Corsair ML140 Pro LED fan

Review: Corsair ML140 Pro LED fan (Red) – Current RRP £27.99

First, a bit of background about corsair – they started off making memory modules for servers and PCs, then over the past few years things really took off for them as they now manufacture high end gaming cases, power supplies, CPU coolers, Fans, SSD drives as well as a plethoria of peripherals from highly regarded mechanical keyboards to gaming headsets.

Corsair revealed the ML series fans back in June 2016 at Computex. The ML series fan was somewhat of a departure for corsair as up until then, corsair made 2 types of fan each designed to operate in a different environment.

The AF series (or AirFlow) was designed to be used in open spaces of your case – ideally used in an intake / exhaust fan setup. Airflow fans worked well in this scenario, but if you had any kind of obstruction in the way, it caused the performance of the fan to drop off as the fan didn’t have a large amount of static pressure.

The SP series (or StaticPressure) was designed to be used in more enclosed areas to ‘push’ air through spaces. SP fans where ideally used for corsairs liquid cooled CPU coolers. The downside to the SP series fans was that they didn’t move the same volume of air the AF series did.

Where does the ML fit in I hear you cry?

Well, the ML combines the best bits of static pressure and airflow into one package, combined with a new type of motor utilising magnetic levitation to spin the fan rotor, this means you have air flow, static pressure and a motor that doesn’t generate noise – added to this the magnetic levitation bearing should offer a longer lifespan that other fan bearing technologies currently out there.

The design

The design of the fan may not be impressive to most people, it does have some neat features however such as rubberised corners that reduce vibration once mounted to your case – this corners can also be swapped out for different colours – (the Red LED fans come with red corners, blue LED fans blue corners, you get it..), corsair don’t yet sell the corners by themselves however.

The rotor used is a custom designed 7 blade arrangement that gives you the mix of airflow and static pressure. On the LED series fans, the rotor is a frosted clear type of plastic, with 4 LEDs embedded into the hub – when the fan is powered it does give a really nice effect of a brightly lit hub with the light dissipating throughout the blades.

The frame of the fan housing is also designed to guide air heading into and out of the rotor helping towards the overall performance of the fan.

Corsair manufacture ML series fans in 140mm and 120mm guises. The ML Pro series fans come with a number of colour options, however a ‘plain’ ML 140 & 120 mm fans are also offered with no lighting.

Connectivity – a note

If you are considering purchasing an ML series fan, please ensure your motherboard has 4-Pin headers on the motherboard. I was a bit daft and didn’t check before placing my order! The fans ideally should be used in PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) mode. This means that the motherboard powers the fan with 12 volts all the time, however controls the speed of the fan by pulsing the power on an off a many times a second. PWM is a more efficient way to control fan speed when compared to 3-PIN DC powered fans.

I would recommend after installing ML series fans to go into your motherboards UEFI settings and check it’s built in fan controller settings. My motherboard was operating the fans in DC mode until I enabled the PWM mode per fan header.

A good way to check this would be to have a look at your ML fan’s LED – if the LED’s get brighter as the fan speed increases, and gets dimmer as the fan speed decreases then your motherboard is operating the fan in DC mode.

The Tech Specs:

My Setup and impressions.

My PC build is based on the Corsair Obsidian 750D full tower case. I purchased 3 ML 140 fans setup with 2 at the front of the case, with one at the rear. I setup temperature monitoring based on CPU temperature for the exhaust fan (to assist my CPU cooler), and PCH temperature for the intake fans.

Since switching to the ML fans, the loudest component in my PC is the hard disk drive motor – up to around 800-900 you cannot hear the ML fans at all.

Once fan speed goes above the 900 rpm mark the noise does start to ramp up. This isn’t due to motor noise however; it is simply the sound of the air rushing through the fans. The massive control range the ML series fan offers however gives you the means to tweak fan speeds to your own personal sweet spot however.

Conclusion

The ML series fans are a premium series fan, being offered at a premium price by corsair – a £10 case fan this is not! The new technology used means very quiet operation up to around 900 RPM speed. If the fans do ramp up above this speed expect to hear some noise of air rushing through your case.

The price for some may immediately put you off the ML series fans; especially if you need to purchase a number of fans for your build. Personally I do think the fan is worth the asking price however due to its performance and attractive aesthetics.

Buy or avoid?

Buy!

Disclaimer – The fans were purchased, not supplied by corsair for review purposes.

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