Corsair ICUE (Or Similar)

[Phat Momma Hoe]

Hello !

I haven't build a PC for 10 years+, but accidently bought a 3070 laptop on a whim and (re)discovered my love of PC shooters thanks to Hell Let Loose.
So I'm going to build a new one, and fancy having customisable lighting and ICUE caught my eye.

Along with a AIO 360 cooler, I was looking at upto 8 fans. Can all this be controlled from 1 control box or is there more to it than that ?
Everytime I dip my toe in to look, I end up with more questions than answers. Like do the fans come with any link cables or are they presuming that the will just sit modularly and the cables are seperate etc?

If someone could give me an idea of what I would need for the following, I would appreciate it-
3x front fans
3x bottom fans
1x rear
1x either 280 or 360 AIO

 

[ben1987]

I’ve read a fair few reviews from people upset that the Corsair fans RGB fairly regularly dims and eventually fails over time. People report 1/2 fans looking a lot brighter than others after a few months when some start to dim

Lian Li seem to be the most popular fans for RGB right now and they also make a cooler with a screen and the same fans.

The rear fan may be slightly annoying as they are usually sold in packs of 3 each coming with a 3 way hub (this seems fairly standard across the board) you can usually pick up a single fan but then you’re left plugging it into the mobo and not usually able to control it through the manufacturers software which would be looking for the fan hub. Signal RGB is then a good bit of software than can control loads of different fan hubs as well as devices plugged into the mobo from dozens of manufacturers.

Triple Pack Lian Li UNI Fan TL 120mm Reverse Airflow fan RGB edition

Add cooling and a distinct aesthetic to your PC with the Lian Li UNI FAN TL RGB Series, which boast phenomenal airflow and unique dual-zone lighting effects.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Here’s a link to their 3 fan and controller pack. Their CPU cooler range is called Galahad.

My build is in an NZXT case and theirs are similar. 3 fans to a hub. I used their kraken elite cooler and grabbed a 7th fan and plugged it into the mobo. Their CAM software is pretty good for controlling their fan hubs and cooler but the rear fan has to be controlled via the mobo. Pretty pleased with them however I don’t think they’re quite as attractive as the lian li ones - one day I might swap them over.

 

[Phat Momma Hoe]

That's helpful information.
The Corsair route was purely for my lack of understanding and pure laziness.
In light of new information then, I am presuming if a hub is used, all fan (where possible) connect to the hub and then to a motherboard header. AIO goes to the CPU header and software controls the RGB.
With the assumption the above is correct , is the RGB on the RAM done in the same manner ? Wasn't even a thing the last time I owned a PC so just want to make sure my potato like head is getting it all.

 

[ben1987]

That's helpful information.
The Corsair route was purely for my lack of understanding and pure laziness.
In light of new information then, I am presuming if a hub is used, all fan (where possible) connect to the hub and then to a motherboard header. AIO goes to the CPU header and software controls the RGB.
With the assumption the above is correct , is the RGB on the RAM done in the same manner ? Wasn't even a thing the last time I owned a PC so just want to make sure my potato like head is getting it all.

I just did my first build in November after about 15 years so RGB, AIO’s etc were all totally new to me too.

With RAM you can usually either control it via the manufacturers software, the manufacturer of your mobo’s software or preferably something like signal RGB where it’s then all in one place.

They’re trying to push us towards ecosystem for this reason.

 

[Phat Momma Hoe]

Indeed, the constant income of proprietary hardware, funded by lazy people like me
Its sounding like it pretty straight forward, appreciate the advice.

 

[TheVoice]

The Corsair ecosystem can be a bit confusing as there are so many product lines and control boxes around. Some of the Corsair AIOs come with the iCue Commander Core hub which controls both RGB and fan speeds via the iCue software, whereas if you buy Corsair RGB fans separately or in a kit they'll usually come with a hub that only controls the RGB while the fans are powered from your motherboard headers.

I've had a Corsair H115i Pro AIO for 6 years and it's been great, and towards the end of last year I swapped out my non-RGB Corsair ML fans for SP140 RGB Elites. I tried the AF140s before that and they were horrendously noisy.

 

[[HB]Rugrat]

Anything except the new Corsair stuff can quickly get confusing, especially as you add more parts, largely because they used the same name to describe units fulfilling slightly different functions, just changing the suffix slightly to differentiate them.

So for instance a Commander Pro will let you control fan speeds for 6 fans, has 2 internal USB header ports and 4 temp sensors whereas a Commander Core (which you get with certain models of AIO) is both a fan hub AND an RGB hub but has no internal USB headers. The good news is that it's not THAT complicated once you get past the stupid naming system - there's a really helpful thread on the Corsair forum that details each part, shows a large number of possible set ups and what hardware you'd need for them. You can find it here.

