Corsair CO-9050039-WW ML Series ML120 120 mm Low Noise High Pressure Premium Magnetic Levitation Fan - Black/Grey (Pack of 2)

Product Information

This may be the first time we’ve ever reviewed fans in and of themselves at The Tech Report. That said, I have what I believe is a useful test method for gauging the performance of these spinners. It just so happens that AMD sent us a monster 360-mm radiator to go with its Ryzen Threadripper CPU duo, and the fine folks at Gamers Nexus have pioneered a simple method for comparing fans and heatsinks in their testing: run the fans or coolers you’re testing at the same speed and see what noise and temperature numbers come out the other end. The elegance of that approach is inarguable, so I’m employing it here, as well. For as much as I’ve written about case and cooling performance in my time, the fans included with most of the cases and radiators that find their way into the TR labs have been good enough that I’ve never felt any urge to consider premium aftermarket spinners. That’s become especially true as silicon process sizes have shrunk and chips have usually consumed less and less power to deliver a given level of performance. The slow-moving 120-mm and 140-mm fans in many modern cases move enough air quietly that only those with special needs really need to consider tearing out the included spinners from those enclosures. You should choose your RGB fan based on their lighting and appearance. Differences in actual cooling performance are small and hard to distinguish. You did not mention what CPU you are planning to use, but even with a high watt model the difference between 3xQL120 and 3xML120 on the radiator might be 1.5C at like speeds. That's a fairly small trade-off for to get the lighting you want. Case fans are likely to be even less influential. It is very difficult to make noticeable changes in ambient temperature if the speeds remain the same. If you intend to actually run a fan at 2400 rpm, then that is a different matter. Aside from that, you sometimes get fans that have the exact right airflow angle to strike a temperature sensitive piece of hardware, like m.2 drives or RAM. Those are instances where one fan may have a clear cooling benefit over another, but it is very difficult to predict and extremely case and locations specific. Take the three-pin cable that connects the lighting control hub and the lighting node pro and connect one end to the lighting control hub and the other to one of the channels in the lighting node pro. Cooling performance is just one line on a fan’s calling card, though. Low temperatures are no good if the fans producing them deafen the user in the course of keeping power-hungry components chilly. Let’s see just how much noise these fans make while cooling off our Threadripper 1950X.

This means that you’d get better cooling and airflow from the ML120 than you would on the LL120s. Also, thanks to the guided fins of the ML120s, you’ll get better-targeted airflow throughout the case though the fins don’t make for excellent aesthetics. However, the ML120 looks different with elevated fins that provide targeted and generally better airflow than the LL120s. This feature makes them the ideal fans for both cases and radiators.

Thanks to AMD, Gigabyte, G.Skill, Intel, and EVGA for helping outfit our test systems with some of the finest hardware available. While B450 boards are an even cheaper option, B550 and X570 motherboards have two major advantages: support for Ryzen 5000-series out of the box and support for PCIe Gen 4.0 storage and graphics cards. Having access to these adds a degree of future-proofing that you won't find on B450, in exchange for a slightly higher up-front cost. X570 boards tend to support a larger number of PCIe 4.0 devices simultaneously, but tend to cost more. If you plan to have a lot of fast PCIe 4.0 storage installed, then X570 makes sense; otherwise go for B550 as you'll get better value. Right now my fans speed control are plugged into my motherboard so I can't use iCue to create a custom fan curve like I could with the Pro, but from my understanding, the Core has that same feature. There’s a review for the old XE radiators where they measure the cooling capacity of different radiators, based on fan rpm. Flow won’t affect much performance for low restriction radiators, as at some won’t be relevant, but fan speed or push/pull will. For some new EL P (Performance) and its low fpi, the only real benefit would be to have all fans at very low rpm.

As for the case, it's too big for my setup (slanted roof from loft conversion) and I'd have preferred for them to have had a flat base rather than the slope so it could take a 480 rad in the side, not just 4x120mm fans. It's also kind of a weird design overall, it seems like it's wasting a lot of space by focusing on 'vertical' rather than 'horizontal' space like the o11 range.. mind you I can see a lovely spot for an internal 'temperature' display just above the motherboard..... I do like the rear (2x120mm) res/pump combo they've designed for the case though. My PC will have 5 RGB ML120s, and some Corsair strip lights (probably 4 strips daisy chained together). I will for sure have a Commander Core, but exactly what other controllers do I need to control all of that with iCue? (fan speed and RGB) Since its inception, the LL120 has been a favorite among PC builders because of its low-noise performance and RGB lighting effects. The LL120 RGB fan kit comes with two RGB fans and an RGB lighting control hub that connects to your fans and powers the RGB lighting.I wanted to get some new Corsair stuff for more RGB on my setup, but I am very confused by all the different RGB controllers and junk you need. Alternatively, if you need cheap RGB fans and don't care that they'll run at full blast the whole time, these EZDIY fans ones in the move a lot of air and look great. Remember that this is for a complete desktop PC, but we haven't included an operating system (as Windows 10 can be bought online for relatively cheap these days and Linux works nicely for gaming) or peripherals (so you'll need to keep your existing monitor, keyboard, mouse and headset, or buy them fresh if you don't have any!). Can I have a table of links?

Once the fans are connected to the lighting hub, lighting node pro, and your PC, the next step is setting up the software for your fans. You can do that by following the steps listed below: At 35.3 dBA, the MasterFan trio might not seem much louder than the Corsairs at 1000 RPM, but they have a prominent bass tone to their sound that stands out more than the broad-spectrum whoosh of the Corsair bunch. Though they’re still quiet, the MasterFans aren’t as eerily unobtrusive as the Corsairs are at the same speed. You definitely get the sense that the system is on and working when the MasterFans are operating. Few times I used the Corsair ML and was disappointed. At low speed they don’t move enough air. At 50% they do, but are very noisy. The P12 at 50% (900 rpm), below the humming band (1k rpm) move a lot more air and still relatively quiet.ML120 and 140 are quiet and push a lot of air so those are my choice, however I bought also one bequiet SW3 and it is perfect as well. In the future I would choose between those two. RGB LED components are nothing without software to control them, and in the case of the ML120 Pro RGBs, that duty falls to Corsair’s Link utility. On top of its system-monitoring capabilities, Link can be used to customize various settings of Corsair’s wide range of compatible peripherals, including PSUs, heatsinks, entire fan-control hubs, and more. For the ML120 Pro RGBs, we get control over lighting color and eight prebaked animation effects.