Corsair ML120 PRO 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation RGB LED PWM Fan review

Corsair ML120 PRO 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation RGB LED PWM Fan review

Corsair ML120 PRO 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation RGB LED PWM Fan review

pros
Excellent balance of performance and noise
Rarely used magnetic levitation bearings result in zero bearing noise
Four addressable RGB LEDs provide customizable lighting
Good build quality
Triple pack includes Lighting Node PRO controller with software lighting control
Five year warranty

cons
Expensive relative to case fans in general
The software driver user experience is lacking
Addressable nature of the RGB LEDs goes unused, at least at the time of release.



so today's review we are taking a look at courses M our pro series fans courser are known for their stylish premium fans and the ML series is no exception to that wall because these fans have unique feature in the form of magnetic levitation hence the name the M our series so have here the white 120 millimeter Rd versions but you can buy these in blue or lead out these and they also do a non IV version as well if that's your thing we say all  in the UK or in the u.s. that's for a single 120 millimeter fan which is 

definitely in that premium price tag for sure you can also get them in a 140 millimeter versions and also do twin packs but only continent in the non-id versions now of course our fans have evolved a lot over the last couple of years the main feature about the M R series fans over the SP and AF series is the magnetic levitation technology it uses it has a magnetic bearing to spin the fan blades compared to a normal bearing on there over fans which should don't quote me on this though increase the lifespan of the fan and make it sound a lot quieter this is basically 

due to having no contact between the bearing and the fan blades so technically it has less moving parts also the M our fans have a pwm connector compared to a free bin connector on their older SP and AF series because I believe it choirs a constant 12 volt power source for magnetic bearing to actually work properly also one thing to note these M our fans are meant to float in midair when powered on in your system but as you can see I can't actually remove the fan blades because they do feel attached somehow but how they actually achieve this is well your guess is as good as mine so the first thing you'll notice is courser has changed the look and 

design of the new M our fans this time around coarser has a new custom mode design which is meant to have a balance between high suffered pressure and high airflow which previously we require you to get some SP fans for static pressure for air phase we say a radiator and some a AF fans or some decent airflow around your case which is not required now with the ML series with that new custom low design appears they have smooth off the housing around the fan blades on the front to stop any resistance of airflow and on the back change the shape to allow better spread of air for possibly using with radiators Corsair has also opted to mount the LEDs 

in the center of the fan instead of on the corners like on their previous LED versions which I have to say just give that light source up even clean look across the fan blades which is much better than their previous AF LED fans and because the EM our firm has a pwn connector the IDS will stay bright through the RPM range compared to the AF ID that use a free pin which will dim up and down depending on that rpm speed now all the best things about the older SP and AF fans is which we all know by now had replaceable rings which come in three different 

colors but many people prefer to paint them to match their build on the M our fan cursor has brought this customization back but in the form of replaceable callers mounted to the anti-vibration rubber dampers which you can move and buy new ones phone calls there or simply paint them to match the color of your build little details about this is really what makes a difference for me personally when buying a product as for the specifications of the mlpro fans they should come with five years warranty which tells me that Corsair are confident they are built to last the flow type of the fan is a static pressure type and they all have PWM control 

airflow is between 12 to 75 CFM which is potentially better than both SP and AF series fans the Suffolk pressure is between point two to four point two and has a sound level of sixteen to thirty seven DBA and the fans can reach speeds of 2400 rpm if you really feel the need to do so and also has a power draw of point three of an um now all these fans today have different rpm speed but for quick noise test I've set that all around 1300 rpm to give a bit of a comparison so to wrap things up the ML series fans from Corsair are a serious piece of kit after all these are 

premium fans we are talking about here in my opinion they are coarser as best-looking fans they do feel a lot more solid than SP AF fans and definitely much more heavier as well Corsa SP air fans have been my favorite for some time and I do feel that they have outdone them this time round with the ml fans calling wise well I didn't really see much of a difference with the M our fans personally on my H 100 I possibly got a 1 mm m per to drop for my cpu but one thing I did notice is that I could run the RPM on my mr fans a lot lower to around 900 rpm compared to the SP fans at 1,100 rpm which the M our fans still achieved the same level of 

cooling over the s P fans as for negatives well personally I don't really have anything to say bad about the M our fans or I can say though is after buying one of these M our fans the price will start to rise quickly .


