Corsair RGB Concerns, QX Fan Technicals, & Hybrid GPU Cooler

[@GamersNexus]

For something purely function focused, check out our Silverstone booth coverage! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYOym3tqZbaamLM And our be quiet! booth coverage, ft. Der8auer: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXmcY6OEo7J3icU

[@KenOtwell]

Why not a ring attached to the blade tips so the whole thing turns? So now the "gap" is zero. With typical hysteresis set at 1 or more seconds, the mass inertia can't be the reason, and weight is irrelevant at a constant speed. What am I missing?

[@TwistedMe13]

1:49 Why not use USB Type-C as the connection standard (And USB PD as the power standard)? Enough with the funky proprietary connectors!

[@shadowminor]

Hopefully you will eventually be able to test all of the new RGB "Ecosystems" and see which is best. or if any are even recommendable.

[@facegamefps6725]

Garbage fans just like all the rest. Slowers latency with corsair software, lian li does some… if you want performance run through motherboard everything.

[@theethicsofliberty4642]

👍

[@ComputingCactus]

These manufacturers NEED to get together and standardize their connectivity. Needing 5 different hookups and spaghetti everywhere makes cable management more of a hassle than it needs to be, ESPECIALLY when all the software sucks ass and you don't know whether everything is wired correctly or the software is a bowl of crap looking in the mirror at itself.

[@YuokoII]

Sadly it won’t happen. They want to hook you on their ecosystem. Just like apple does. You have like one thing from them. And you have to buy their other stuff in order to make it easier for yourself.

[@AshnSilvercorp]

@@YuokoII there's a reason Open RGB exists. It's 3 color values along with brightness... it's not too difficult to do.

[@pliashmuldba]

For a guy that have cut / extended his wires to fit to the mm for years / decades, not that big of a problem. And today the same guy never really big on RGB, well today he literally HATE RGB, so even less of a problem. The guy are also done customizing wires and sleeving, and the guy also way past his OC days. Guy can / will do water cooling, but guy have a poo load of hardline fittings in surplus CUZ guy cant be bothered with that poop anyway so GUY stick to his Tygon hose with next build. Mind you, guy will put 4 radiators in his next build 2 triple and 2 dual.

[@Waffles1313]

Simple solution - just buy fans without RGB. I've got 10 NF-A12s in my system and have never once been upset by the lack of extra lighting.

[@YuokoII]

@@AshnSilvercorp Yeah I use SignalRGB myself. But software won’t fix hardware issue with amount of hubs you need if you are going with different brands

[@russbailey420]

While I'm sure you know this and I myself don't know how it will work out, but windows will be trying to implement a RGB control center in an upcoming update. From what I have read they are trying to tie all the RGB ecosystems together. I have little faith that Microsoft can implement this effectively, but a man can dream! Thanks for all the awesome coverage! Very nice to see everyone back doing Computex.

[@AMDRyzenEnthusiastGroup]

Seems like a USB Type C would be a good solution for all the things the fan needs for both data, and power. And not just the primary line going from the hub to the PC, just throughout the entire thing.

[@rdoursenaud]

UTB Type C would be great. The problem is the cost of implementation which would be way too high for the fans and RGB use case. Unless someone comes to the market with a very cheap single chip solution, this is mission impossible.

[@valhallasashes4354]

Speaking as a builder (ie the customer), if I'm given the choice between closed ecosystem and an open ecosystem, I'm going to choose the open standardized ecosystem every time. Every single time. The flexibility open ecosystems offer over closed can not be understated. Both at the start (even if not initially technically the best), and especially as time and maturity progresses.

[@Victor-mn2eu]

Seems like the cabling aspect of PC DIY is going down the same route as software, where everything is proprietary and users are basically being forced to commit to one brand/"ecosystem" to ensure compatibility

[@CalcProgrammer1]

Unfortunately I don't see it happening on the physical/hardware layer, but we're trying to fix this issue in software with OpenRGB!

[@greebj]

The cheap stuff isn't and never will be proprietary. Daisy chained 12v molex ftw 😅

[@spell105]

thank god i hate RGB so none of this affects me!

[@curtismariani6303]

I don’t mind iCue, it has got better in recent years. I saw in another video Corsair may licence the tech to allow other manufacturers the ability to build for the eco system. It a shame there isn’t one standard across the industry, given most components are, it is surprising this hasn’t happened yet. Looking forward to the full review once released.

[@dodger7183]

​@@sinAnon6689 Yes, greed. and profit, you can take your fantasies of the "poor component makers" and stuff it.

[@dodger7183]

@@sinAnon6689 and at the end of the day, that is worth it for the macro-level benefits, i would much rather have a smaller, "less innovative", tech sector, if it meant being organized along more egalitarian open-source and shareware based philosophy, rather than one slanted to give the already-rich more baskets of money to dump into the vault.

