Fan replacement / upgrade

niedellan · May 22, 2020

Hi all,

I currently have 5 old Corsair SP120 LED which some are broken and others are making a lot of bearing noise. All 5 of them are linked to rads (EK 240 and 360).

I'm planing on getting 5 new to replace them but can't decide between these 4 types: EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB; EK-Vardar x3m 120ER D-RGB; Corsair ML120 Pro RGB; Corsair HD120 Pro RGB

Also was planing to buy an EK-Loop Connect so I could connect everything to it instead of the MB (fans and pump), but couldn't find any reviews on it (quite surprise Linus didn't do a video yet about it) so not sure if it is good or not.

Got a few questions also about the fans:

which of the fans do you recommend?
will the corsair fans work on the EK-Loop Connect without any additional adapters?
are the new fans now coming with 2 cables (one for leds and another for speed)?
whats the difference between D-RGB and iCue?
is it worth it getting D-RGB / iCue over PWM?

Thanks in advance.

Bombastinator · May 23, 2020

The issue lately seems to be that the industry moved to proprietary systems for rgb fans, which is different than LED.
You’re effectively changing fan types.

youre moving out of standard 2/3/4 pin molex and into proprietary cabling systems. Generally adaptors do not exist.

Different brand names use different systems and connectors and the whole thing is a big mess. If you buy a brand of fan you are locked into a connector type a controller type, and a software app.

My only suggestion is price the entire thing. You may buy some super cheap fans but then discover you can’t make them work without a super expensive controller or proprietary cable or piece of software.