OK. here’s what’s going on: I still have a few components/parts yet to acquire for my build, but I’m a bit confused about the case fans. (Specifically, the RGB & all that.) So, try to go easy on me as this my 1st pc build & I’m still learning a few little things as I go.
Clearly my build has the LL120 mm RGB fans from Corsair. (But FYI- my build won’t have an AIO CPU cooler; just a standard tower heatsink for CPU cooling. Which means for the case fans, I plan to use them to help with cooling. Via the motherboard or whichever software Corsair uses nowadays for controlling fan-speed & the RGB lighting, etc.) However, I’m not sure if I will need just the Commander Pro, or the Lighting Node Pro & the fan hub that comes with my case… As you can see, I’ve heard that the RGB can be 1 of the trickiest parts about building a pc. Hence my confusion.
So, here are my questions about this:
What will I need for my particular setup: Just the Commander Pro & that’s it, the Lighting Node Pro & the fan hub that comes with my case…?
Also, how will it all be connected? (You know, which plugs into what & in what order?)
And which software is now best for fan control & the RGB- Corsair Link, iCue, etc?
In case anyone needs specifics, I’ll be providing my parts list which will be linked below.
If anyone happens to need any further details or wishes to ask me anything else, feel free to do so & I’ll be sure to fill you in! I hope someone who has had proper experience with this can help clarify or make sense of it all for me.
It depends on how “fancy” you want to get with the RGB.
The more expensive stand alone controller have multiple channels and more effects. So you can have LEDs chasing, or different colors, etc.
The motherboard controller does very basic color effects, and will apply the same to every device connected.
This has been my experience from two different RGB motherboards and the disappointing controllers they’re equipped with.
Subscribing to learn maybe I missed something. I’m using addressable fans but all three only do one color at a time, no animations or multiple colors as often seen online.
From the 680X product page:
“All CORSAIR smart cases come with an internal iCUE controller for immediate command over your system through powerful CORSAIR iCUE software.”
There you go, you won’t need to buy the controller separately, you’ll only need to install the original case fans and any extra ones you may need, following this guide from the manual:
Here are my 2cents…
Use as little software as possible.
If you can have spliters and use your motherboards to control everything - do so…
as little software as possible is best. Extra software means extra resources wasted on controlling the color of your fans. So one for all is the best.
For example, I have only 2 RGB LED strips in my system. I have set them to white color. I have removed all software and my motherboard have remembered my setting, so I don’t need the software anymore.
So I don’t waste system resources and still get the result I want.
Do try to keep your RGB on one manufacturer only to keep things homogenized. Your system will also take a few negligible to few performance hits with all the controllers running in the background. The more varied your RGB manufacturers, the more performance hits you take.
OK. So I’ll need the Lighting Node Pro for this & iCue is the software I’ll be using. But will I need to use the fan hub that comes with the case? And iCue can do both fan -speed control as well as the RGB, right?
From what it looks like from the manual, it seems that the controller does everything via the iCUE software, controlls both fan speed and lighting, much like Thermaltake’s Riing RGB system.
If that’s the case, yes, you’ll need to use the hub on the case to connect the fans as well.
So that you can use those fans on another cases other than Corsair’s, or older systems.
For example, i just got a CM Trooper SE, if i wanted to outfit it with the same LL120s your case has and use iCUE, i would get a Commander Pro.
The node has 2 outputs, you’re going to use one of those outputs for the fan hub and the other one of the led strips, which can be daisychained together.
Thanks! Same here. I think it’s going to look bloody sick as it’s a rather unique build & it will my first 1. Totally eager to see the end result & get to gaming!!
I like to target specific hot spots on the MB, On one I put a spare fan from a stock cooler right on top the VRM heatsink, My index finger detected a big drop in temp.
When you bench test the MB you can find where the hot spots are, and place something plastic like a cutting board, bench-testing on the MB box is bad because sometimes the fancy paintjob on the MB box can be conductive, at least thats what I heard.
