Review on CORSAIR AF120 LED Low Noise Cooling Fan Single Pack - Red /Black Cooling CO-9050080-WW by Justin Pavelko

After receiving the GeForce RTX 3090 FE, I realized that the fans with "white" LEDs, which I thought were "white", were actually bluer, and I wanted some fans to match nice white "Geforce RTX" backlight tones on my GPU. I also changed my NH-D15 from regular to chromated black to really bring it home. The style seemed to tick all the boxes for size and lighting. The title of the description is "CORSAIR AF140 LED LOW NOISE Cooling Fan, Dual Pack - White, 140mm". They arrived and nowhere on the package did it say "low noise". Screws and a sufficiently long cable do not cause connection problems. Once installed, the white LEDs matched the RTX GeForce lighting perfectly from shadow to backlight. They agree absolutely 100%. The center ring lighting (compared to the perimeter lighting) really shines and is well above traditional case fans. Then you quickly realize how LOUD these fans are. Corsair's previous LED case fans were 3-pin and MUCH quieter. I'm using an EVGA FTW Z390 with DC regulators so I go into the BIOS and set them to 75%. NO, still insanely loud. Okay, around 50% much quieter but still too loud even at 50% but that has to be there. They also have a dull rising/falling sound that I found with every single fan. I even ordered another pack to check out, maybe it was the first pack but every fan has one. On full throttle SRB "we've got take off" you don't notice it that much, but as soon as you turn it down it becomes a subtle but always present light fade in and out sound. Multiply that by 3 and if you're sensitive to noise, it'll drive you nuts in no time. In an attempt to isolate and find the source of the audio problem, I turned them off individually and the dramatic noise reduction was exceptionally clear, again by up to 50%. With all three devices unplugged, it was real music to my ears. At 100% they drowned out everything in my room including my HEPA filter which is quite audible. The icing on the cake is uneven overtones. It's a shame, because they are visually very appealing. If you are sensitive to noise, avoid them like the plague.