The Corsair RS140 Max and RS120 Max
With the RS Max fans, Corsair is aiming really high. Across the most popular 120 and 140mm formats, it has incorporated technically what should define perhaps the most efficient fans of their kind. Especially when it comes to the 140mm variant. It too is 30mm thick, which combined with the curved LCP blades makes it a theoretical favorite to win many “first places”.
Based on the design features, we can say that the new Corsair RS Max fans are definitely not going to be only making up the numbers. We can support this statement with our knowledge of the behavior of certain elements on other, competing fans. And Corsair combines those very well in this case. We’ll go through them all in turn in this article.
The first thing that characterizes the Corsair RS Max is its 30mm thick profile, which is 5 millimeters thicker than the vast majority of other fans. On the one hand, this will admittedly worsen compatibility, but when it comes to “performance”, it will be higher. And the more restrictive the environment, the more this aspect might matter. The greater thickness mainly causes higher static pressure, which makes the drop in airflow through an obstacle lower. We know this from testing the Phanteks T30 (also a 30mm fan), which the smaller, 120mm Corsair fan (RS120 Max) also bears a striking resemblance to – seven LCP blades of very similar geometry.
The biggest difference (compared to the T30), in terms of airflow, is that the Corsair fan reaches “only” 2000 rpm. One thing for sure, then, is that compared to the Phanteks T30 (with 3000 rpm), the RS120 Max will achieve a lower maximum airflow (Corsair claims 122,33 m3/h).
But at lower speeds, with comparable airflow, the Corsair may actually be quieter (than the T30). It may or may not. It depends on several things, which will only become apparent in tests. The elite Phanteks fan still has some room for improvement in this regard and there is a lot of tuning to be done, especially at higher speeds, to achieve lower noise levels. The question of course is what is caused by the basic rotor shape (the RS120 Max has a similar one) and what by the other elements.
Among competing models, the 140mm RS140 Max variant (with a max. of 1600rpm, or 176.70m3/h) is likely to stand out even more (than the RS120 Max). It will face significantly less competition (there are fewer high-end 140mm fans than 120mm ones). Like the BeQuiet! Silent Wings (Pro) 4, it has a small number of blades (7) for 140mm fan standards, with relatively large gaps between them. However, this does not automatically mean that top-notch results will not be achieved. They actually are so with the 140mm BeQuiet! Silent Wings Pro 4, which achieves greater airflow than the 9-blade Thermaltake Toughfan 14 Pro in non-restrictive environments.
On obstacles, however, the less dense impeller design of the BeQuiet! fan (similar to that of the Corsair RS140 Max) is already starting to show, and it lags behind the Thermaltake fan due to the lower static pressure. It’s the static pressure that Corsair increases with the RS140 Max with the thicker profile (than the competitive Silent Wings Pro 4 has). Whether such a measure will be enough to catch up to the Toughfan 14 Pro even on radiators, on which the Thermaltake fan is extremely efficient, we will hopefully soon find out (in tests). Liquid crystal polymer (LCP), by the way, is also used on the Corsair RS140 Max impeller.
Common to both variants of the Corsair RS Max fans are “magnetic” bearings promising extremely low friction, and noise at this level is supposed to be very low.
The price for a single RS120 Max fan in Corsair’s European e-shop is 44 EUR and for a triple-pack you’ll currently pay around 119 EUR.
In the case of the RS140 Max, it’s priced at about 55 EUR apiece or 94 EUR for a two-pack. 140mm fans are clearly sold more in pairs (for example, for 280mm liquid cooler radiators), while 120mm ones are sold in threes. This will probably be because of the wide popularity of 360mm radiators, but also of cases where just three fans will fit behind the front panel or under the ceiling.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
RS140 Max seems to have strangely high airflow for its RPM (176.7 m3h @ 1600RPM). Based on this spec, it beats the similarly shaped Silent Wings Pro 4 @ 2215 RPM (151.13 m3h), and also the San Ace 140x38mm fan (https://publish.sanyodenki.com/San_Ace_E/book/#target/page_no=184), which achieves only 139.3 m3h at the same RPM. Granted, it’s a no obstacles environment, but the data still looks strange to me. The data for the 120 mm variant looks reasonable though.
Yes, you’re thinking correctly. Considering only 1600 rpm and the “well-known” geometry, the airflow of the RS140 Max seems to be really a bit high. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that at comparable noise it will never achieve a lower airflow than the 140 mm BeQuiet Silent Wings Pro 4. If only for the LCP blades (instead of PBT) and the possibly eliminated critical vibrations. Of course, it also depends on the thickness with which Corsair works. We will discuss this in detail (hopefully soon). The results of the RS140 Max will also be a very useful reference for the evaluation of the Noctua NF-A14x25(r).
With the San Ace, a relatively lower airflow per unit of speed will also be achieved because of the oversized impeller hub, which has a larger than standard proportion of the total cross-sectional area. This is the reason why the EK-Meltemi 120ER has never particularly excelled.