Corsair Adds Cooling Fans to Product Line

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Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the new Air Series™ line of PC cooling fans. Unlike most other PC fans in the market, Corsair Air Series fans are offered in airflow and static pressure models, each specifically optimized for specific PC cooling roles.

Air Series fans are designed to deliver an extraordinary balance of airflow and low-noise to users who want to upgrade their PCs for quieter operation or higher performance. All feature an advanced hydraulic bearing system and rubber mounts for low-noise and reliability, and include red, white, and blue color rings to allow users to customize the look of their PC.
 
"Air Series"? As opposed to the future "Liquid Series", which will spray water all over your components? :p

In any case, I hope to see some reviews on these. More competition in the fan market is always welcome.
 
Steve, do you have a link to the actual product page? Can't find on on Corsair's website.


///wonder who is OEMing their fans...
 
Also, after looking, they seem a little bit pricey. But again, will have to wait to see reviews.
 
Skripka said:
Steve, do you have a link to the actual product page? Can't find on on Corsair's website.
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http://www.corsair.com/us/cpu-cooling-kits/air-series-air-cooling-cpu-cooler.html

I'm beginning to wonder if all of this product diversification is really a good direction for Corsair. It seems as though they've done a pretty good job — so far — with all the different product segments they've introduced, but how long can that possibly last? Are Corsair's bread-and-butter products going to end up suffering for it at some point?
 
wonderfield said:
http://www.corsair.com/us/cpu-cooling-kits/air-series-air-cooling-cpu-cooler.html

I'm beginning to wonder if all of this product diversification is really a good direction for Corsair. It seems as though they've done a pretty good job — so far — with all the different product segments they've introduced, but how long can that possibly last? Are Corsair's bread-and-butter products going to end up suffering for it at some point?
Click to expand...

Amigo, most of their products are rebrands, their PSUs, their liquid CPU coolers, I'd wager their air coolers...and probably these fans too. Probably the only product not manufactured and designed by someone else they sell are their computer cases.

Diversification is easy to do, when all you need to do is get boxes with your name printed on them, and someone else does all the hard work.
 
Yeah, its amazing that a company that just marketed memory now had such a diverse range of products.
 
Those are some really nice looking fans, and I can't tell who the OEM might be from looking at them. Seems to be a one-off design, I might have to buy some and give them a try.
 
Skripka said:
Amigo, most of their products are rebrands, their PSUs, their liquid CPU coolers, I'd wager their air coolers...and probably these fans too. Probably the only product not manufactured and designed by someone else they sell are their computer cases.
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Yes, Corsair has manufacturing partners. Yes, Corsair does not design some of their own products. Is it safe to assume, however, that Corsair does not design any of them (besides the cases)? No, that doesn't seem like a safe assumption to me.
 
Like almost all of our products, the fans were designed in-house. By this I mean that we made prototype blade and impeller designs, housing designs, and used various motors and bearings to test the functionality in our in-house wind tunnel.

This thing:
http://www.corsair.com/media/Blogs/introducing-corsair-fans/IMG_0002.JPG

Jeff, our Tech Marketing guy, explains some of it here:
http://www.corsair.com/us/blog/introducing-corsair-air-series-fans/

Basically, a couple of years ago we started realizing that we already sell hundreds of thousands of fans a month in PSUs, coolers, and cases. We figured we might as well leverage some of our in-house engineering expertise and design our own fans. The development process took a long, long time. And I assure you that our specs on our boxes are accurate to the best of our current abilities. We have an independent group do our noise testing, we do our performance testing in-house and have it verified by a separate group, and we've done extensive research to get the products out.

There are some similarities to other products in the market in that they're round, they have built-in noise dampening, and they have a 3-pin connector at the end. Other than that, these are entirely unique. We own the tooling, we own the designs.

Calling us a "re-brand" house is a bit disingenuous and, I think, belittles a lot of the work we do.

Our process basically works like this:
* Define specifications for a product or product line
* Obtain quotes from contract manufacturers
* Chose a supplier based on a number of factors, including cost, quality control, logistics, etc.
* Market and sell the products.

This is not unique - for example, the different fans sold by our competitors? Scythe buys from Nidec - but they specify features of their fan. You can't have a series of giant factories that only produce enthusiast products. The enthusiast market is too small to justify the immense costs.

So almost all of our contract manufacturers have high volume businesses - they make server parts, or they make OEM parts for major manufacturers or assemblers.

