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Our test rig is MANTAMACHINE, a mini-ITX system built into the roomy NZXT Manta case. The case’s front intake can accommodate 120 or 140mm fans, but only 120mm fans are provided… so let’s upgrade them with these new Corsair fans.
Next, we investigated the power situation. The fan controller card only sports 3 pin connectors and our motherboard fan connectors are occupied, so we’ll use four pin connectors connected directly to the power supply instead. We could drone on about temperatures all day long however it makes life easier if we cut to the chase with a summary. Ambient temperatures during testing were stable at 25-27 degrees so we’ll talk absolute figures rather than Delta. By contrast in Performance mode the coolers were intolerably noisy, even with the glass side panel installed on the be quiet! Dark Base 900 case and it has to be made clear the be quiet! case lives up to its name and is very quiet. This highlights the point we make in the video which is that it is all well and good to improve the technology used in the bearings in a fan but when you crank up the speed and start shifting air it is going to get noisy. Corsair’s new ML120 and ML140 fans deliver quieter operation and better performance than most fans on the market. The new magnetic levitation technology seems to be working wonders, and it’s well supported by noise-damping corners and fun LEDs in the Pro and Pro LED models. Replacing every fan in your case might be an expensive venture, but these premium fans are worth it. Magnetic bearing harnesses magnetic levitation technology to provide lower noise, higher performance and a longer lifespanNormally case fans aren’t too exciting, but they’re a critical piece of any PC build — and these ones are actually pretty cool. Corsair’s new ML120 and ML140 fans use magnetic levitation instead of ball bearings, providing zero friction. That should make them quieter than fans running at the same speed (or equally, at higher speeds when producing an equal amount of noise). That sounds promising, so let’s see if Corsair’s new fans deliver on their promises. Corsair was adamant that we should test ML using Intel LGA2011-3 as the mainstream LGA115x is less efficient and responds less well to changes in cooling. We entirely agree with this assessment and if you are serious about cooling and are not yet using LGA2011-3 consider that you are pretty much wasting your time. Compared with our previous fans, we saw an decrease in temperature of about 3-4 degrees across the board at idle, and 1-2 degrees under load. Of course, temperatures are only one half of the story — let’s take a look at noise levels. Noise The cable is mounted to one side, and measures around half a metre in length. This terminates in a 4-pin connector: 3 pins for power, 1 pin for reporting and controlling RPM. Once plugged in, it’s time to actually install the fans. Despite moving from 120mm to 140mm, the fans still fit easily next to our existing components. We placed the bottom fan first, screwed it in, then the next one flush on top of it and screwed that in too.
Thanks to NZXT for providing the Manta case and Kraken X61 liquid cooler. Thanks to Samsung for providing the Evo 850 M.2 boot drive. Thanks to Zoostorm and Crucial for providing the DDR4 RAM. The design of the fans is good and the use of a hybrid design that can replace SP and AF models is welcome. The styling, construction, colours, airflow and LED layout all work well. In an ideal world Corsair would upgrade H100i and H110i with the new ML fans and life would be generally improved.
Custom Rotor Design
This may sound like we’re not comparing apples with apples however the logical way to use these fans is to plug them in and set the control software or BIOS to manage the business, which means they are likely to operate 200rpm or so slower than your existing fans. It may not be immediately apparent in our video but both coolers were very quiet in Quiet mode regardless of the fans that were employed.
options: PROFIBUS DP, CANopen®, DeviceNet™, PROFINET, EtherCAT®, Modbus RTU, ASCII or TCP/IP, EtherNet/IP, POWERLINK, FLOW-BUS Out of the box, the ML140 Pro LED Blue (hereafter: the ML140) immediately looks a bit fancier and more rugged than the average case fan. Corsair has employed some nifty technology in its new range of ML fans however we have to be careful with the name. The bearings that support the rotors on the motors use Magnetic Levitation but this is not shortened to Maglev (like the famous trains) as that is a trademarked term so we either have to say Magnetic Levitation or take the easy route and call them ML. We used the Decibel 10th app and an iPhone 6 Plus to measure the noise levels of the test rig before and after the new fans were installed, at idle and under load. Measurements were made six inches from front of the PC, where the fans were installed.
Wrapping up
The subtle blue outline around the periphery of the centre and the coloured corners match the LEDs built into the centre. To reiterate, we’ve gone for the Blue option but White and Red (and no LED at all) are also options for the Pro.
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