Gadgetory

the world lives out of RGB lighting and I know if that might not hey guys Ibraheim connects and I've been thinking about making this video ever since 2017 but then things just started pushed over I mean we saw a lot of developments with RGB lighting and I know we saw RGB lighting with peripherals then it's sort of expanded into PC components we saw a motherboard manufacturers implement them on their motherboards AIO coolers air coolers RGB fans RGB graphics cards RGB SSDs I mean we just recently took a look at an RGB SSD from Kingston at CES I think we're slowly moving towards a direction of pretty much having every component with some sort of lighting element and you know what's even interesting is that gaming companies have started using the term RGB as a premium marketing gimmick to sell two versions of the exact same product so you'd have an expensive model that comes with RGB lining and the non expensive model that does not come with that yet both of them are pretty much exact same products it's just the lightening differences and you're paying a premium for that product and let's get this straight RGB lighting is a great feature and I think part of the reason why a lot of people lean towards that is just because they have the ability to customize the color of individual components to their desire but there's one major problem with RTP learning and that's finding a unified solution to customize the colors seamlessly without having to go through three or four different software's because let's face it there are a lot of options out there it's really hard to pick the best solution so in this video I'll be breaking down on some of the most popular options that are available in the market right now and of course we'll talk about the differences the benefits the drawbacks so let's get to it right after a message from our sponsor creativity is fueled by the best instruments it doesn't always come easy and in the process you often realize how important quality is 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to use a Strix rog based GPU on an asus rog motherboard you'd be able to control the lighting using the or software designed for the motherboard same story goes for gigabyte if you use one of their GPUs with a gigabyte motherboard you'll be able to control the lighting of that graphics card through the RGB fusion software but you can't necessarily do that vice versa because if you plug in a gigabyte GPU on an asus motherboard you won't be able to control the lighting up that graphics card through or because the GPUs lighting just doesn't support Orem you'd have to download the dedicated utility software for that graphics card and then and then control the lighting through that software here's a quick example of Asus GPU tweak software designed for the Strix rog GPUs running on an MSI motherboard if you want to monitor or overclock the GPU this is what you would use but if you want to customize the lighting you'll have to download the or a plug-in app and then customize the lighting effects the colors etc so I know it's a two-step process and it might not seem like a big deal but if you're really picky about using a unified solution this is something to keep in mind another thing I need to mention our RGB headers that are located on motherboards it's another option to extend the lighting of your PC for instance if you want to add an RGB LED strip inside your case maybe an AIO cooler or RGB fans that support the lighting software of the motherboard this is a quick and easy way to set up realistically if you're looking for RGB components just make sure it comes with compatibility for or sink RGB fusion MSI's mystic light XL also make sure it supports a direct connection to the motherboard for full operation it will save you the hassle from going through dedicated controllers which we'll talk about shortly now most motherboards come with a four pin RGB header meaning you can connect any standard RGB strip to the connector and control the lining through or a mystic light or as rocks RGB LED utility but be aware of voltages if you plug in a five volt LED strip to a 12 volt header or the other way around you're just gonna blow things up no I'm just kidding it just won't work I just make sure to check the respective motherboard manual for the voltage we doubt you may have noticed that I skipped gigabytes RGB fusion when discussing the four pin compatibility and that's because they include a five pin RGB W header on their mainstream boards especially on their z170 series and upwards you see getting a pure white output from a four pin RGB connector is almost impossible because you're only working with three channels red and green and blue but when you add a separate white channel you can take advantage of the five pin LED strips like this cable mod hybrid wide beam RGB WP that comes with an additional set of white LEDs for the extra flexibility when customizing now you could technically connect a four pin RGB strip to a five pin RGB W connector but you'll have to calibrate the separate red green and blue channels through the RGB fusion software I know that myself confusing but if you decide to use a four pin LED strip on a five pin LED header on gigabyte boards this is something that you'll have to go through alright so the next way to approach RGB lining is through other vendor specific solutions for example NZXT steel lining by itself is a completely isolated ecosystem and unfortunately can't communicate with Aurra and the rest of the motherboard software's so if you intend to use one of their cracking coolers or their air RGB fans you will have to go through and zxt scam software to control the lighting and effects now these components use the standard USB 2.0 header that's found on pretty much every motherboard out there to communicate with the software but you could run into a few issues when you decide