Foxconn doesn't just make iPhones - they also make the little plastic memory sockets that Asus, Gigabyte, and the like use on their motherboards. And they may sell billions of those things. And the machine that produces those plastic memory sockets can have a new tool inserted to make, say, the battery housing for a smartphone.

I'll answer any question you have about the new products - just ask it here or PM me, I'll answer.
 
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Too big, didn't scroll... CLIFFS? That looks like a seriously expensive piece of testing equipment.
 
No static-pressure edition 140mm! Still nice to see these new products, though. /thumbsup
 
Redbeard said:
Like almost all of our products, the fans were designed in-house.
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lol whut

Redbeard said:

Foxconn doesn't just make iPhones - they also make the little plastic memory sockets that Asus, Gigabyte, and the like use on their motherboards. And they may sell billions of those things. And the machine that produces those plastic memory sockets can have a new tool inserted to make, say, the battery housing for a smartphone.
Click to expand...


I think everyone gets this, but when it comes to things like power supplies, SSDs, or memory, it is possible to buy directly from the OEM. For example, Seasonic, Samsung, etc.

jester1176 said:
Good lord, could you have got a larger picture?
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This

-Dragon- said:
No PWM models, sad.
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And this :(
 
For the quiet static pressure model, static pressure spec is identical to GT AP-14, but airflow is slightly lower and noise is slightly higher than the GT. I know these are paper specs, though, so I'll wait for some quality reviews.
 
Redbeard said:
Hahaha - probably. My fault, I can't figure out how to edit a post on this forum - I was trying to fix it.
Click to expand...
Contact Kyle or Steve and ask them to fix that for you.

Just so you're aware, I'd be very interested in a 140mm PWM fan that can run comfortably at 5-600 RPM. There's very little competition in the 140mm PWM arena at the moment, and it could prove to be a valuable segment for you guys.
 
entropy13 said:
Maybe they'd add them in the future, much like the 140mm fans for the Air Pressure lineup.
Click to expand...

If there's significant demand we can add it in fairly easily.

The 140mm pressure fan was foregone because there were very few environments where a 140mm pressure fan would be useful. Most 140mm sized heatsinks have very wide fin spacing, meaning the airflow fans work very well there. And 140mm/280mm/420mm radiators are out there, but not widely used compared to 120mm versions.

Again, if there's a significant demand, I'd kick off the project and have it done.

These are my products so I have a lot of control over what gets developed.
 
Thanks for the lengthy explanation, Redbeard.

Any particular reason why there's no Performance 140mm version?
 
MissJ84 said:
lol whut
Click to expand...
What are you confused by?

MissJ84 said:
I think everyone gets this, but when it comes to things like power supplies, SSDs, or memory, it is possible to buy directly from the OEM. For example, Seasonic, Samsung, etc.
Click to expand...

Power Supplies are my product line too - and it's done the same way. Seasonic makes some of our PSUs, but it's not like we just change a sticker and call it a day.

We work for months (sometimes over a year) in the development of next-gen PSUs with Seasonic (and all our other PSU manufacturers) to make sure the product gets made to our specs. That doesn't just mean we call them up and go "is the fan still quiet? Okay, good! See you next week at lunch!" or something. It means that when our engineers (who spend a lot of time at our manufacturer's facilities) are looking at potential suppliers, they modify PCB designs, hand-select components, and give feedback to them as to which components need to change, why, and where to get the new components if needed.

This happens with SSDs as well. Even our USB drives have custom pieces.

As far as I know, the only "off-the-shelf" parts we buy are low-end RAM, and even that goes through our extensive screening process for QC before we put our stickers on it and re-sell it.

The watercoolers from CoolIT and Asetek? Those have significantly different components than the off-the-shelf versions. Sometimes it's just different length hoses and different fan RPMs and cable lengths, other times it's a unique cold plate and pump design with a customized radiator.

I'm the PM for cases, cooling, and PSUs - none of my products are "off-the-shelf" designs without engineering making some significant changes to meet our specs.
 
MavericK96 said:
Thanks for the lengthy explanation, Redbeard.

Any particular reason why there's no Performance 140mm version?
Click to expand...

Noisy 140mm fans are noisy.

If enough people want one, it's a pretty quick addition.
 
Redbeard said:
What are you confused by?



Power Supplies are my product line too - and it's done the same way. Seasonic makes some of our PSUs, but it's not like we just change a sticker and call it a day.

