Alphacool Core 140mm PWM 3200RPM Fan Review

Table of Contents

Alphacool Core 140mm PWM 3200RPM Fan Introduction

We took a look at Core 120mm Fan PWM 3000 RPM last time. This time we are taking a look at 140mm series fan. Like Core 120mm, ALPHACOOL carries 3 configurations in Core 140mm PWM Fans:

3200RPM is the highest-speed fan in this series. Don’t forget this speed is from a 140mm size fan. As we mentioned two key aspects of Core 120mm fans, we are mentioning the same for Core 140mm fans:

Airflow rating of 153.9 CFM Max
Static Pressure rating of 6.99 mmH₂O

Item: Alphacool Core 140mm fan PWM 3200rpm

Pricing: MSRP €8.99 at the time of the Review

Alphacool Core 140mm PWM 3200RPM Fan Specifications

Dimension

Closer Look

It is time to take a look at the fans.

ALPHACOOL is using a simple white color paperboard box to ship these no-frill fans.

Like Core 120 series, this fan is also in complete black color. There are 7x blades. No sticker or branding is there on the center. The sides facing mounting holes have a slope-down design going towards the section of the blade. Again, we are seeing more gap between tip of blades and frame. This fan has a dimension of 140x140x25mm. They are made of synthetic material (PBT UL94V-0). These fans feature:

Tachometer Output
Auto Start
Soft Start
Waterproof level IP22

There is a gap of 125mm between any two mounting holes on a side.

The design of mounting corners is different than Core 120mm fans. The portion facing the mounting hole is recessed. Looking closely, we can see that there are circular-shaped anti-vibration pads on the holes.

Frame of this fan has a different design compared to Core 120mm fans. There are two arrow markers in the center showing the direction in which blades will spin and the direction of airflow through this fan.

There is a 4-arms assembly on the backside holding the fan motor and blades to the frame. One of these arms is wider with deep inset to house wires coming out of center and going out towards frame. A sticker in center shows 0.8A at 12VDC power rating of this fan for 3200RPM speed. We can see slope-down design across frame here as well. These fans are using Two-ball bearings. Life expectancy is 70,000 hours at 40°C.

There is a flat cable of approximately 300mm with a 4-pin PWM connector. There is no socket to daisy chain these fans for better cable management.

The salient specifications are:

ALPHACOOL has shown their in-house testing showing a maximum of 6.99 pressure and generating 153.9 airflow at this pressure rating.

Thermal Testing

We have used a below-mentioned configuration for this testing:

Intel i7 13700k
GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX
DIY Setup
Sabrent Rocket DDR5 2x16GB @ 4800MHz CL40 kit
Colorful GeForce GTX 1050Ti 4G [For Display]
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVMe SSD
be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition converted into an open-frame layout

Following DIY setup is used:

ALPHACOOL Eisblock XPX PRO AURORA Digital RGB – Full Brass Black
ALPHACOOL Core 100 AURORA Acetal/Acrylic with D5/VPP Pump
ALPHACOOL HF Clear Tube 16/10mm
ALPHACOOL NexXxos HPE-30 280mm Full Copper Radiator
ALPHACOOL 90° Rotary 16/10mm Fittings
ALPHACOOL Quick-Release Fittings

Here is the settings table for testing:

P-Cores Clock (MHz)	5300 All Cores
E-Cores Clock (MHz)	4200 All Cores
Voltage (V)	1.260
Turbo Boost	Disabled
C-States	Disabled
Speed Step	Disabled
Thermal Paste	ALPHACOOL Sub-Zero
Thermal Paste Application	Dot Method in the center.
Test Run Time	30 minutes
Idle Time	10 minutes
Fan Speed	100% PWM Duty Cycle
Pump Speed	Full speed
Header	CPU_Fan/Pump headers
Stress Software	CINEBENCH R23.2
Monitoring Software	HWInfo64

Before we move on to the results, let me write a few lines on the new platforms from both camps. We have seen AMD AM5 and Intel Raptor Lake S CPUs taking more power and this time both sides have aimed at reaching the maximum clocks regardless of thermal limit. In fact they run into thermal limits right away depending on the cooling solution and the clocks being used. This has made testing of CPU coolers challenging because viewers/readers are not used to a new nomenclature which is what clocks are sustained under given load using particular cooler. That is if the cooler is capable of providing enough cooling head to sustain the high frequencies. Traditionally we are used to going the other way around which is which cooler is better in terms of thermal capacity. Despite this, we are using temperatures as a base of measuring this unit.

