prove it is worth it anyway...
I would like to have seen BeQuiet fans tested as well to see how they performed against the others.
Lian Li, Phanteks and Be Quiet seems to dominate the market right now. And that’s for a reason.
Odd. I would have said Noctua and Arctic are on top right now. We must hang around different groups.
Personally I like Artic fans. Noktua is just beyond my budget.
Phanteks ftw. Best fans while being far cheaper than competitors. Not trying to sound like an advertisement or anything, but they have been my go to choice for a while now, for either cfm airflow or for static pressure, or both.
The T30 is the first time in years that I simply saw how the fans were designed, went online and immediately ordered 3 of them for my 360 to replace some old noisy corsair maglevs. Absolutely amazing fans that have held up wonderfully even with hours and hours of benching at 3K rpm. The only annoying thing about them is the switch is a pain to access but at least it's possible from the front unlike the SW Pro4 (one of the more disappointing fans I've purchased). Luckily you shouldn't need to adjust it very often but worth mentioning.
Not just their fans, its a company with a pretty awesome product stack all round. I miss their PWM to DC controlled fan speed controller for $20 AUD specifically
Be cautious with EK products too they are not in a good place right now
I think the fan blade is hitting the outer housing when it spins. I got a faulty Arctic that does this, just 1 out of 36x P12 and 10x P14. As it spins faster, the blade flattens out, essentially getting longer, and hits the outer housing. If thats the case, it is faulty
nice video again der8bauer!
I am really curious if there will be a video for low profile fans 😁 sometimes i have the feeling they're underrated (i could be wrong, but would be nice to see a review video about it). if that will going to happen in the future 🙃
2:21 12% lower speed but 15% more performance
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but CFM is only "volume of air moved" and doesn't include the pressure by which the fan manages it - so it's only half of what would constitute "performance," especially if placed on a radiator?
Never in my life was expecting phanteks fans to be this good. Maybe i should buy some of them
Just fyi, the T30 in the chart is a 30mm thick fan, that's a whole different category.
@@FedjaHvastija I just saw some reviews that compared to noctua fans phanteks T30 is a big chonker and for my mATX case is not good. Atm i'm using lian li sl infinity fans for 2 years now
@@KRYSS27 Yeah I'm not saying it's not a good fan, but 25mm and 30mm can't be compared side-by-side, there's a whole tier of difference in performance.
Idk, they are still really good, keeps my cpu real low
Phanteks T30 :O I am curious about comparison to Noiseblocker fans.
artic p12 max is the underdog coming in at 10 dollars.
my last corsair fan is the ML120 :)
It would be good to see how the Antec storm T3 are rated to the rest
@11:40 If i may suggest, assuming the words you were unsure was for english listeners, But my thought was something like 'torsional rigidity/strength' ?
I'm sure that Engineers use a very specific word to describe the twisting forces that are experience on a fan blade... but thats what i was thinking :)
How do the fans make 40.1 db of noise at 1000rpm but in the noise normalised test the fans are running at 1300rpm at 40db, this makes no sense. Please retest the results, something is wrong here.
Results are accurate. The test @1000rpm is measured at 10cm distance, while the noise normalized is measured at 30cm. The 1000rpm test was measured closer because they would all be very quiet at 30cm distance.
Hi, I was thinking about having these fans in Corsair 6500x, do you recommend the Lian li TL fans as a better alternative or...? If you have a better recommendation, please write too.
I bought 6 120 LL's..... when I did my first all out watercooled build. Never ever again.
remember when all them corsair hydro water blocks cost more than EKs or similar but weighed 1/4 as much because they were made from air and pot metal ..... and leaked out the box
I have about $600 worth of iCue link 360 aio and fans sitting on my desk and was about to swap them with the LL120's before watching this haha. I tried to find some comparisons between older LL120's and new QX120's but couldn't find anything really so I bit the bullet. Hoping with my NZXT H9 Flow having 10 fans and breathing so good it still cools good 🥵🤞
Dude that p12 max is a beast for only 10 bucks, I don't know why anyone would buy anything else
Are these being pushed for radiators or case fans? Could be they just aren't great with static pressure. Not that I would buy them over the NFA12s or T30s.
could you please test if the clicking sound is caused by PWM mode?
i swear i have ml120 fans that made that noise in PWM but not in voltage mode or whatever the alternative is... i may even still be running voltage mode as it was so long ago.
Crystals? Yay, they can finally cure my gout with a fan, and my restless leg!
Shungite fans
@der8auer EN - I just saw GNs report on EK.. I think you would be the perfect guy to take them under your wing and expand your awesomeness. Thank you and thank your lovely cats😻
Honestly, I wouldn't wish EK's corruption and mismanagement on Roman. Undoubtedly he would want no part of all of that, and he'd do so much better without it, of course.
@@lennyvalentin6485I think he meant not managment, but engineers working at ek.
Slovenia is a bit of a ways from Roman's neck of the woods and Teutons annexing East European industry isn't a good optic! 🙃 Gap in the market, mind, if he were to be so willing. But I think he has enough on his plate for his own gig now he's full-time with no Caseking side order.
A better test would be to simply mount the fan on various radiators and measuring the airflow through the radiator.
The texture/patterning is reminiscent of PEO patterning on some 3d printer build plates that look nice but are functionally side or downgrades to preexisting cheap alternatives like PEI.
If you wanted such patterning, I'm sure you could just do some stickers or something. Sounds like a job for D-brand. 😂
Delta tempature in degrees of celcius is just Kelvin. But I guess more people would be less confused about increase in degrees of celcius than Kelvin.
