Alphacool Core 140 2000RPM Review

Introduction

Apart from being incredibly affordable, Alphacools Core lineup of fans is known to maximize on performance whilst forgetting that noise optimization is a thing! Let's see if the 140mm 2000RPM version took this to the next level! 

What's in the Box?

Unlike most Fans we had a look at before, Alphacool's Core 140 series comes in the most OEM packaging possible.

Hidden inside a simple white box we will find the Fan and nothing but the Fan.

Therefore, BEWARE, there are not even screws included with this fan. For people building PCs on a regular basis, this may not be a huge issue as it's quite normal to accumulate a small mountain of regular fan screws over time. For first-time builders or people who only build PCs every few years, you might need to keep this in mind and get them beforehand. 

Other than the white color, the box is kept simple to a degree at which the sticker on the lower left corner is the only thing enabling your to keep the boxes apart.

Installation

Installing an Alphacool Core 140mm fan without any preparation might become quite an obstacle without any included screws.

However, once you got some, may it be because you have a dedicated bag full of them, or purchased them, installing the fan is as easy as it is for any other fan out there.

Position the fan, screw in the 4 screws, done.

To make the fan spin we just need to connect the 40cm long PWM cable to one of the available case fan headers on the motherboard and we are good to go. 

Appearance

Similarly to the 120mm lineup, the new Core 140mm fans are staying true to their own name.

Being all "Core" means no unnecessary extras. Every aspect of the fan is kept as simple as possible while only concentrating on delivering a High-Performance. 

The Fan itself, as well as every one of it's details, is coming in an all black finish. All around the fan, simplicity is king. Therefore there is no rubber around the screw holes, no accent colors, nothing that could catch somebodies attention. The most detailed aspect about the frame can be found on the corners, which have extra reinforcements for additional strength.

For the Fan Wing design, Alphacool decided to go with an 11-Wing layout with slightly bent, but quite long wings.

Benchmark

We tested Alphacool's new Core series 140mm fan spinning at max 2000RPM in our usual hybrid Case-almost-Heatsink benchmark machine.

Letting the Fan spin at its max 2000RPM allowed the CPU to be cooled down to 42.4°C above ambient. This positions it at almost the exact same spot as the 3000RPM quick 120mm counterpart. A surprisingly good result considering the fan's speed. 

Looking at the whole list, the 3000RPM 140mm version did not end up in a bad spot. Overall, it still landed in the upper third segment.

Lowering the fans speed in 10% decrements to create a noise-to-performance ratio revealed that the 2000RPM 140mm model comes with a significantly better noise-to-performance ratio compared to the 3000RPM quick 120mm model.

Additionally, once the speed was set to be low enough, the Core 140 2000 was actually the first Alphacool Core fan to beat the Arctic P12 and its noise-to-performance. A significant upgrade compared to every other core fan so far. Not quite an A12x25, but still relatively good.

Conclusion

Considering how horrendous the noise-to-performance ratio of every Core 120mm was, the one created by the 2000RPM quick 140mm seems relatively good in comparison.

That being said, it is still far from perfect. However, perfection is just something that the Core Lineup is aiming for. 

At 7.49€, the 2000RPM quick 140mm model is still staying true to the Core lineup, highly affordable with sole performance in mind, no matter how loud it needs to be.

Although everything said above is still true, we still believe the 2000RPM quick 140mm Core fan is the best Core fan we have seen so far. We would even go as far as to say that it's actually usable for a normal PC build.

Therefore, if you are looking for an excellently performing ultra-budget friendly case fan, and all you want is a noise-to-performance ratio comparable to an Arctic P12, then we can absolutely recommend the Core 140 2000!