Corsair ML Pro LED fans

[Hockster]

I picked some up today, damned expensive. Nice effect on the lighting, but extremely loud at full speed. Faster the fan the brighter the light. Low speed setting, around 700 RPM.

Full speed, 1800ish RPM, but insanely loud.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

Hi mate,

Any improvements on the cooling side from these, how loud are they around 1500 rpm?

Cheers.

 

[R00kie]

These fans need to be connected to the PWM headers on your motherboard, that's why you're seeing the LED's dimming. Plus the motor needs all the power it can get, and just DC isn't enough for them, hence the loudness.

 

[Hockster]

They are connected to PWM headers. It's not the motor making noise, it's wind noise. These things move a huge amount of air.

Cooling is the same as the fans I was using previously, stock Corsair fans that came with the Air 540 case I use. At 1500 RPM they're quite loud. I run them at 800- 900 RPM, in my environment I can just barely hear them.

 

[Athlon2K15]

I have four of these in white and havent noticed any noise at all, even at 100% id say they are moderately quiet.

 

[R-T-B]

I have four of these in white and havent noticed any noise at all, even at 100% id say they are moderately quiet.

I use Sunon MagLev's based on the same tech. They aren't terribly loud at ~1500RPMs either, but I guess they could be considered loud there to some "quiet freaks." <1000RPM they are near inaudible.

But with me, I run mine full blast at Sunon's rated 2100RPMs and just put the comp in another room. Noise be damned.

But it's weird that the LED's dim. It makes me think these really ARE the Sunon Maglevs copied blatently (probably licensed though), which are DC-regulated only, and they just slapped on some kind of PWM to DC converter.

 

[Hockster]

I'm anything but a quiet freak. takes a lot of noise for me to notice it. They could be just howling through the screen and filters of the case, never checked them outside of it.

 

[RejZoR]

These are ML (Magnetic Levitation), they need to run with PWM power (which is constant 100% power delivered in pulses opposed to DC which decreases constant voltage to achieve lower speed), otherwise their magnetic levitation part won't operate as it should at lower RPM (especially at lower RPM!). Which could explain why it's noisier than it should be, it's most likely not levitating as it should within the bearing.

 

[Athlon2K15]

These are ML (Magnetic Levitation), they need to run with PWM power (which is constant 100% power delivered in pulses opposed to DC which decreases constant voltage to achieve lower speed), otherwise their magnetic levitation part won't operate as it should at lower RPM (especially at lower RPM!). Which could explain why it's noisier than it should be, it's most likely not levitating as it should within the bearing.

Exactly, I have an email directly from Corsair explaining this after they sent me the fans.

 

[R-T-B]

These are ML (Magnetic Levitation), they need to run with PWM power (which is constant 100% power delivered in pulses opposed to DC which decreases constant voltage to achieve lower speed), otherwise their magnetic levitation part won't operate as it should at lower RPM (especially at lower RPM!). Which could explain why it's noisier than it should be, it's most likely not levitating as it should within the bearing.

That's interesting considering the original Sunon Patent specifies straight DC 6V-13V varaible operation. I own a few of their original fans.

Corsair could likely have redesigned them. I'm just saying it's not a tech limitation.

He's using PWM, at any rate. The dimming is likely now that I think about it, from the pulses of the power. They just go too quick for the naked eye to notice and it appears "dimmer"

I'm anything but a quiet freak. takes a lot of noise for me to notice it. They could be just howling through the screen and filters of the case, never checked them outside of it.

To be completely fair, I'm not a quiet freak at all, I'm like more of a "noise tolerant" type... lol. Bear that in mind.

 

[Whilhelm]

I have a bunch of the non LED version of these and I really like them. Sure at full speed they are super loud but I don't really think that is the intended operating speed. They move good amount of air at 1000-1200 rpm and are very pleasant to the ears. I had SP-120s before and at the same speed those were much more audible and the bearing noise was annoying. The best thing about these fans is the motor noise is consistent throughout the entire speed range and the noise is really only coming from the air being moved.