The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis. Let’s take a look at the results. This test was done using Intel’s default settings with power limits imposed. The CPU was drawing roughly 225W power so this is a 220W domain result.

Result

There is no comparison in the graph at the moment. The maximum temperature was 65°C at an ambient of 15.5°C temperature.

Here is a table showing RPM range and speed measurements of the Core 140mm Fan 3200 RPM fan:

PWM Duty Cycle (%age)	Speed (RPM)
20	783
30	1126
40	1477
50	1790
60	2170
70	2518
80	2800
90	3054
100	3229

We are raking the airflow reading by placing the instrument closer to the fan. The values would vary depending on the distance between the anemometer and the fan.

Noise

The Core 140mm PWM fan 3200RPM fans were making approximately 67 dB(A) sound output at an ambient of 32~33 dB(A) sound level.

Conclusion

There are two new releases in the Core series of products from ALPHACOOL. These are 120mm and 140mm fans. We earlier tested 120mm fans. This time we are taking a look at Core 140mm PWM fan 3200 RPM fans. Following configurations are available in 140mm size fans:

Like the Core 120mm fans, these fans have no RGB or digital RGB lighting and carry a no-frill design. ALPHACOOL has kept a simple design and focused on one thing which is high performance. They have delivered on this aspect quite well.

These fans have a dimension of 140x140x25mm. Each fan has 7 blades. The frame has a particular slope-down design on each mounting side. Same design is replicated on the back of the fan. The complete assembly is black in color and the frame itself is quite sturdy. These fans feature:

Tachometer Output
Auto Start
Soft Start
Waterproof level IP22

They can come to a complete stop provided your motherboard UEFI/BIOS supports this feature. There is no branding whatsoever on these fans on the front. Like Core 120mm fans, these fans are also using Two Balls bearings giving them a life span of 70,000 hours at 40°C which is quite a nice touch given the price of these fans.

Unlike Core 120mm fans, this fan has a slim size anti-vibration pad in a circular design on each mounting hole and each mounting corner has a recessed design as well. There is a gap of 125mm between any two mounting holes on a side. The fan is powered by a flat cable using a 4-pin PWM connector. There is no socket connector so no daisy chain provision. Specifications include:

The 3200 RPM version has a maximum airflow rating of 153.9 CFM and an impressive 6.99mmH₂O static pressure rating. These two variables are telling the tale of these fans and what they intend for. ALPHACOOL has mentioned this fan to be a quiet and efficient fan with a wide control range of up to 3200 rpm. This version is drawing a maximum of 9W. Keep in mind that if your fan header is rated for 1A at 12V then it can house 12W rated fan only. This implies we can only connect one such fan on this header. In case your fan header is rated for 2A @ 12VDC then it can support 24W. This would mean we can use 2x of these fans on this header. Well, frankly speaking, they draw a bit more power. And coming to the noise aspect, we measured these to be outputting 67dB(A) noise at an ambient of 32dB(A).

A single fan is listed at €8.99. I think ALPHACOOL is giving 1-year warranty on this fan. No complaint about this. We have tested these fans using a DIY setup and maximum temperature under heavy load on Intel i7 13700k was 65°C on stock settings. This is impressive but the fans were operating at full speed so the noise output was quite high. You can always set up a custom fan curve to deal with high noise output. These fans are perfect for a neutral or stealth look with sheer performance and good pocket-friendly pricing. There is nothing to lose with these fans and they come recommended by us.

Thanks to ALPHACOOL for the provision of test units.