SP120 Elite RGB Fans

The final set of primary items with the CORSAIR Hydro XH303i PRO kit is the triple pack of CORSAIR iCUE SP120 RGB ELITE fans, which were also covered separately before. That review is of the 3-pack SKU coming with an RGB hub in the box, which is included in the kit. Otherwise, each single pack is no different than the rest, with packaging pointing out the contents inside and the fan coming in a cardboard blister inlay packaging with the cables tucked into a lower compartment. The SP120 RGB ELITE is a 120 x 120 x 25 mm fan that utilizes the company's new AirGuide technology with stator vanes on the back designed to minimize Eddy currents and vortexes in the airflow field through the fans. The fan blades are also optimized for a good balance between airflow and static pressure, which works well paired with the Hydro XR5 360 radiator in this kit. The corners don't have rubber pads for vibration dampening and are black as with the rest of the frame for contrast with the frosted white loops and rotor, although there will be white versions as well. Seven sweeping blades on the rotor push air through, and overall build quality is solid. The corners are open, and arrows on one side show the direction of airflow through the fan and the blade rotation. The RGB in the name comes in the form of eight individually addressable RGB LEDs in the central hub, which does result in a larger-than-average hub to accommodate them.


Each SP120 RGB ELITE fan is rated for 0.3 A (3.6 W) in total on the 12 VDC rail, which corresponds to the peak draw with startup boost and is a combined rating for the fan and LEDs. I noticed a maximum operating current draw of 0.058 A (0.7 W on the 12 V rail) for the fan motor alone, so you should be able to operate a good number of these fans off a single 1 A header if start-up boost can be accounted for since the LEDs are separately powered via the Commander PRO of the RGB hub. Alternatively, you can also get a powered PWM splitter and leave nothing to chance by powering the fans directly through the PSU. These fans use hydraulic bearings, which should mitigate bearing noise at low speeds. The fan has a power cable for the PWM motor that runs it and a second cable for the LEDs. The cables are 60 cm (~23.5") long, which is longer than average for most fans and works well with large cases that support watercooling.


Given I had a couple of SP140 RGB ELITE fans on hand, I have here not only one of these SP120 RGB ELITE fans lit up and running, but five of these new fans together to give you a better idea of how they look in person should you want to add another radiator and more fans to the loop if or when you decide to expand the kit to include a GPU block, for example. The LEDs can be set to consecutively light up in various effects for the fans, as well as collectively with the other items in the kit. In fact, some quick modes have the lighting traverse across anything as configured in iCUE, including peripherals and ambient lighting.


Please refer to the dedicated test setup page here as it applies to this review as well and I did not want to go over it separately to save on review space. As mentioned before, I am only testing the CORSAIR SP120 RGB ELITE fan here. The fan is rated for 550–1500 RPM (+/- 10%), and three are included in the XH303i PRO kit. These hit an average of 1452 RPM at 100% PWM duty cycle and went down to an average of just 313 RPM at 21% PWM duty cycle, which was then the case until 1% PWM duty cycle. The top value is within the rated range, but the lower value is below their rating, which makes for a nice and long RPM response curve that is also fairly linear, and all three fans tested nearly identically to each other, which is nice to see.


You will find more data on this page, including the testing methodology as well as airflow and noise measurements at two other fan speeds, but here I have two sets that show the capability of the SP120 RGB ELITE fans when used as radiator fans. These clearly didn't perform as well as others, but make up for it in terms of performance/noise, as these are some of the better fans on the market when it comes to low noise output. Note that more demanding hardware may prompt you to go with a second radiator and more fans, which the 6-fan RGB hub can cope with without issue. For most people though, these three fans on the XR5 radiator will make for a 55-mm-thick cooling solution that looks cool and performs nicely.