How to Set Up Quiet Fans in iCUE

There’s little argument that fans make a genuine difference to your system’s airflow. That’s their whole job, shifting air. The downside is that at full speed, they can get noisy. Not ear-splitting, perhaps, but if you’re someone who values a quiet computing experience, unchecked fans can be a real annoyance.

But worry not. If you’ve treated yourself to some CORSAIR fans and have them connected to a controller like an iCUE LINK System Hub or a iCUE COMMANDER CORE XT, you’ve already got everything you need to take full control and enjoy a quiet, powerful setup.

Note: If your ARGB fans are plugged directly into your motherboard, the general tips below still apply. Just bear in mind that setting up fan curves will depend on your specific motherboard software.

You might not need to do much at all to enjoy the quiet life. Just fire up iCUE, select one of your installed fans, and click on the Cooling option.

This opens the main panel for that fan type, where you’ll see all your connected fans. From here, you can choose one of the predefined curves: Quiet, Balanced, or Extreme, or create your own.

Since you’re here for peace and quiet, start with the Quiet preset and see how your system handles it. It’ll still ramp up as temperatures rise, but it’s a solid starting point. If you’re concerned about thermals, the Balanced preset is a good middle ground.

If the presets aren’t quite cutting it, it’s time to craft your own. The goal is to balance cooling performance with noise levels, which means adjusting fan speeds to suit your setup.

You can do this by creating custom curves in iCUE. The interface is intuitive, and you’ll get real-time feedback as you tweak your settings. If you need a step-by-step guide, check out this article: How to control fans and create fan curves in iCUE.

Let’s look at a real-world example. We’ve got a FRAME 4000D fitted with an iCUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB AIO in the roof, three iCUE LINK LX120 fans at the front, another three to the right of the motherboard, and a single exhaust fan at the rear.

That’s ten fans in total. Even the Quiet preset can be a bit much here, which is where custom profiles shine. In this setup, we found a good balance with:

• iCUE LINK TITAN RX 360 AIO fans: Quiet preset
• Front intake fans: Fixed at 1,000 RPM
• Side and rear fans: Fixed at 800 RPM

You’ll want to experiment to find what works for your build, but in our case, anything under 1,200 RPM was quiet enough to fade into the background.

If you’re still concerned about thermals, consider setting up actual fan curves that ramp up with temperature. This is generally better than fixed speeds, as it ensures your system stays cool under load. That said, our configuration held up just fine, even during extended benchmarking and gaming sessions.

Acceptable noise levels are very subjective though, so you'll need to try a few different fan curves to hone in on the best balance for you personal sensibilities.