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Corsair HD120 RGB PWM Fan Kit Review
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By David Ramsey
Manufacturer: Corsair Components Inc.
Product Name: HD120 RGB LED PWM Fan (Three Pack with Controller)
Model Number: CO-9050067-WW
UPC: 843591090896
Price As Tested: $84.99 (Amazon | Newegg)Full Disclosure: Corsair provided the product sample used in this article.
RGB lighting is the current trend these days, appearing in everything from keyboards and mice to less obvious items like motherboards and mouse pads. While LED-lit fans have been around for years, leave it to Corsair to take it to the next level with their Corsair HD120 RGB fans. You can buy these fans individually, but today Benchmark Reviews is testing the HD120 RGB three-pack of fans with the included fan hub and controller (model CO-9050067-WW).
I’ll use these fans to retrofit the radiator cooling on my Hackintosh, built in an InWin D-Frame Mini case that should show them off to good advantage.
Features & Specifications
- Three 120mm RGB-lit fans, hub, and three-button controller
- High static pressure: 2.25mm of H20 at 12V
- 0.30A current draw per fan at 12V
- 0.47A current draw for LEDs per fan at 12V
- 54.4CFM at 12V
- 30dBa sound level at 12V
Let’s take a look at these fans in the next section.
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Closer Look: HD120RGB Fan Pack
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The Corsair HD120 RGB three fan pack comes with three fans, a fan hub, a three-button controller, and an extension cable for connecting your own switches if you can’t position the controller in an easily accessible area. This kit sells online for $84.99 (Amazon | Newegg).
The rim of each fan is surrounded with 12 RGB LEDs and a plastic diffuser assembly. The fan blades are a translucent, frosted white plastic to spread the light.
Each fan has two four-pin cables: a standard PWM cable for connecting to a fan header on your motherboard, and a separate four-pin cable to connect to the RGB LED controller.
The small hub has a SATA power connector you’ll need to attach in your system to provide power for the LEDs, and can control up to six fans. The unlabelled connector at the right of this image is for the controller switch.
The three-button controller lets you select the fan color, display mode, and speed (for modes that pulse, strobe, or “breathe”).
In the next section I’ll install two of these fans for the 2×120 radiator in my system.
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Installing the HD120 RGB Fan Pack
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The InWin D Frame Mini case my system uses holds the fans in a tightly-fitting metal shell. This isn’t a problem for normal fan cabling, but the dual cables of the Corsair HD120 RGB fans, clamped together with a zip tie, were too thick to fit between the edge of the fan and the mounting shell.
I was able to work around this by removing the zip tie and carefully folding and routing the cables.
Finally, I had the fans installed.
Both the fan hub and controller come with pre-applied sticky tape for mounting. I fit the controller on the back of my case, just peeking out from under the smoked glass panel.
The controller sits on top of the radiator shell, easily accessible at the top of the computer case.
In the next section I’ll present my final thoughts and conclusion on this fan kit.
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RGB Fan Final Thoughts
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Although these fans are equipped with RGB LEDs, you don’t have the full control of all 16.7 million colors they’re capable of. Using the COLOR button on the controller, you can cycle white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and a final selection that cycles among all the colors. The MODE button cycles through demo mode (all modes in sequence), static color, breathing, flicker, sequential, marquee, and rainbow effects. Last, the SPEED button controls the speed at which the non-static modes effects progress. Sure, the colors are limited, but the LEDs are very bright– easily visible in a daylight-lit room– and the available colors and effects should satisfy most users.
If you want more, you can add a Corsair Lighting Node Pro controller with four individually addressable RGB LED light strips ($59.99: Amazon | Newegg), and control and synchronize the effects between the fans and the LED strips. The repertoire of effects provides a lot of versatility, as you can select anything from a static color display to rapid strobing and cycling.
Using these fans will require more deliberation on your part, though: since each fan has two four-pin wires running from it, you’ll need to pay more attention to your cabling if you want to keep your rig’s internals looking neat. But that seems a small price to pay for the visual bling these fans will add.
Even at full speed, the fans seem pretty quiet, as befits their relatively modest CFM rating. Overall I have only two complaints: one, these fans use sleeve bearings rather than ball bearings, fluid dynamic bearings, or maglev bearings. While sleeve bearings are perfectly serviceable, they are the shortest-lived bearing type and give the cost of these fans I’d hoped for something better. Two, it would have been nice to have the full 16.7-million color RGB spectrum available, although I admit I have no idea how you could do this with a push-button controller.
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Corsair HD120 RGB Kit Conclusion
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The fans included in the Corsair HD120 RGB Three Fan kit are much more expensive than standard case fans, and their performance specifications are unexceptional. But nobody’s going to buy these just to push air around– that’s what no-name $5.00 black fans are for. Instead, you’ll buy them for the visual effects, and if that’s what you’re looking for then your money will be well-spent.
If I was disappointed with the sleeve bearings, the rest of the kit’s construction gave me no cause for concern. The fans and associated electronic hub and controller seem solidly built and well designed, and I found them easy to integrate into my system, with the total installation taking perhaps half and hour, most of that spent trying to get the fans to fit into the mounting shell used by my case. The ability to expand the system with synchronized RGB LED strips is a plus, too.
The Corsair HD120 RGB Three Fan kit is a great place to start if you want to give your system some more visual appeal. As of February 2017, the CO-9050067-WW kit sells online for $84.99 (Amazon | Newegg).
Pros:
+ Brilliant LEDs provide lighting effects ranging from subtle to dramatic
+ Quiet performance
+ PWM control
+ Upgrade path with Corsair Lighting Node Pro and LED strips
Cons:
– Very expensive for 120mm case fans
РSleeve bearing construction seems d̩class̩ at this price point
– Limited control over colors
Ratings:
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Performance: 9.75
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Appearance: 9.50
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Construction: 8.50
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Functionality: 9.00
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Value: 8.00
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Final Score: 9.05 out of 10.
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