I would've thought that by now, most fans would be in max 15% range of each other.
And whenever I get the chance, I comment that Arctic fans are 5 EUR, Corsair 30 EUR. And Arctic is located in the EU.
LCP is just marketing gumph for glass fibre/beads or carbon fibre mixed with a polymer usually nylon, but sometimes ABS+PC, it's dumb just call it what it is just say what polymer it is and the fill rate.
I am of the opinion that no one needs something more expensive than an Arctic PWM fan. Price/performance they are unbeatable.
Will you talk about the EK drama? since you have done business with them
replied in a different comment about that :)
@@der8auer-en Just seen brother. Good luck, and love the videos
Unfortunately even at reduced prices, Corsair has to compete with Thermalright’s TL-C12C-S that has great looking LEDs that uses regular 3-pin ARGB (no software required), has daisy chaining on the ARGB and PWM headers, performs great relative to other ARGB fans, and in the US is only ~$13 to $14 for a pack of 3. Alternatively if you need to reduce cable clutter, SAMA sells their “linked-fan” lineup for ~$25 to ~$28 relatively frequently on Newegg in the US, and still works decent as a case fan
Corsair makes some great stuff, but the price discrepancy between their cases and their fans is just off-putting at this point
G'day Roman,
Poor Performance & Using Proprietary connections to lock you into quite a few of their products while being STOOPIDLY Expensive are the reasons I don't buy any Corsair Products
I know this is off topic but I do t know how else to ask. Could you do a cast on what to safely use I. Your custom water loops to protect your blocks and radiators?
Enjoy your technical knowledge and explanations
No Lian Li P28 comparison. Interesting choice
I still prefer Thermaltake SWAFAN EX's. Definitely easier to clean and maintain, also decent performance.
would be nice to include some cheap ID Cooling or similar fan for 5 usd for the comparison so you can see how much you overpay for the difference (if any substantial)
I stopped caring about fans when i tried Arctic P12, having an overkill custom loop allowed me to use 5 Euro Arctic P12 at rpm ranges so low that the pc is so silent i stopped using headphones and i have to look if the fans are spinning to know if the pc is on or off.
My dude for the sake of future comparison, isn't 100% fan speed a thing anymore???
For the other Australians out the non RGB variant fans typical pricing is Arctic $15, Corsair $49, Phanteks $45 and Noctua $69. If you aren't going RGB there is basically no reason to go for anything other than the Arctic fans, other than aesthetics and even then it doesn't make sense unless you are building a full Noctua PC in all it's brown and beige glory.
My Antec fans work just fine considering a 5 pack is cheaper than a single Corsair.
exactly why i have oldschool noctuas in my system.
Still waiting for a spinning radiator fan combo
Someone has been learning segues from Linus, that was smooooth.
If only Noctua could release their new 140 mm fan...
Can't go wrong with Noctua
So I stick with arctic max for now
I like the $9 fans at microcenter. No rgb, no problem.
Something you never mention are if the fans smell of flame retardant. I know that some Noctua fans do that.
Angle of attack.
How do these fans compare to Lian lI's fans??
QX120 RGB 120mm PWM PC Fans Starter Kit = $150 us These manufacturers have lost there minds. $150 US for 3 fans is F**King crazy....
So a T30 with some sort of link connection system would be pretty ideal? Why is this not a product?
They do though. On the fan cable you have a daisy chain connection and they´re selling a 3 pack of the fans daisy chained..
@@StubbySum9 I meant with the Corsair style connections with no cables to manage between the fans.
Congrats corsair, you played yourself.
8 minutes after video released...
and even with suppressed notifications, cool
early watchers club here?
'cfm'? It is not the dark ages anymore, use standard units of measurement.
CFM, is a standard measurement for measuring airflow, it’s been used for decades.
@@andydbedford Really? Can you please show me where that sits in the International System of Units? Can't seem to find it there.
I'm genuinely asking what we should be using? m³/h or L/s or what?
@@Simon_Denmark m³/h
Thanks, I don't see any wires off the fan, how does it connect to the PC ?
The RX and QX are part of the iCue system. They direct link to each other requiring no cable between them. If you need a fan in another location you plug in a cable from either a fan or the hub its a rather elegant system. I have an iCue link H170i LCD (420 radiator with 3x140mm fans with lots of RGB) the fans are essentially silent probably because the fans are larger they run slower.
@@daishi5571 Thanks.
I love your show, been watching forever. But it's time to change the intro song. It's not bad at all, it's way to bass heavy and loud. It makes my sound system explode every time it plays and I'd watch your stuff on autoplay if it wasn't for the song and me having to rush over to turn the volume down. Even just a reduction in the song's volume would be great. Hope you don't take offense to this.
Phanteks T30 = 30mm (+20% wider)
i cant be the only one that doesnt care about fan noise? MOAR AIR!
Cost of making a fan 1.25 sell for 50.00 that is most companies 🙄.
Arctic shows you can make a decent fan without all the crap (rgb/icue/thermistor). Corsair fans are just lipstick on a pig at this point
thank you! I always thought Corsair fans are overpriced so generally would opt for Arctic P12, but since you are explaining all the details and differences it helps to comprehend where the high price is coming from.
3:02 Could you ave Included the Toughfan
Just look at the nf-a12 results, toughfan has exactly same performance as noctua a12
@@ms3862 ohh, okay
Air leak between p12 max and radiator is quite a lot.