[@DanielSanDIC]

I'll just wait until OpenRGB gets support for these fans tbh

[@CalcProgrammer1]

Corsair stuff tends to be relatively similar to their existing stuff. I doubt their new ARGB controller will be too difficult to implement, though if they added new features to auto-detect the fan LED configuration that would be additional work (though nice to have for simplicity).

Support them by donating this hardware to them if you want them to support it.

[@ChrisOfSDUB]

Glad to see some GPU hybrid options returning. It was weird that there was no Kraken G12 type device for 30-series.

[@FerrumAnulum]

On my new computer i got a set of the lian li uni fans. And while the fans are gorgeous and cable management is a breeze! It really is that connector and control box, at least they did give you a pair of 3 pins to TRY and unify things.

[@D6isD6]

The lack of a concrete, open, and standardized system for ARGB control is a significant part of why I've never bothered with it and instead seek out parts with as little RGB as possible. Preferably none. I do not care to lock myself into a single "ecosystem" or have to juggle a bunch of different (and usually terrible) control software that all has to be running at the same time for anything to work. Once I can download a single piece of software to control everything, and once it's set up how I like it either leave it closed (with nothing running in the background, looking at you, Razer) or uninstall it entirely, I'll give ARGB a real look. Until then, closed black boxes with no lights for me.

[@skarletice7768]

Look I build for preformance but a lil bling never hurts and with this I think alot of bling is gonna hurt less

[@seanvucich]

The RGB standardization really just needs to leverage off USB. You have power and data in the one cable already and its also a standard by it self. Shouldn't be that hard.

[@ar11999]

so you want corsair to make Fans that can controlled thru other programms and not be only Icue exclusive?

[@phillgizmo8934]

Icue soft suite of 1.5gb that is bugged out after a firmware update made me forever look away from corsair. 1.5gb soft just to manage rgb?!

[@nameinvalid69]

the RGB ring really just take up precious real estate... The blade could be 5mm longer without the ring...

[@kiri101]

I hope in the coming few years one or two of these proprietary designs crystalise in to an open standard, because this is getting silly now.

[@Im1CrazyCow]

That GPU cooler is Kinda Nice if you want to water cool on the Minimal side of it say for ITX builds Or other Odd style Builds , I hope they come in white !!

[@sobertillnoon]

This was a much better thumbnail.

[@nicholash8021]

Noctua says the LCP material is a 20% increase in price? So, the 50-cent manufacturing cost of the blade itself now costs them 60 cents? We all know this stuff is grossly marked up. I realize there is overhead of the entire company and marketing but the difference in material on the blade is probably negligible compared to their $30/fan price tag.

[@Total_Egal]

Without inlcudet VRM and Choke cooling the Waterblock is pretty mutch useless. Maybee go for a smaller 2 Part design where the VRM/Chokes get an additional Block in the Loop The FAN/LED Plug System looks better and cheaper to made as others. No magnets, no outpointing pogopins. as long as you dont put the connector in or the plug nothing sticks out. You can chain it with the connectors and Y it if you want.. Corsair proably not open source it or make it licence fee less for others to use^^ But the industrie has to get together and define one plug/chain standard for fan/rgb and prethink for the future including status displays and screens and sensors in it. something like a canbus?

[@GrizzAxxemann]

That hybrid cooler would be awesome if it was a bit more universal. Big loss of points for the "ecosystem" plugs.

[@mark601]

I wouldn't mind paying 2-2.5x for Noctua fans for daisy chaining. They last so long so the price was already justified 3 times over years ago for my 8 year old fans

[@FrostedWolf323]

man do i wish corsair would focus just a bit more on performance.

[@Dexx1s]

Even if they don't want to make a single physical standard, it would be pretty damn easy for them to simply provide an API for their hubs, especially if they're being connected to an internal USB connector. At least then, software like OpenRGB can handle multiple environments at the same time and at least some sort of cohesion.

[@CalcProgrammer1]

A standard protocol would be awesome, but I doubt it will happen. I just hope it remains similar enough to their existing controller protocols to make integration into OpenRGB straightforward. Hopefully the new connector at least allows for automatic detection of number of LEDs per device/channel, something the basic ARGB connection lacks.

[@JackieLombardi]

@@CalcProgrammer1 I saw that you made a reddit comment about this on the OpenRGB subreddit, but i hate the way Asrock boards work with OpenRGB...It's so broken because Asrock's RGB solutions are some of the worst on the market...the polychrome sync application is absolutely ridiculous...i hope one day Asrock users will be able to control more in OpenRGB so i don't have to use polychrome sync just to give my PCB lights a different effect than my cooler lights

[@CalcProgrammer1]

@@JackieLombardi Unfortunately in ASRock's case it's a limitation of their RGB controller firmware, not the PC side software. They don't offer "direct mode" which allows for continuous streaming of RGB data from software. Because they save every change to the internal flash memory, it will wear out the flash memory over time if you continuously change the effect.