Specifications

Corsair ML120 PRO RGB Fan
Dimensions:	120 x 120 x 25 mm
Rated speed:	400-1600 +/- 10% RPM
Max airflow:	47.3 CFM
Max static pressure:	1.78 mm H2O
Noise:	25 dBA
Fan control:	4-pin/PWM control
Current draw:	0.219 A peak

  the fundamental idea of how the lighting itself works not the correct way to install fans our cooling or anything like that this guide is going to show you how to plug everything in and yeah just a quick look at the Corsair IQ software as well with that said let's jump right in alrighty let's take a look at the fans that you get when you buy the LL 120 kit now like I mentioned 

previously this guide applies to ll 120 and 140 fans now we're gonna look at the cables that are on each of the fans this is the five bolt addressable RGB connector now this is a proprietary Corsair connector however it is 5 volt and addressable I think I just said that and this is the PWM fan connector this is pretty standard and will connect to your motherboard or a fan hub more on that later now this is the lighting control hub let's call it the split up for all intents and 

purposes just so it makes sense a little bit later on this end of the splitter is the 3-pin connector now this connects this splitter into the lighting node Pro but more on that a little bit later these are the addressable connectors for the fans themselves and you'll notice that on the splitter it is numbered 1 to 6 you should probably take note of which order you have these plugged in when you connect your fans up to the splitter lastly is the sight of power connector this will plug into your power supply in your PC this little guy here is the lighting node Pro itself we're gonna take 

a closer look at that right now the first thing you're gonna notice are these labels 1 & 2 these are lighting channels this is something to take note of as when you're configuring the software it'll make a lot more sense on the other side of the lighting node Pro is the USB connector there's a cable that connects this from with this connector here into your motherboard for full software control but more on that a bit later you also have an the SATA power connector which powers the lighting node Pro also included is this USB cable that connects into the lighting no

 pro and your motherboard for full software control one end of the cable is mini USB this is a standard USB type of connector and on the other side is a 9 pin USB header connector and this is also a standard USB 2.0 connector this 3 pin cable makes all of the magic happen this connects the lighting node pro to the splitter now when you connect this up between the lighting node pro and the splitter it doesn't matter which way you plug it in because it just works 

installing this cable is very easy you just plug it into the splitter and plug the other end into the lighting channel on the lighting node Pro I would suggest plugging it into the first channel since there is nothing else that needs to be connected to the second channel that's for another type of 

installation the next thing we're gonna do is plug the USB cable into the lighting node Pro this is the cable that I showed a little bit earlier very very simple and we're gonna plug the other end of that into a free USB 2.0 header on your motherboard so we can have that software control when we get around to using Corsair IQ alright we're gonna plug the fans in it is pretty straightforward grab the lining connector that is coming from the fan plug it into any of the ports of the splitter I would suggest going 1 to 6 depending on which order you're installing 

them in your system and just basically rinse and repeat that process until all of your fans are plugged into the split up let's take a look how everything's plugged in your USB is plugged in your lighting node bro is connected to the splitter with this 3 pin cable and all of your fans are plugged into the splitter let's do a flat lay and explain how all of this actually talks to each other all three fans are plugged into the splitter as you can see here one two three this is then connected with the three pin cable into the lighting node Pro the lighting node Pro is then 

connected via USB to your motherboard with this cable here and you will have to connect the SATA power up which I'm going to show you guys how to do right now because we're gonna do like a little test installation before we move on the PWM fan connectors are dependent on your system and your type of setup there are a few ways you could utilize these if you have an AI oh you can use them as the cooling fans or you can use a fan hub kind of like this fan top here but like I mentioned every setup is different if you're not sure come to our discord and someone will be able to help you out in this scenario I've removed the fans from a pre-existing a yo-yo I've 