to use two or more of ncx needs lighting products for example if you decide to use NCC's crack in your cooler and NCC's air RGB fans that require separate NCATS hue plus great system you would need two USB 2.0 headers on the motherboard but problem is that most multiples these days only come with a single USB 2.0 header so you would have to sacrifice on lighting with one of the components and that's kind of it kind of defeats the purpose of investing on RGB products in the first place now quick fix to this would be to get an extension unit and I believe NZXT does offer an internal USB hub extension unit for about twenty-five dollars and you get three more USB 2.0 headers which is great so now you can connect two of the products from NZXT and you have an extra USB 2.0 header for other components now if that sounds like a hassle to you NZXT does have another solution and that's this the n7z 370 based motherboard this is actually their first motherboard to fully integrate their cam q+ and grid + eco systems so you don't have to go through buying a separate etiquette controller what not you can just connect the fans and all the necessary connections to the motherboard and the cam soft will automatically detect those components but unfortunately there's a steep price to pay for that motherboard because it's priced around $250 so I'm gonna let that sink in for a moment Corsair does something similar with their RGB components as well if you take their hydro Pro RGB coolers for instance they connect to the motherboard via a USB 2.0 header and then you'd use Corsairs link software to control the lighting and effects their RGB fans use the same connector but it has to go through their dedicated controller but you'd run into the same issue that I talked about earlier when you're trying to link both the EIU cooler and the RGB fans due to the lack of two or more USB 2.0 headers on motherboards this is a most common issue if you decide to go with dedicated controllers so definitely keep that in mind then we'll take on the other hand there's something really interesting with their RGB products so instead of relying on multiple USB 2.0 headers on motherboards they use a unified digital LAN controller to control the lighting of their flooring RGB your cooler and their ring plus RGB fans each controller comes with five LED connectors and if you want to expand that thermaltake includes a bridge cable to connect an additional controller and you can route all of this through a single USB 2.0 header and I think that's a pretty smart design on the downside there software is an absolute mess the UI looks like Candyland or something that took inspiration from the 90 I would suggest their software team to take a minimalist approach kind of like what NZXT scam offers but that could just be me so at the end of the day having looked at all the various options for RGB lighting it's really hard to determine a one-size-fits-all solution at the beginning of this video I talked about how motherboards and their respective software protocols can be easily integrated with LED lighting and the rest of the components for example drop-in upgrades like memory and GPU would work seamlessly with the motherboard softwares but if you're thinking about adding components that are specifically dedicated towards a separate ecosystem say for example NZXT hue lighting and their cacnea coolers or of course there's link software that's just something that you can't necessarily control with these motherboard software's and that's the sad truth there's no real standard being developed for native RGB functionality that means people could end up with a software for their GPUs one for their motherboards and it's headers one for they're attached cooler like NC XD and yet another one for the RGB s on their PSU or lighting hub it's a mess basically it seems like everyone is trying to lock you into an ecosystem if you want to expand the RGB line to your peripherals I think you should seriously consider investing in a separate ecosystem and just take towards that for example Corsair does a pretty good job syncing the lighting effects from their gaming peripherals all the way to their PC components so if you want a one-size-fits-all solution this is something that you could look into and I think using a dedicated controller would be a feasible option if your motherboard doesn't support any sort of RGB lighting say for example if you're using a z68 platform or something a little bit older that doesn't come with or support or mystic light or gigabytes RGB fusion software you could use these dedicated controllers and rely on those to get the RGB lighting of your choice because they're all connected to the USB header but once again the lack of USB headers or USB 2.0 headers and motherboards could be a bottleneck when it comes to adding multiple controllers except for Thermaltake I also want to quickly touch base on pricing because if you decide to invest in RGB components be prepared to pay the premium because they're not cheap they are expensive and also make sure to do the proper research so before picking these components but is you know some other boards vary from one another depending on you know they're lighting software and just the way how they work so make sure that they come with proper compatibility and once you do that then I think you should be good to go in terms of customizing the lighting of the components with just a single piece of software or maybe just two software's so what do you guys think about RGB lighting and the different solutions that are available in the market today do you prefer going with a motherboard vendor and their respective software protocols or are you more comfortable going with a dedicated lighting controller let us know in the comments down below I'm a bar with hardware connects thank you so much watching and we'll see you in the next one