I'm confused as to what the main selling point of the A115 is. It doesn't offer any tangible benefit over a D15. No, not even those maglev fans are an enticing selling point.
it's purely anecdotal. At the top it doesn't get any better than Noctua's SSO bearings with Styrox fan. Just below Noctua, there is Nidec/NMB FDB used in various designs. Corsair's maglev sits in the marketing hype wagon. Better than DBB, SBB, or sleeve, but not as quiet as FDB.
Maglev bearing is a good idea in principle, but it's not beating 20+ years of refinement that FDB has gone through.
As far as i know Maglev is a Marketing Name by SUNON, one of the biggest Fan manufacturers in the world and has beend around since at least 20 years (1999 in fact). I have had Sunon Maglev Fans on my Pentium3 already. Corsair is just copying old and proven taiwanese tech here for which the Patents probably expired just recently. But they are not only copying the tech but also the Brand line "Maglev", which i find quite impudent. If Sunon hat their brand names protected well enough in the US, they would have a really good case here against the worlds biggest Brand of riddiculously overpriced Fans.
I know of Sunon. I hated their fans because they were always loud at the bearing level. If Corsair copied their maglev bearing design, they sure haven't improved upon it.
If you are that familiar. Back in the P3 days, the fan to get was Panaflo Low/Med model with their hydrodynamic bearings. Although NMB and Delta existed back then, they were not a good choice for desktops at the time. If you would also remember, HDB was such a game changer, that it spawned a bunch of copies that didn't infringe on Panasonic's patent for it. This includes SSO and FDB.
got 6 Corsair maglev fans in my computer. In a couple years two of them have started grinding, becoming unbearably loud. Replaced one, will do so with the second soon. By contrast, the 6 FDB fans in my computer from 2007 are all still going and sound fine, though there's one that I have to start spinning manually now (won't start itself) after which it spins fine. All in all a lot better result.
Might just replace all the maglev fans with FDB instead of waiting for the next one to croak
It seems like this would be bought by someone who likes Corsair, as anyone who does there research would quickly realize there are better options at this price point.
Gone through a few reviews of this and it sounds like a top notch cooler when it comes to Intel. Once you go over to AMD though it is outclassed which makes me. wonder how well it will do with future Intel CPUs. If MTL is an example Intel is moving their CPU cores to the edge and will likely have the same problem as coolers with issues on AMD do now.
All that being said Thermalright has come in and smashed the air cooling market. Unless you really like a specific look of a cooler they have products in the $30-50 range that keep up with or beat everything in the $100+ air cooler arena.
That's a detailed review, thank you. I'd like to know how it compares to stock AMD Ryzen coolers. Is it worth to substitute the basic ones? I guess that stock coolers are designed to withstand each DESIGN state of CPU, including PBO in case of ryzen. Would such cooler allow e.g. higher clocks that lead to significant (in terms of measured, perceived) time gain in x265 encoding, rendering etc? I believe that such review without comparison to baseline product is somehow lacking.
What you are looking for is a deep dive on AMD architecture performance under different temperatures. A review of a single cooler isnt the right place to find this information.
When you read about coolers that means that's time to take your computer outside, take garden blower and remove a megaton of dust on all its cooling surfaces
Or just use a passively cooled computer so there's no worry about airflow. A fair number of laptops and mini PCs available for very reasonable prices fit such needs and work great for daily computing and light gaming fun too.
Yeah my "light gaming fun" needs more power then a 15W fanless GPU can provide. If one only needed a mini PC then one wouldnt need a big custom desktop, and if they DID have that, they wouldnt be placing a significant thermal load to be worried about dust anyway.
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meacupla - Monday, January 22, 2024 - link
I'm confused as to what the main selling point of the A115 is. It doesn't offer any tangible benefit over a D15.No, not even those maglev fans are an enticing selling point.
erotomania - Monday, January 22, 2024 - link
"however, we hoped to see MagLev fans included. "What MagLev fans? :)
meacupla - Monday, January 22, 2024 - link
I admit I misread that part.IMO, FDB is better than maglev.
ballsystemlord - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
Out of curiosity, why? What evidence did you use to form that opinion?meacupla - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
it's purely anecdotal.At the top it doesn't get any better than Noctua's SSO bearings with Styrox fan.
Just below Noctua, there is Nidec/NMB FDB used in various designs.
Corsair's maglev sits in the marketing hype wagon. Better than DBB, SBB, or sleeve, but not as quiet as FDB.
