Will raising the fans on the CORSAIR A115 for taller RAM reduce performance?

The A115 is the latest air cooler from CORSAIR. And with so many air coolers to choose from we had to make this one special. While the performance is great, what makes it a CORSAIR cooler is the ease of use provided by the unique fan mounting system. The Slide-and-Lock fan mounting system allows for easy installation of fans and an easy adjustment to mounting height for a wide DRAM compatibility in nearly any system. But how does this extra functionality impact performance? If the airflow of the fan slightly misses the fin stack, are you really losing any performance?

To establish a base line, we’ve found that our A115 is able to cool an Intel i9-13900KF to 77.4°C and an AMD Ryzen 7700X to 64.7°C at 25°C ambient temperature. As these are some of the hottest CPUs on the market, this stacks up to the best air coolers out there thanks to the TDP of 270W. But if you have a real beast of a build and have some of that monolithic RAM that's all the rage these days, you’ll need to move your fans up and possibly impact performance.

Short answer: barely.

Long answer: What we’re finding in our testing is that performance is not majorly impacted when moving the fans. Even when adjusting the fans to accommodate our extra tall DOMINATOR TITANIUM RAM, we’re finding that it only increases by about half a degree. This means that the A115 will provide good cooling for a wide range of builds and configurations, allowing you to focus on clicking heads instead of whether or not your PC is going to overheat.

For the particularly enthusiastic builders out there, you’ll notice that the A115 actually has a 3rd rail on it. In addition to being an alternate place to mount one on of your two fans, you can also mount a third fan, lowering temps about 2 degrees from the normal two fan setup. This completely compensates for the minute performance impact of moving the fans up meaning that buying an additional fan isn't a necessity, but if low volume, peak performance, and peace of mind is your thing, the utility is there and it could be worth considering.

The A115 is a powerful air cooler designed to keep up with the best on the market. Even under worse case scenarios where you have extra tall RAM, we have found that the performance is not drastically impacted. The cooling capabilities are reliable and adjustable, making it capable for your build whether you’re an ultra enthusiast running a super hot build with the tallest RAM, or a more tame user just looking for something that’ll last for years. So, if you're an air-cooler loyalist, check out the CORSAIR A115 on our main website, or stick around here for all the information you could need on our new cooler.