Was it worth it? No, of course not: their stuff is really expensive and the sheer amount of cabling is absurd. 4 of my 9 QL fans have developed a fault (always an LED stuck on a certain colour, I've not experienced dimming yet) BUT Corsair have replaced all of them with no fuss. The key thing with RGB though (and what convinced me to get Corsair) is the control software - I've used some truly miserable RGB software (looking at you Gigabyte) and would normally end up using 2 or 3 different programs, hoping that similar effects were available in each to make everything match. iCue does a really good job here in my opinion: there are some brilliant lighting settings available and it's relatively easy to create your own patterns.

For me it's another excuse to monkey around with my PC but it's not for everyone

 

[Bickaxe]

The iCue system is very good however it is also expensive for what it is.
You need more parts than what you think you need and the inside of your case will be a mess of wires.

4 of my 6 fans have failed LEDs since installation but I'm too lazy to do anything about it as they still spin and I'm not fussed on the lighting anymore. Will be upgrading soon anyway.

 

[mattyg]

I’ve read a fair few reviews from people upset that the Corsair fans RGB fairly regularly dims and eventually fails over time. People report 1/2 fans looking a lot brighter than others after a few months when some start to dim

One of my fans has a purple LED when the rest are all set to blue

 

[Phat Momma Hoe]

I ended up going with Phantek D30s. Seems pretty solid and could get reverse flow ones where needed.

 

[SpellowHouse]

Hello !

I haven't build a PC for 10 years+, but accidently bought a 3070 laptop on a whim and (re)discovered my love of PC shooters thanks to Hell Let Loose.
So I'm going to build a new one, and fancy having customisable lighting and ICUE caught my eye.

Along with a AIO 360 cooler, I was looking at upto 8 fans. Can all this be controlled from 1 control box or is there more to it than that ?
Everytime I dip my toe in to look, I end up with more questions than answers. Like do the fans come with any link cables or are they presuming that the will just sit modularly and the cables are seperate etc?

If someone could give me an idea of what I would need for the following, I would appreciate it-
3x front fans
3x bottom fans
1x rear
1x either 280 or 360 AIO

I have the Corsair Commander Pro in all of my PC's. I have three of them from some time ago, so even if a rebuild doesn't need one, it gets one!
The advantage of Commander Pro is that it brings all the control under one easy roof - ICUE.

The downside is that Corsairs record of updates with ICUE is appalling. They make good hardware but they can't write software to save their lives. It is very common for them to release an update with a bug in it.

The best policy is to disable auto updates, keep old versions so you have a working version that can be reinstalled, and only update under controlled conditions. And, while it is safe to use your Corsair AIO with ICUE, it is not safe to use anything else. It is better to connect your CPU cooler direct to the motherboard.

Fans and lighting, though, it's great and I recommend it. Actual important cooling, no, leave that to the motherboard.

 

[jsbombjack]

I agree completely. Commander Pro is an excellent bit of kit. Also works with any fan, which helps.
The newer corsair stuff is very cool, but then you are locked in to their fans and other bits...

 

[NathG79]

I used to have a commander pro, with RGB Hub and lighting node which are three separate boxes to run fans/RGB, and RGB strips.
It was a mess behind the case, I've since upgraded to Corsair Link.
Like people have said, it's expensive, but IMO it's great and has really cut down on cable clutter at the rear of my case.
I have 10 fans (3 of which are bolted to a 360mm AIO rad) and they all work seamlessly through ICUE.

 

[D-Ranged]

I have the Corsair 5000x RGB case, which comes with 3 of their elite RGB fans at the front, and the icue controller inside the case.

You can run another 3 on the side, 3 on the top and one on the back.

Worth a look if you haven't decided on a case yet!

 

[Antony101]

The Lian Li fans are extremely easy to set up, all of the triple packs come with a controller and each controller can accommodate up to 16 fans (4 banks of 4 fans) and controls speed and the LEDs.

Theoretically in my NZXT H9 I could do the following;

One Controller
Port 1 - 3 Top Fans
Port 2 - 3 Side Fans
Port 3 - 3 Bottom Fans
Port 4 - 1 Rear Fan

The fans "clip" together so only one fan from each bank needs a cable to connect to the controller.
The controller then plugs into the PSU via SATA power and the motherboard via internal USB. You then just download the software and control it there.

I had a Corsair AIO in the past and found iCUE to be terrible.

You could look to go down the SignalRGB route but ensuring all of your components are supported would be hard work.