Closer Examination

To no surprise, the CORSAIR AF120 RGB ELITE is a standard 120 mm square frame fan that is 25 mm thick. This makes it almost guaranteed to fit inside every PC case intended to use 120 mm fans for airflow and cooling. It comes in two different colors—black and white—and I have three individual units in black here to help contrast from the white non-RGB version we saw before. Both versions have a 9-bladed rotor in a highly curved manner that uses a frosted translucent material to help with the RGB lighting on offer thanks to eight individually addressable RGB LEDs located underneath the central hub cover. Incidentally, the hub diameter is ~48.78 mm here compared to 48.68 mm with the non-RGB AF120 ELITE, and the actual fan blades measured nearly identical to where there may well be no performance difference between the two at the same fan speed! The frame is curved inwards although the contact surfaces maintain the straight edges that matter in not leaking air when using these as radiator fans. CORSAIR branding is seen here as well as on a sticker over the front hub with another side having arrows to help indicate the direction of the blades rotating as well as that of the air flowing through the fan. The fan corners have rubber pads to help minimize vibrations from being passed to/from the case itself. The corners are closed and appear to extend outward as a result of the curved sides with "AF ELITE" printed on one of them.


From the back we see the nine curved stator vanes—as opposed to the usual four in a more straight design—that help make up CORSAIR's AirGuide technology which aims to have airflow be a focused field going through the fans as opposed to spreading out in a cone shape immediately. These stator vanes do this by helping minimize Eddy currents and vortexes in the airflow field through the fans. As with the non-RGB version, there is no sticker on the back with power draw specifications and these are instead found on a label sticker placed on the fan cable itself. The same logo-only sticker is seen here thus and there is nothing relevant underneath either. Thankfully, CORSAIR does mention the AF120 RGB ELITE is rated for a max current draw at 0.38 A (including startup boost) and that in turn means ~4.6 W per fan if you go with these fans at full blast. Running the fans at slower speeds will of course consume less current off the 12 VDC rail. The AF120 RGB ELITE fan uses a fluid dynamic bearing that also promises low bearing noise and minimal vibrations, on top of longevity with its five years of warranty. The fan has a power cable for the PWM motor employed here in addition to a second cable for the LEDs. Both cables have individual wires with black insulation in a flat ribbon style, with the fan cable terminating in a 4-pin fan connector that is plugged into any standard 4-pin PWM header on your motherboard or similar fan controller. The cables are 60 cm (~23.5") long, which is longer than average for most fans, working well with large cases that support watercooling.


Here's a look at the three fans together as they come with the AF120 RGB ELITE triple pack. This results in a total of six wires to manage, and three go to the Lighting Node CORE if you purchased the triple-pack hub, which allows you to add three more such 8-LED fans such as the CORSAIR SP120 RGB ELITE fans. Note that we do not get any adapter cable allowing you to use standard 3-pin 5 VDC dRGB LED headers on your motherboard so you are limited to CORSAIR's controllers and software unless you make your own adapter.