I have recently built this machine. Intel Core i9-14900K, Asus Z790-E Gaming WiFi II Motherboard, and Asus ROG Strix RTX 4090. All the fans are QX-120. The CPU AIO Cooler is Corsair iCUE Link H150i mounted on top as Exhaust. The rear fan is also exhaust. The bottom and front-side fans are intake. The case is a Lian Li O11D Evo RGB.

I have run various benchmarks and stress tests. Performance and temperature seems to be alright. When the machine is under heavy CPU load (such as Cinebench 2024), the fans are all blowing at high speed (as expected), and this created a distinct noise. In addition to the common white noise expected when a fan is blowing at a high RPM, it also includes a humming component. This hum overpowers that fan noise and one can hear it from the next room as well. To investigate, I have set RPM zero for each particular fan, and it seems that the exhaust fans are not creating that hum. Both set of intakes contribute to the noise, but the front-side (the three vertical fans) is more evidently noisy. The bottom three intakes are not fully hum-less, but the noise seems to be much lower compared to the vertical fans. Within the vertical three, the top two seems be contributing more.

As of now, I have set the 6 intakes as "Link AIO Quiet" profile which reduces the RPM and reduces the noise. The exhausts are all set to "Link AIO Balanced." Previously the profile for all fans were QX120 Balanced, and the noise was very noticeable. With the quiet profile, the noise is reduced (but not completely gone). Note that the noise is evident during heavy CPU load like when temperature is in 80+ range (for example Cinebench 2024 CPU). For gaming, the CPU temp is in 60~65 range and the noise is okay. Basically the noise seems to start at 1400-ish RPM for those fans.

I am not sure if it is that the front-side (vertical) three fan set is faulty, or its due to some mounting issue or may be a side effect of the case, for example there is this metal mesh panel on the side. I have taken the side panel out but the noise still persists so probably its not a side-effect of the mesh panel. I can test also test by unmounting the fans, but wanted to know other opinions or suggestions.

I have these at the back (like next to the mobo, not the read exhaust)

Corsair iCUE LINK QX120 RGB 120mm Magnetic Dome RGB Fans - Triple Fan Starter Kit with iCUE LINK System Hub - White

One of them has now started the ticking/loud noise. I isolated it with a 0rpm set in iCue.

Anyway, I also had 2x 140mm versions of the same fans on the floor of my PC and one of those did the same. Amazon swapped it, no issues, and I expect they will swap this as well.

But to have 2 go, seems odd? Any one else getting this of these "premium" fans?

Hi all,

I have 6 QX 120 fans and a H100i AIO hooked up via the iCue link system. They’re only 4 months old.

Last night I turned on my PC (cold boot) and, instantly, one of the QX120 fans made a horrendous grinding noise. I immediately pressed the off button.

Turning the PC back on, the noise hasn’t come back. I’ve rebooted the PC several times and tested all fans at 100% RPM in iCue and I can’t seem to reproduce the issue.

Should I be worried or could this be a freak boot up error / random one off power issue that caused the noise?

Thanks for your time!

I bought a triple pack of the qx120 rgb fans the other day. They started off working perfectly fine, but after not even three days, one is already making a vibrating noise. There's no cables interfereing, and the screws are tight. Is my best bet to contact customer support?

Ever since the last Icue update my fans have just been ramping up like crazy every minute or so, it’s not an insanely loud noise. But before it always used to be pretty quiet. So I’m just looking for help or people that experience the same problems. I got 3 QX120 fans at the front, 3 on the Icue Link H150i rad and one in the back. All my cooling presets are on balanced, but even when i turn it to extreme they will still ramp up out of nothing like crazy. Thank you for the help!

So I got my H150 iCUE AIO a few months ago (in september) and now one of the QX120 RGB fans started misbehaving... as in it makes this very weird vibration noise when it's spinning... it happened again a week ago but it stopped after I left pc off for 1h. Now it randomly started doing it again... identified by stopping the fans one by one with icue, took it out and the vibration sound is audible even after spinning the fan with the finger.

Now the weird thing is. The more I spinned the fan by finger the more the sound went away.

I will probably also contact support but I said that preventively I should write here as it might be some weird issue not requiring an RMA. In the meantime I will put another qx120(that I use on the case) there so I can keep using the pc/aio, and move on a case cooling side to monitor and/or turn it off with very few issues.

I have the AF120 and they are making Pulsating humming noises

Does the QX120 fix this problem?

I’ll built a new PC roughly 4 months ago with 10 Corsair QX120 fans. In that time, I’ve had 3 completely fail and now it sounds like a 4th is about to go out with a loud rattling noise. Most likely another bad bearing.

I’ve done some digging around and it seems this is happening a lot. Is this a known problem? I’m getting sick of having to change these things out but it’s fairly cost prohibitive to completely swap out all these fans with something else…

Hi all,

So I just finished a new PC build. I used Corsair Link QX120’s (10) coupled with the Link H150i lcd aio.

Strangely I noticed a cricket like noise yesterday and again this evening. It’s not noticeable with my headset on while gaming, but when i wasn’t gaming it was bothering me enough that I decided to investigate it. I was quickly able to isolate it to my fan’s lighting, because when I turned off iCUE (and all my fan’s rgb went dark), the chirping stopped.

So, I attempted to isolate the fan making the noise, which was more troublesome. I’ve noticed at least 2, likely 3 fans making a distinctive chirping noise anytime the color changes, but I swear it seems like one of them doesn’t make the noise until more are lit up along with it. There are definitely two I can isolate though.

What’s really puzzling, is if it’s on the default watercolor preset for example, it doesn’t make the noise. In fact, I tried a few presets where no noise was made. But the color swap one where you can choose between two colors, is what I use and that’s when I notice the chirp.

Honestly I’m at a loss. I’ve never had an rgb fan make a weird noise when changing colors.

Do I need to be worried about a fire hazard? Or is this just a common noise the QX120’s make on color change?

So I’m hesitant if the Corsair icuelink QX fans because in the past Corsair fans while pretty are always pretty loud. We all know there isn’t a standard for measuring fan decibles, meaning comparing the spec sheet to other companies and even fans within the brand is meaningless.

I noticed that Corsair listed the decibles at 2000 rpm to be 37 decibles? At what distance or co diction is this? I find this extremely concerning because specs for the QL fans are 26 decibels s and OMG those things are loud at 1300rpm. Are the QX fans really twice as loud compared to the QL fans? There is no point upgrading to QX if I’m getting the same noise to performance ratio as the QL fans.

Hi all,
I made my build using the new Corsair Link system, specifically 7x QX120 + iCUE Link H150i RGB.

About a week ago, all of a sudden, one of the QXs mounted on the radiator started making a very loud noise, and looking at it you could see that it seemed to shake while spinning, as if its axis was not perfectly centered and it also looked slowed down compared to the rpm number i had on screen.

I set it to the lowest possible speed (silent profile) which should be 0 rpm and the problem was "solved" temporarily.

Today, a second fan, communicating with the problematic one, started doing the same thing, it is still another radiator fan.

What should I do?

Please don't tell me I have to send back the whole radiator because that for me would mean not to be able to use the pc, and I really need it to work every night and day.

The speed changes are not smooth at all. Is this normal? Hooked up to the iCue link hub with 10 fans and the titan link pump. Is this too many devices on one controller? Or is this normal to sound like this? Don’t want to damage anything if it is a power issue