We work for months (sometimes over a year) in the development of next-gen PSUs with Seasonic (and all our other PSU manufacturers) to make sure the product gets made to our specs. That doesn't just mean we call them up and go "is the fan still quiet? Okay, good! See you next week at lunch!" or something. It means that when our engineers (who spend a lot of time at our manufacturer's facilities) are looking at potential suppliers, they modify PCB designs, hand-select components, and give feedback to them as to which components need to change, why, and where to get the new components if needed.

This happens with SSDs as well. Even our USB drives have custom pieces.

As far as I know, the only "off-the-shelf" parts we buy are low-end RAM, and even that goes through our extensive screening process for QC before we put our stickers on it and re-sell it.

The watercoolers from CoolIT and Asetek? Those have significantly different components than the off-the-shelf versions. Sometimes it's just different length hoses and different fan RPMs and cable lengths, other times it's a unique cold plate and pump design with a customized radiator.

I'm the PM for cases, cooling, and PSUs - none of my products are "off-the-shelf" designs without engineering making some significant changes to meet our specs.
Click to expand...

I was confused by the statement. It made it seem as if the full design was in house and I was mostly referring to the CWT DSA-II units. That being said, I realize Corsair puts a lot of effort into making their products the best and I completely agree with what you said above.
 
Redbeard said:
Noisy 140mm fans are noisy.

If enough people want one, it's a pretty quick addition.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I guess I was just thinking that a Performance version with (say) 30 dB noise level (like the 120mm Performance) but higher airflow might be a good addition.

But I can see where the primary concern of most people who use 140mm is probably noise versus high airflow.
 
Redbeard,

Is there any chance of Corsair releasing a micro atx case designed and made to accomodate water cooling systems out of the box. I have already ruined the top panel of my PC-A05 trying to add a 360 radiator (first time using a dremel and I have not developed a steady hand with it yet). Having a micro atx case that has extra headroom for a 240/360 radiator without covering all 5.25" bays would be amazing. Basically take a 650d, remove 3 of the expansion slots, cut out 1 or 2 of the 5.25" bays and make the top panel 3x120mm radiator ready (at a loss of 1 of the 5.25" bays).
 
Not to be rude, but Noctua fan's do far higher static pressure with far lower RPM's

Is there any chance you might do a scissor blade design to increase static pressure? It would also improve airflow. Downside is it would increase noise.

Scissor blade is where the top of the blade overlaps the end of the blade before it, forcing air even harder in a direction, but at the cost of noise. That and its less blades.

I can see that your static pressure fans have 7 blades vs the noctua 9 NF-P12, but the Noctua has higher airflow/static pressure just because of how they almost the top and bottom edges of the blades. You can tell how tight the blades are just by looking at it head on and how much you can "See" through the fan when its not spinning, and the corsairs look rather spacy vs them.

Try a model where you overlap the top over bottoms, if the motor is well balanced and the bearing can free float properly it should be able to handle the vacuum vortex of the blades and it would greatly increase air pressure You might have to cup the top of the blade and flatten it to a greater angle on the backside so the top of the blade has ample space for air for the next blade to spill into the air that was just pushed.
 
Redbeard said:
And 140mm/280mm/420mm radiators are out there, but not widely used compared to 120mm versions.
Click to expand...

While that is of course true, I feel that part of the reason is the fact that very few, if any, quality 140mm fans exist in the market. Someone's gotta be first...;)
 
I <3 Noctua. These things would really have show up my ugly babies to earn my buck.
 
Also, is there any plan to offer black color rings for these? Or will they look fine without any ring installed at all?
 
wonderfield said:
http://www.corsair.com/us/cpu-cooling-kits/air-series-air-cooling-cpu-cooler.html

I'm beginning to wonder if all of this product diversification is really a good direction for Corsair. It seems as though they've done a pretty good job — so far — with all the different product segments they've introduced, but how long can that possibly last? Are Corsair's bread-and-butter products going to end up suffering for it at some point?
Click to expand...

You mean the crappy ram that stops performing at spec after a few years? Say it isn't so.
 
Q1DM6 said:
I <3 Noctua. These things would really have show up my ugly babies to earn my buck.
Click to expand...
I'd be a Noctua customer if their fans weren't so ridiculous-looking with their 'tan and taupe' color scheme. These Corsair fans get reasonably high marks for appearance in my book.
 
wonderfield said:
I'd be a Noctua customer if their fans weren't so ridiculous-looking with their 'tan and taupe' color scheme. These Corsair fans get reasonably high marks for appearance in my book.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely grant you both those points.
 
I wonder how the 140mm model would compare to the Silverstone AP141 in a FT03-Mini...

Also when will these be available in Europe?
 
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