Introduction

Computex 2023 saw CORSAIR introduce its iCUE Link ecosystem of products that use a USB bus to have more data going back and forth. This allows for more devices to be connected to a single controller hub and also incorporate useful sensors which can be monitored via software and be used to set up performance metrics for fans and cooling solutions alike. We have covered a few examples of the ecosystem already in the form of the iCUE Link XG3 GPU block as well as the iCUE Link H150i RGB CPU cooler, the latter of which uses some interesting fans that merit a closer look all to themselves.

Named the iCUE Link QX120 RGB, these new fans from CORSAIR are the beating heart of the entire iCUE Link ecosystem. Fans tend to be easily the product category used in bulk in PC builds and bring with them a plethora of cables to connect and organize in a clean manner. Knowing also that the typical RGB fan setup has two cables per fan and they tend to be in groups together, you can see why case manufacturers have spent a lot of time and money figuring out cable management, and try to have daisy-chained solutions. CORSAIR’s iCUE Link is not a simple daisy-chained model, in having fans be in series and fed from the start to the end. Rather, these fans will be fed to a control unit called the CUE Link system hub which acts as a conduit between your motherboard and the fans themselves. The extra data bandwidth has been used to incorporate temperature sensors in these fans—the first time I’ve ever seen this—and CORSAIR is also aiming to ensure these fans aren’t just for bling, being given more useful features such as a zero RPM mode as well as a new magnetic dome bearing promising low noise. Thanks to CORSAIR for providing review samples to TechPowerUp and let’s begin our coverage with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications