Final Thoughts
I would just like to say that these fans are Raijintek’s first ever RGB fans and they have been out for a little while now. Since their release Raijintek has released two other RGB fan series, which you will see reviewed here in the coming weeks. With that being said the AURAS 12 fans are a little disappointing compared to other RGB fan offerings that are out there. The O-ring type design is not all that bright at all. It basically gives you an illuminated ring around each fan, but does not light up the fan blades all that much. If that is what you are going for using the controller you can select a handful of colors, set the colors to rotate, or select a breathing mode. There is no rainbow effect, which Raijintek shows on their PR photo of the fans, or any other effects programmed into the controller. You can set custom colors, create your own effects, and of course there is no software control.
Since each one of the fans use a proprietary 6-pin connection for the controller you cannot plug them into a fan hub for PWM control and you cannot plug the RGB element into a standard 4-pin RGB header you would find on your motherboard, which would give you software control. To our surprise the controller only had three 6-pin connections, which means if you wanted to add another AURAS 12 fan you would need another controller. Finally I really do not like that the controls are actually on the controller box / hub. I wish there was either a controller that came off hub (like we saw with the Corsair HD120’s) or a remote controller. Since the fans have to connect to the controller it makes it hard to mount in a convenient place where you can access the controls.
These fans do operate as they should any if you are looking for ring-style fans these could be a good choice. One thing that they do have going for them is their price, which is only $42.99 for the 3-pack with the controller. Most other RGB fan 3-packs out there are anywhere from $74.99 to over $100. I do think that the AURAS were a good starting point for Raijintek and hopefully with their newer RGB offerings they fix some of the short comings. Overall ThinkComputers gives the AURAS 12 RGB Fans a 7 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Price
– Pretty quiet, event at high speed setting
Cons:
– Not all that bright
– Proprietary 6-pin connector
– Controller only supports 3 fans
– No software control
– No other modes besides static and breathing
