The Corsair iCUE QL RGB fans are expensive, and there's no getting around this. The 120 mm version, which no doubt will be the more popular of the two size offerings, comes in at $45 per fan and $140 for a triple pack with the lighting controller. When I was first contacted about these, I was told pricing would be $40/$130 respectively, which would have made it much better in comparison, especially when the CORSAIR LL120 RGB fan comes in at $35/$130 itself. As a direct comparison to the LL120, the new iCUE QL120 RGB fan goes even more down the RGB hole with 34 vs. 16 LEDs, and more lighting options as well. If at all, the triple pack is the way to go here given you effectively pay $5 (and even less depending on shipping costs) for the Lighting Node CORE, which is the least expensive control option outside of making your own.

If the CORSAIR LL120 RGB was better as a case fan than a radiator fan, the iCUE QL120 RGB is even more so. It fails to perform on a radiator compared to the existing competition, but then again, CORSAIR never made any mention otherwise. Indeed, the QL120 RGB is more like a set of two concentric LED strips blowing some air than a performance-oriented fan with LED lighting. It is on the quieter side of things, but only as it produces less airflow noise because of its lower performance. There are so many better options for performance-oriented fans, including CORSAIR's own fantastic ML fans, that you really should not look at these for custom watercooling unless you absolutely want all that RGB. Building your own computer is as much about the ability to customize components to fit your aesthetic needs as it is about performance and noise. You can get around the latter by having more fans on a larger radiator, or even as case fans, and there is no denying that the lighting customization you get here is extremely high. By merit of offering something no other fan in my test group so far does, it gets the recommendation for those prioritizing looks. While this is not something I would buy myself, I would not be surprised one bit to see this hit Amazon's and Newegg's top-seller lists over the holiday season.