On the face of it, the QL120 doesn’t look too much different to the LL120 but there’s a few small differences that, when accumulated, add up to a big change.
One subtle, but significant modification Corsair have made is to switch out the cheap-looking hub stickers for ridged aluminium sail logos. It’s a small change but greatly improves the overall appeal.
They’ve also changed how they bundle the cables together, allowing a bit more slack before the bunch, so you don’t necessarily have to undo the cable tidy that’s already in place. Speaking of which, the RGB lighting and fan control are handled separately on their own cables.
Spinning the fan around, the same aluminium hub logo. Corsair have decided to place the product information on a sticker which is tied around the end of the 4-pin PWM cable instead. If you’re going to the effort of adding in RGB LEDs on both sides, you need to make both sides as equal as possible. The translucent plastic bordering the hub logo will illuminate with four RGB LEDs. The four spokes holding the hub in place have been punched out, seemingly to allow a small amount of additional airflow and to block less light.
The outer frame of the fan typically hinders the RGB lighting more than anything else, so trimming that back to the bare minimum, with some clever structuring in the plastic, retains a rigid structure but allows more of the RGBs to escape. Corsair have also orientated their rubber pads 90° to the previous LL120 and ML120 fans, allowing them to make contact with the case on more occasions. We found that the previous iteration of the rubber mounting points didn’t always make contact because they weren’t surrounding the screwhole, so changing this is another good move forwards.
Included with the triple-pack QL120 and double-pack QL140 is a Corsair iCUE Lighting Node CORE, with 6 RGB channels that allows control of all 204 LEDs, if you populate each channel. The SATA power and USB data cables are cabled in directly instead of being detachable like they are on other models.
Even when installed and without being turned on, the fans have a premium appearance but now it’s time to light them up.
One subtle, but significant modification Corsair have made is to switch out the cheap-looking hub stickers for ridged aluminium sail logos. It’s a small change but greatly improves the overall appeal.
They’ve also changed how they bundle the cables together, allowing a bit more slack before the bunch, so you don’t necessarily have to undo the cable tidy that’s already in place. Speaking of which, the RGB lighting and fan control are handled separately on their own cables.
Spinning the fan around, the same aluminium hub logo. Corsair have decided to place the product information on a sticker which is tied around the end of the 4-pin PWM cable instead. If you’re going to the effort of adding in RGB LEDs on both sides, you need to make both sides as equal as possible. The translucent plastic bordering the hub logo will illuminate with four RGB LEDs. The four spokes holding the hub in place have been punched out, seemingly to allow a small amount of additional airflow and to block less light.
The outer frame of the fan typically hinders the RGB lighting more than anything else, so trimming that back to the bare minimum, with some clever structuring in the plastic, retains a rigid structure but allows more of the RGBs to escape. Corsair have also orientated their rubber pads 90° to the previous LL120 and ML120 fans, allowing them to make contact with the case on more occasions. We found that the previous iteration of the rubber mounting points didn’t always make contact because they weren’t surrounding the screwhole, so changing this is another good move forwards.
Included with the triple-pack QL120 and double-pack QL140 is a Corsair iCUE Lighting Node CORE, with 6 RGB channels that allows control of all 204 LEDs, if you populate each channel. The SATA power and USB data cables are cabled in directly instead of being detachable like they are on other models.
Even when installed and without being turned on, the fans have a premium appearance but now it’s time to light them up.
