Getting to have a look at the newest products to market is always exciting. Having been introduced to this at CES just last month, today is one of those days and Thermaltake have sent over the Riing Quad 12 Premium fan kit optimised for radiators. Read on to find out if this kit justifies its “premium edition” branding and price tag.
Tt Riing Quad 12 Fan Kit: Specifications & Features
| P/N | CL-F089-PL14SW-A |
|---|---|
| FAN DIMENSION | 140 x 140 x 25 mm |
| INTERFACE | USB 2.0 connectors (9 Pin) |
| SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY | Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 |
| FAN STARTED VOLTAGE | 9.0 V |
| FAN RATED VOLTAGE | 12 V & 5V |
| RATED CURRENT | 12V- 0.12 A , 5v – 0.9A (Fan*1) |
| RATED VOLTAGE | |
| POWER INPUT | 12V – 4.32 W . 5V – 13.5 W (Fan*3) |
| FAN SPEED | 500 ~ 1400 R.P.M |
| MAX. AIR PRESSURE | 1.71 mm-H2O |
| MAX AIRFLOW | 60.17 CFM |
| NOISE | 26.1 dB-A |
| BEARING TYPE | Hydraulic Bearing |
| LIFE EXPECTATION | 40,000 hrs,25℃ |
| WEIGHT | 238 g (Fan*1) |
Tt Riing Quad 12 Fan Kit: Closer Look
Now that the outside of the box has already been shown above let’s get this package open and take a look at the goodies inside. A couple of tape strips to cut on top and we’re in, let’s take a look at what we are greeted with.
As well as the fans there’s a black box full of mounting hardware for both case and radiator which is a nice addition, a sticky velcro pad, the fan and LED controller box (all-in-one) with the associated power and USB cables needed for operation. I’m pleased to say that this is the only plastic packaging used and the rest of the packaging is all cardboard which is recyclable and none of that plastic clamshell packaging we don’t like here at Play3r.
An up-close shot of the cable kit shows the USB motherboard to 2x Micro-B connector cable which is capable of controlling 2 boxes at the same time. The middle cable is a bridge cable, more on that below and finally the power cable which terminates to a Molex connector.
Above is the controller box. This box allows 5 fans to be connected 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom, in the first and second picture. The left side houses the Micro-B input connector and the bridge cable adapter, this actually allows up to 16 controller boxes to be paired simultaneously which is quite the feat! The final photo shows us the power input cable and the dip-switches which are used to set the controller box number when more than one is being used. Refer to the manual which guides you on how to do this.
A couple of detailed shots of the fans for reference. You can make out the 4 light strips in each fan with 2 on the outside of the fan blades around the edge and the other 2 on the inside of the fan bearing housing, which is the reason for the smaller than usual fan blades.
The outer “Riings” each have 18 LEDs and the inner “Riings” have 9 so a total of 54 separate LEDs for each fan. The customisation options here are sounding incredible! Read on to find out more about that below…
Installing the fans was a usual affair. I removed my 240mm AIO from the roof and installed it in the front of the case using the top 2 fans to cool it. The third at the bottom was blowing fresh air into the bottom of the case unimpeded. The kit (cables and controller) went together as easily as you’d expect it to and was stuffed into the bottom of the case with the PSU cables out of the way.
Something I am really impressed with is the attention to detail on the Riing Quad 12 fans. They all have a braided looking material wrapped around the cables which I have to say helps with aesthetics for sure, but they also give the cables a bit more durability as well assisting cable management; they’re more rigid than bare cables and they should be able to stand up a bit more to the edges of cable management holes and such.
The TT RGB Plus software from ThermalTake is good for basic customisation, only with these Riing Quad 12 fans. There’s the ability to fine-tune each zone on the fans so you can really have full custom lighting settings. One other thing is that the RGB can be voice-controlled so you can integrate with Amazon Alexa as well using the phone app to voice control your RGB lighting. There’s no need to open the software suite on your PC if you fancy shouting colours and lighting schemes out instead.
That being said, I couldn’t find the voice app on the iOS App Store or the Alexa plugin available on Amazon’s UK website so neither was tested, quite disappointing!
Thermaltake have created a whole new package for these fans which is called Neonmaker. This package allows you to add selected fans by dragging and dropping a picture of the fan to the number on the controller. Fans 1 through 3 were added so the fan picture for those fans was dragged to each of those and clicked on “Done” to proceed.
This opens up the fan LED configuration part of the package, this is where a fan is individually selected and programmed with a wide variety of options. I’d recommend watching Thermaltake’s video, below the next images, if you’d like to see how to use the package to its full extent.
Clicking on an individual fan opens up its multitude of configuration options with templates, functions, colours and timing sets ranging from 0.02 up to 1 second between LED colour switchings.
Tt Riing Quad 12 Fan Kit: The Verdict
Having used these fans in my daily driver for about a week I’m pleased to report they work fantastically well. The build quality is solid, with a strong matt black plastic that contrasts the white LED strips and white fan blades perfectly. The LEDs are some of the brightest I’ve ever seen and light up the entire fan with ease. They really do look premium sat in the front of my machine and deserve to be on show on any computer on a radiator as marketed.
These fans excel in the cooling department too; trading temperature blows almost exactly with the Corsair ML120 Pro whites that were in use before. I’d go as far to say that they trade a very similar sound profile too, even when ramped up under load and whilst certainly being audible at the full 1500rpm they were not at all loud. Unfortunately we don’t have access to the kind of lab needed to measure the sounds from these fans accurately so cannot provide any figures on this. The PWM and Performance profile was used in the Tt RGB Plus software to control the fans speed which worked depending on CPU load, the software talked to the motherboard perfectly in that regard too.
What’s hot:
- Excellent LED illumination.
- Neonmaker is an outstanding program to control the LEDs in the fans.
- The controller works with up to 5 fans with up to 16 controllers working simultaneously!
What’s not:
- Premium product comes with a premium price tag.
So, the Thermaltake Riing Quad 12’s perform well in the cooling department, have a decent pair of programs designed around them that are simple enough and easy to use.
It’s fair to say that these are, in my opinion, the nicest looking and brightest RGB LED fans money can buy and there are so many LEDs and the options on how they work together are very extensive.
With all these premium features comes a premium price. The Thermaltake Riing Quad 12’s are available starting at £129.99 at the time of the review. Making them one of the most expensive fan kits Play3r has ever seen.
120mm and 140mm kits in white and black are available for your consideration.
Finally, onto awards. The Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 walk away with our Platinum and Design awards which are well deserved. The whole kit works excellently and the fans look and perform to the highest standard.
A big thank you to Thermaltake for sending in the Riing Quad 12 kit in for review.
I have to agree they are by far the best fans money can buy, in both looks and performance in my opinion (though despite trying tons of fans, I doubt I’ve come close to all you guys have tried). They look even better in white! Oh, and fhey put the Corsair QL series to shame- coming from a huge Corsair fan- despite that series clearly being made to compete with these. They have a fraction of the LEDs and they’re led diffusion is garbage. iCue is admittedly much better outside of TT offering a few unique presets I enjoy more.