Closer Examination

The Cooler Master MF120 Halo is a typical 120 x 120 x 25 mm fan, but with the rounded frame they have been using for a while with a lot of their MasterFan series. It is a bit troubling to see it repeated here, especially given they have had years of testing—both internal and external—show how their Silencio FP with the square frame performed better than the rounded frame with all other things being equal. No doubt the company figures their factory is set up to make these for their offerings and others as an OEM, but I suspect there will be some performance deficit already. We see the light loop on front integrated into the black plastic frame to minimize its impact on the length of the rotor blades, although more LEDs in the fan hub counter that. The fans have a translucent plastic rotor with nine blade, which the company claims as a hybrid design and usually means the target has good airflow when up against medium airflow restriction, as with filled HDD cages or the heatsinks of air coolers and not necessarily dense radiators. The corners are closed and have vibration-dampening rubber pads as well.


Each fan motor is rated for 0.37 A (4.44 W) on the 12 VDC rail, which corresponds to the peak draw with startup boost and is surprisingly high for even an 1800 RPM rated fan. I noticed a maximum operating current draw of 0.082 A (~1 W on the 12 V rail), which is more typical, and you should be able to operate a good number of fans off a single 1 A header if start-up boost can be accounted for. Cooler Master is also rating the LEDs, which are powered separately off another cable as seen above, for 0.55 A off the 5 VDC rail, which corresponds to 2.75 W and is again higher than most RGB fans, but this is not surprising given the higher number of LEDs in the front and back loops.

The fans use rifle bearings, which should work well in reducing bearing noise. The higher reliability compared to a typical sleeve bearing is due to the spiral groove making for more uniform lubrication, which also results in a higher lifetime. The fans have two cables each, one for the LEDs and another for the motor, with the former terminating in a 3-pin, 5 V connector and the latter in a standard 4-pin PWM connector.


Here is a look at the Cooler Master MF120 Halo triple pack connected in series via the provided cables and the included RGB controller. This cable would otherwise go to a compatible 3-pin, 5 V dRGB header on your motherboard, with the other cable going to a 4-pin PWM fan header. There is thus a lot of cable management to work around, but it can be done with the provided adapters and the connector covers hiding some of the mess.


Seen above are the 24 individual fan LEDs per fan in action with the provided RGB controller, be it static or dynamic. They are neatly hidden when off and result in light loops when in motion, which make for an impressive light show that shines inward and outward, also because of the centrally situated LEDs by the fan hub. I appreciate Cooler Master going with a more standard solution for onboard control from the various mainstream motherboard makers instead of a more proprietary solution, and providing a controller with the triple pack gives people a last ditch means for control if they do not have a compatible motherboard. The LEDs on the fans are treated to be in parallel, so syncing lighting effects is a trivial matter. Using this controller vs. motherboard lighting control will come down to how customizable the control mechanism is, with the provided controller only capable of cycling through some preset options.