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Are reverse blade fans as good as normal fans?

When it comes to fans with RGB lighting, it is easy to run into a situation where you have to install a fan in a certain direction to maintain proper airflow, but may not be the best orientation for it to show its lighting effects. Air intake fans on the side or bottom of the case are usually the ones that suffer from this. Reverse fans, such as the CORSAIR iCUE LINK LX-R RGB fans, are designed to help keep the RGB effect in view while still ensuring the airflow is in the right direction. However, you may be wondering if these fans are as good as their counterparts, such as the CORSAIR iCUE LINK LX RGB fans, and we are here to answer that question for you.

Reversed Rotor for flawless looks

In the video above, you can see how a normal LX RGB fan moves air, and then how the LX-R RGB fan moves air.

The reversed fan blades change the direction of air flow through the fan. This way, you won't lose the great look of the RGB lighting, which is at its best when viewed from the front of the fans when used as intake fans on the motherboard side of the case, such as the CORSAIR 6500X, 3500X, 4000D, or 5000D. When in your system air is drawn in from the rear, these fans also ensure that the RGB effect always looks its best.

Performance Comparison

	CORSAIR iCUE LINK LX120-R RGB 120mm	CORSAIR iCUE LINK LX120 RGB 120mm	CORSAIR iCUE LINK LX140-R RGB 140mm	CORSAIR iCUE LINK LX140 RGB 140mm
Dimensions	120x120x25mm	120x120x25mm	140x140x25mm	140x140x25mm
Rated Current	≤0.35A	≤0.40A	≤0.35A	≤0.45A
Speed	2,400RPM ±10%	2,400RPM ±10%	2,000RPM ±10%	2,000RPM ±10%
Airflow	11.5-66.7CFM	9.75 -69.9CFM	13.1-90.6CFM	10.74-84.7CFM
Static Pressure	0.14-4.72mmH2O	0.13-5.22mmH2O	0.11-4.22mmH2O	0.11-4.86mmH2O
Sound Level	10-37.7dBA	10-36dBA	10-38.3dBA	10-36dBA
PWM Control	0%, 20-100%	0%, 20-100%	0%, 20-100%	0%, 20-100%

If you compare the performance of the LX-R fans with the LX fans, you will notice that although the fan speed is the same across the board, the airflow and static pressure are slightly different.

Airflow:

The LX-R models have higher minimum airflow in both sizes (15.2% and 18.0% more).
The LX models offer a slightly higher maximum airflow for 120mm (+4.8%) but lower for 140mm (-6.5%).

Static Pressure:

The LX models outperform in maximum static pressure for both 120mm (+10.6%) and 140mm (+15.2%).

Sound Level:

The LX models are quieter at maximum levels for both 120mm (-4.5%) and 140mm (-6.0%).

Does this mean that reverse fans are performing worse than their counterpart? Not necessarily. We are looking at minimum and maximum figures here and although on paper the performance of reverse fans is worse that of the standard variants, you will still receive well rounded performance across the board. A combination of reverse fans and standard fans will provide great cooling performance for your build. Basically, the performance difference is not big enough to cause any issues.