had installed in this case and I'm replacing them with the ll1 20 feet of an example in this installation you can see it uses a splitter cable plug the 3-pin connector into the splitter very straightforward like we mentioned plug the fans in to the splitter now this demo installation only has two fans installed so we're gonna plug just two in in one and to plug the solder power in nice and easy next up we're gonna plug in the lighting node Pro itself we're gonna plug it into the first lighting channel on the lighting node pro with the 3-pin connector that connects both of

 the boxes together now we're gonna connect the solder power up to the lighting node Pro really straightforward stuff gonna plug the USB into like node Pro I've already plugged the other end to the motherboard because I didn't feel like I needed to film that again and when you power your system up it should look a little something like this now we're gonna jump in to courses IQ software to control all of these bits go on over to courses website and download the IQ software I'll put a link down in the description to make your life a little bit easier so you don't have to go 

searching the googles and yeah just continue with the installation click Next a whole bunch of times it is really really easy to get this installed next next next once the software is installed it'll look something like this select the lighting node Pro click the lighting setup tab it'll show the lighting channels now what you want to do here is select the first channel like we have we had it installed previously and select ll RGB series fans you'll see one fan will be illuminated just drop that next box down and select two fans are connected and away you go all lit up and ready to go on the left hand side there will be a new tab called lighting channel one click that and we can 

just take a quick look at some of the lining effects because your ll series fans are working yeah and here are some of the effects did I just say that yeah I did there are a few other things you can do as well you can obviously play with the effects but there's a nice little thing could instant lighting and that enables you just to click a color in this little color picker thingamajigger at the top and it will set all of your Corsair lighting devices including keyboards and mice and 

basically anything Corsair connected to your computer to that color but if you don't like it all you need to do is go back go back Nick there we go lighting channel 1 and click disable instant 
lighting and we're back to normal and that's pretty much it your ll series fan should be working without a hitch I think I covered pretty much everything in this review .

Corsair ML120 PRO 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation RGB LED PWM Fan review

 course err ml 120 pro-family levitation magnetic now this fan is white white LED let's check it out so I am replacing it with one of the fans I have right now it's a Corsair but the ones 1/2 L LEDs is on the course there's LEDs only shooting four different directions so but this one right here you're going to be able to get that fool so anyways this fan right here you could you could buy it on Amazon a good deal but I got actually got a cheaper  because they had an electronic store for a little cheaper so let's open it and check it out now the fan that 

came with my PC right here I don't know if you guys can see it didn't have no RGB or anything that's just plain black so that's what I have before so I'm upgrading to this one right here as you guys can see it's really quiet so we're going to check it out and see how it looks and everything so open the box I am going to get the blue one for the front I'm replacing the fans in the front so that will be replaced soon so you guys will be seeing them now it also does come with the twisty ties in four screws desiccates you need them now as I started off this fan looks 

really cool now it does have the white end with marks so it matches with the fan oh yeah you know and it gives the PC a more you know a more spiral thing now on the motherboard I can also change the L the RGB lights on the motherboard so so here it is right here so we could probably tie it and hide the wires really good very very durable fan and it's really clear plastic that's a cool coarse hair logo so yeah so we're going to install it I'll do a little time lapse review and you guys could look at it and then I have this one this is the Corsair downgraded from the 

other one because it only has four LEDs lights shooting across so you're not giving that full effect like we would on here so we're going to install it and try it out and see how it comes out so yeah , alright guys so I did install this um this was the Fanta actually purchased I did get this and I wasn't the LEDs weren't shooting out perfectly but look at this difference look at the difference and then I will do a before and after shot so basically this one is the same but it's not the levitation one it does have the LEDs right here in the corner so it's going 

shooting for LEDs and it's not getting that full effect now what I have to do is I had to I had to wrap the wire around it a little bit but it barely snugs in there I mean it just but it looks amazing it looks great I'm definitely going to do the fans in the front I will do a video on that next but basically these are the new ML 120 Pro fans now these are magnetic levitation really great fans and they're super quiet so I replaced all the fans it's going to be really quiet and plus it gives a large it gives the LED look effects they also have a bit blue white in red so I will put 

