CORSAIR RGB Lighting Overview 

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I have been a fan of Corsair Products for some time, they have usually been of high quality, work great
and just as importantly they look great.

Over the last few years I made the plunge into implementing RGB lightiing not only in my PC's, but in my
home as well. RGB lighting for PC's has become mainstream and it seems just about every product out
there has some level of lighting to it.

Let's be honest, RGB lighting is not necessary and for the most part is just for aesthetics,
sure, RGB lights can provide an indication of your case, cpu and gpu temps along with FPS and more, but it's not
necessary.

The primary reason for including RGB in a PC build is because it looks amazing! And it was with that
primary requirement that I set out to choose some RGB products. The corsair LL (light loop) fans
caught my attention and I was really unable to find anything that beats it in terms of it's aesthetic.

I decided to go with the Corsair LL 120 fan kit, some RGB strips and see where I ended up. I bought the
LNP (Lighting Node Pro), the commander node pro and the LL120 3 fan kit. The LNP includes 4 RGB strips along with the LNP controller itself. The LL120 fan kit includes 3 fans and another LNP along with the RGB HUB.

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Each of these 2 kits can stand on it's own, the controller connects to your motherboard using an onboard
USB header. The RGB devices then connect to the RGB header on the LNP. the fans connect to the hub
and the hub connects to the LNP. LED strips are daisy chained into the LNP.

This is sufficient to get some great looking schemes within the iCUE software which is Corsairs
management software which controls most of their products in one location.

Each LL120 fan has 2 connections, one for RGB lighting, the other is for fan control, be it DC or PWM.
Connecting multiple fans requires multiple fan connections on the motherboard, or a fan hub. This is
where the commander node pro comes into play. It offers a few benefits in that it includes a Fan hub
which allows for 6 fans to be connected. It essentially has a LNP built into it allowing 2 channels of RGB
lighing, which could include RGB strips, the fan hub, or another LNP for expansion.

 

The Commander node pro connects to the pc using an internal onboard USB header connection along
with a SATA power connection for power. The node also has onboard 2 additional 9 pin USB Headers. It
also has 4 connections for temperature probes, which are included. These are used to measure ambient
air temperature which you can then set fan curves based on these temperature probes.
I implemented all 3 of these kits in a single build, it did leave me with an excess LNP and in retrospect I
should have purchased only the expansion RGB strip kit, but I did eventually use that LNP for some
external lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The connections are not overly difficult, but it's not immediately apparent how it all connects. I made the
video to show all these individual connection and is useful regardless of which product you buy.
There is plenty of cabling involved which requires creative cable management, but that's part of the fun,
right!?

This setup can be used regardless of any RGB capabilities your motherboard has, this is it's own
ecosystem and managed by the iCUE software.

I eventually installed 6 fans and 8 RGB Strips. I didn't end up really using the temperature probes as I
build fairly stock machines with no overclocking so temperatures are not really an issue, but that's a nice touch
for those high performance overclockers.

Overall, the corsair ecosystem looks amazing, which was the first requirement I had, the fans are more

than adequate for my cooling needs and even the controllers look cool on the back side.

Perhaps the biggest downside to utilizing corsair is the cost, the 3 fan kit alone is 129.00, but you can
often find it for cheaper.

Any PC builder with some basic know-how will have no problems implementing the Commander node
pro and LNP products.

Watch the video for more in depth information and demonstration of the connections and how they are
made.

Go create something awesome!

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Andrew

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