Maglev bearing is a good idea in principle, but it's not beating 20+ years of refinement that FDB has gone through.
Maksdampf - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
As far as i know Maglev is a Marketing Name by SUNON, one of the biggest Fan manufacturers in the world and has beend around since at least 20 years (1999 in fact). I have had Sunon Maglev Fans on my Pentium3 already.Corsair is just copying old and proven taiwanese tech here for which the Patents probably expired just recently. But they are not only copying the tech but also the Brand line "Maglev", which i find quite impudent. If Sunon hat their brand names protected well enough in the US, they would have a really good case here against the worlds biggest Brand of riddiculously overpriced Fans.
meacupla - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
I know of Sunon. I hated their fans because they were always loud at the bearing level.If Corsair copied their maglev bearing design, they sure haven't improved upon it.
If you are that familiar. Back in the P3 days, the fan to get was Panaflo Low/Med model with their hydrodynamic bearings. Although NMB and Delta existed back then, they were not a good choice for desktops at the time.
If you would also remember, HDB was such a game changer, that it spawned a bunch of copies that didn't infringe on Panasonic's patent for it. This includes SSO and FDB.
HideOut - Wednesday, January 24, 2024 - link
And if Sunon didnt get sued by train companies that started maglev what, 40 years ago?MamiyaOtaru - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
got 6 Corsair maglev fans in my computer. In a couple years two of them have started grinding, becoming unbearably loud. Replaced one, will do so with the second soon. By contrast, the 6 FDB fans in my computer from 2007 are all still going and sound fine, though there's one that I have to start spinning manually now (won't start itself) after which it spins fine. All in all a lot better result.Might just replace all the maglev fans with FDB instead of waiting for the next one to croak
MamiyaOtaru - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
my old FDB fans are Scythe S-Flex fwiw. Not made anymore afaik but I'm sure there's something equivalent, from them or someone elseballsystemlord - Wednesday, January 24, 2024 - link
Thanks for sharing.charlesg - Monday, January 22, 2024 - link
It seems like this would be bought by someone who likes Corsair, as anyone who does there research would quickly realize there are better options at this price point.thestryker - Monday, January 22, 2024 - link
Gone through a few reviews of this and it sounds like a top notch cooler when it comes to Intel. Once you go over to AMD though it is outclassed which makes me. wonder how well it will do with future Intel CPUs. If MTL is an example Intel is moving their CPU cores to the edge and will likely have the same problem as coolers with issues on AMD do now.All that being said Thermalright has come in and smashed the air cooling market. Unless you really like a specific look of a cooler they have products in the $30-50 range that keep up with or beat everything in the $100+ air cooler arena.
Threska - Monday, January 22, 2024 - link
Long as the fans are easy to put on and take off, I'll be happy. A lot use plastic tabs.erotomania - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
Thermalright use thin wiry paperclippy metal to clip fans on. It works but it's not the most satisfying.m3city - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
That's a detailed review, thank you. I'd like to know how it compares to stock AMD Ryzen coolers. Is it worth to substitute the basic ones? I guess that stock coolers are designed to withstand each DESIGN state of CPU, including PBO in case of ryzen. Would such cooler allow e.g. higher clocks that lead to significant (in terms of measured, perceived) time gain in x265 encoding, rendering etc? I believe that such review without comparison to baseline product is somehow lacking.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, January 29, 2024 - link
What you are looking for is a deep dive on AMD architecture performance under different temperatures. A review of a single cooler isnt the right place to find this information.zlandar - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
This looks like a copy of Noctua's D15 except it's currently $10 less.$10 is not enough of a discount. I would rather spend $10 more and buy a Noctua.
SanX - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
When you read about coolers that means that's time to take your computer outside, take garden blower and remove a megaton of dust on all its cooling surfacesPeachNCream - Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - link
Or just use a passively cooled computer so there's no worry about airflow. A fair number of laptops and mini PCs available for very reasonable prices fit such needs and work great for daily computing and light gaming fun too.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, January 29, 2024 - link
Yeah my "light gaming fun" needs more power then a 15W fanless GPU can provide. If one only needed a mini PC then one wouldnt need a big custom desktop, and if they DID have that, they wouldnt be placing a significant thermal load to be worried about dust anyway.PeachNCream - Wednesday, January 31, 2024 - link
You misidentify wants as needs when you say you need more power.