 

[RejZoR]

That's interesting considering the original Sunon Patent specifies straight DC 6V-13V varaible operation. I own a few of their original fans.

Corsair could likely have redesigned them. I'm just saying it's not a tech limitation.

He's using PWM, at any rate. The dimming is likely now that I think about it, from the pulses of the power. They just go too quick for the naked eye to notice and it appears "dimmer"



To be completely fair, I'm not a quiet freak at all, I'm like more of a "noise tolerant" type... lol. Bear that in mind.

You can run ANY fan with DC power. If it's above starting level, they'll work either way. The question is, how well will they work. The way these fans work is that they get 100% power (all 12V) on the power input (power header) for the levitation unit to work, but the RPM segment is independent. Meaning, even if you decrease RPM, it's just the motor segment that's getting less pulses to drive it, where levitation part has 100% power all the time. But if you use DC power and run it at only 9V, this also means levitation part will only get 9V instead of 12V.

 

[R-T-B]

You can run ANY fan with DC power. If it's above starting level, they'll work either way. The question is, how well will they work. The way these fans work is that they get 100% power (all 12V) on the power input (power header) for the levitation unit to work, but the RPM segment is independent. Meaning, even if you decrease RPM, it's just the motor segment that's getting less pulses to drive it, where levitation part has 100% power all the time. But if you use DC power and run it at only 9V, this also means levitation part will only get 9V instead of 12V.

There's truth to this, but obviously there is some way to design the tech to accept lower DC voltages than the standard 12V at operation because it's been done. That was really my only point. The levitation component of my Sunon's was recently running at 6V's happily (their input range is 6-13V as stated by Sunon).

I am curious if "true" PWM operation from Corsair would be quiter, but as of now I run them full blast so really don't care.

 

[Kanan]

Im not really into 1500+ rpm fans, I even consider them senselessly loud because 1200 rpm fans should suffice. That said I'm using the 1200 rpm led fan of corsair (I think it's called AF140) and it's really quiet - just the LEDs are pretty dimmed down when not running them with 12v - but that's always the problem with fans that don't have a separated connection for its led's.

 

[terroralpha]

i have non-LED versions of this fan that I'm using on Alphacool UT60 rads. i originally purchased them to replace EK Vardar F3-140ER (2000RPM) fans.

the theory was that their listed specs are extremely similar, with the EK fans being slightly better. i figured that since the ML fans have no touching parts they would be quieter at higher speeds, right? WRONG! after swapping the EK fans for these, not only do the temps seem 2*C higher, the system seems louder (when running max speed). i tried running the Vardar and ML fans side by side outside of a case, and i honestly can't say the MLs are any quieter. air movement seems to be about the same.

and yes, i'm running all of them off PWM controllers. as soon as I get unlazy, i'm changing the rad fans back to the EKs. probably going to return the corsair fans. the worst part was these were the "Pro" fans with the rubber dampers at $30 a pop. the non-pro 2 packs are still MIA. i paid just under $20 for the Vardars

 

[Grings]

Always check the header you are connecting to is actually proper PWM mode, lots of boards have 4 pin headers that only actually adjust voltage, not the PWM signal.

This is not aimed at the Op or terroralpha, as you both have recent Asus boards that definitely do have PWM headers, i have just seen lots of cases recently of people fitting the PWM/RPM cable of D5pwm water pumps to motherboard headers and not being able to adjust its speed (it gets its 12v from a separate Molex cable)

 

[terroralpha]

i have just seen lots of cases recently of people fitting the PWM/RPM cable of D5pwm water pumps to motherboard headers and not being able to adjust its speed (it gets its 12v from a separate Molex cable)

i'm not sure what you mean by that? they ONLY connected the PWM cable or connected both the molex and PWM but couldn't control the speed?