down the description below where you guys could check now the RGB lights on my desktop if you if you want to know I have this app from the motherboard that I can change the LEDs really good it actually really pops out because before I had the black one and the black didn't have any colors but if you guys are not in all that stuff then you guys don't have to worry but I like it because it just adds more color to it so on here I'm going to pop up the to change colors you could change the colors on the RGB motherboard to all different kinds of colors static pulse so basically we'll just do like a color cycle and it's going to go to basically all the color so 

you guys could see right there now now if you want to purchase this up-and-down description below where you can check it out on Amazon they do have it there or your local I gotta at my looks with local chronic store so I want to do a little short review put it together I hope you guys enjoy that I will get the fans for the front I'm going to be getting those pretty soon in the future so I'll put down both bands where you can check them out  depends on what you're going to get and what fan you want but this one right here is awesome .


RGB fans there's a fair few brands selling them but today I've got the entire collection from Corsair these have been on the market for the longest period of time and there's plenty of options to choose from all of the fans work in pretty much the same way so you have two cables per fan one for the RGB lighting and then one for the fan speed itself but it does mean that you need to use a third party controller box and this does come with the starter kit of all the fans but this is manual control only if you do want to control it with software you will need a lighting node Pro or Commander Pro which doesn't actually come with all of the fans that standard

 turning to the range the cheapest option is the SP RGB and I've been using them in my personal rising PC for around about six months with very few bad things to say the lighting is very tasteful with for RGB nodes inside the center of a frosted blade fan well it's definitely not the brightest in the range I really love the look they provide with rich colors and plenty of effects to choose from the main problem with these fans is that you don't get a lighting node Pro in the Box is standard which means that if you want to control these with software you'll have 

to go out and buy it separately or rely on the manual buttons at the back this is a little bit of a shame but it is a cheaper price fan but when you look at some of the competition that allow you to use third-party motherboards to actually control the RGB lighting software it definitely is a bit of a compromise up next are the HD fans and like the rest of the range they come in both 120 and 140 millimeter flavors but these have a ring of RGB s on the outside of the ring which allows for more effects and unlike the SP and ml fans they can actually be synchronized to any 

course own lighting strips you may already own while they can be tailored to your liking and there are loads and loads of effects to choose from I'm actually not a huge fan of the exposed RGB notes and as such they're probably my least favorite from the range unfortunately just like the SP fans you don't get a lighting node in the box which definitely makes this quite hard to recommend when other options are just more feature complete instead I'd point you towards the Corsair ll as these fans are the complete package you get a lighting note in the box and unexposed RGB x' in both the ring and the center as such it's clearly the brightest fan in this 

test and the model were the most effects turn off the lights and you'll be blinded by the coolest-looking PC you've ever put together just be aware that sunglasses are definitely required in terms of performance each of the fans are a clear step up versus your standard case spinner while the SP is the weakest of the bunch with its three pin cable limiting the amount of control you can get I found it delivered great temperatures and minimal noise with aesthetic pressure optimized fans working great on my H 100 I and overclocked rise in 1700 the HD and ll are 

even better with similar designs but greater voltage control thanks to PWM the ll fans can be slightly quieter at a minimum rpm of 500 vs 800 but both will yield more or less identical levels of noise and temperatures when under load but if you want the absolute best of the best when it comes to performance yet you want our to be lighting as well there is yes another option introducing the Corsair ml magnetic levitation RGB fans because yes my favorite performance fans have now gone RGB and they genuinely do look awesome you've still got most of the 

effects that you'll find on the SP fans and with a controllable range of 400 to 1600 rpm using that magnetic levitation technology you're going to get silence at idle and then minimum temperatures under load just know that all of the figures that I've said are based on the 120 millimeter size and of course you actually need to tune the fans to read all of the benefits so those are all of the corsair RGB fans for now unlike so much of the RGB train they really do make a lot of sense because you can create a really standout effect and while you definitely will

 need to be quite careful on your case selection I think that they would be my first go-to upgrade if I was going down to the visual department as they really do look that good all but the HD come highly recommended and if you are interested in any of the products I'll leave them all down in the description below so you can check out things like current pricing because be so surprised how quickly these things change it really is pretty ridiculous really the 
regardless and massive.

Corsair ML120 PRO 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation RGB LED PWM Fan review

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