[@hoilst265]

@@JackieLombardi I turned off RGB in my bios on Steel Legend. It's now back on. I didn't turn it back on. It also stays on sometimes when the PC's shut down. The Polychrome app takes approximately 14 months to actually load and get started from clicking on the icon. Hot. Garbage.

[@ledoynier3694]

To be honest, OpenRGB is also hot garbage. it crashes constantly, and works when it feels like it. But it would be nice indeed if the RGB was managed a bit like HID devices. you can get control from windows, or from the manufacturer's app (or 3rd party). Lets hope MS Dynamic lighting nudges them towards that direction.

[@FerrumAnulum]

On my new computer i got a set of the lian li uni fans. And while the fans are gorgeous and cable management is a breeze! It really is that connector and control box, at least they did give you a pair of 3 pins to TRY and unify things.

[@AaronMartinColby]

I'm glad this is being discussed. I recently went through hell finding parts that don't use any damned proprietary interfaces for RGB. Amazingly the Thermaltake distribution plate supports a ton.

[@Lishtenbird]

I started the previous build with a set of Thermaltake Pure fans for the same reason. I wasted a lot of time trying to make them not be a noisy vibrating mess, and eventually gave up and got a set of Corsair ones. Despite being inferior in terms of performance, at least they somehow managed to be more reliably silent at lowest settings...

[@jim8571]

What...? Just buy any fans that 3pin.

[@AaronMartinColby]

@@jim8571 It wasn't just the fans. It was water blocks, pumps, plates, etc. Like EK would have the plate I wanted, Corsair would have the pump, and Thermaltake the fans, and all of them were mutually incompatible. I was on the hunt for 140mm fans, which made my choices even worse. If I was after 120mm, I would have just used whatever fans with Phantek's Halos.

[@benisrood]

Even better, don't buy or use RGB?

[@BunzJackson]

@@benisrood What a great and useful solution, thank you so much for your input.

[@itsdeonlol]

This is cool, but I think that there should be a universal standard for RGB...

[@CalcProgrammer1]

Unfortunately I don't think it's feasible to have a universal standard for RGB hardware connections at this point. There are too many competing standards and manufacturers are entrenched in their own creations now. However, we absolutely can still standardize the software side! Unfortunately, that standardization means building wrappers around all the proprietary protocols to bring them all into the same standard, but that's what we're trying to achieve with OpenRGB.

[@mr.electronx9036]

100% agree

[@JJFX-]

@@CalcProgrammer1 You guys are doing amazing work. I didn't realize just how convulted this actually was until digging into your software and it seems like a nightmare. Certainly not a project most people would want to take on so thank you for everything you've managed to do so far.

[@CalcProgrammer1]

I like the idea of a connector that can connect to multiple different types of cooling, LED, and display devices but I don't like that it's not an open standard. I'm sure we'll be able to add support for the software side in OpenRGB, but the hardware side will remain proprietary. I'm sure it will be reverse engineered, but that won't allow other manufacturers to make compatible stuff without running into potential other issues (software compatibility, legal issues, etc). I wish there was a standard for these other than ARGB headers, but ARGB headers were just repurposing off-the-shelf WS2812B LEDs with a somewhat standardized connector. It became a standard because it was the lazy way to do ARGB. If you want ARGB devices to automatically detect (number of LEDs, number of fans, etc) you will need something more than just basic ARGB and there's no standard there. NZXT did a pretty decent job of this with the Hue 2 accessories (which are just standard WS2812B ARGB accessories with an additional fourth data pin used to indicate device type and number of LEDs). Knowing this, I understand why ARGB connectors alone aren't a viable path to making smarter LED controllers. We run into issues all the time in OpenRGB of people not knowing how many LEDs are in a particular ARGB device or how to resize the zones, and an improved connector standard that has some form of detection eliminates this issue.

[@ronniekregar3482]

But if it's top notch hardware, which it is, then they're still serving a customer who wants it. People want a streamlined experience and it's just not feasible to expect that with a 100 different brands of hardware in 1 PC case lol.

[@MeatNinja]

I'm so happy with OpenRGB 🙏 Nice and lightweight, no bloated crap :] I run two groups of uni fans, which terminate into ARGB and PWM. They go into a single hub (cooler master) which connects to the motherboard only with ARGB and PWM, no extra USB cables. I think this is about as clean of an RGB setup as you can get right now. I understand the shortcomings of ARGB but still prefer this over the proprietary stuff.

[@BobBob-nr1zt]

@@ronniekregar3482 Don't worry, within a year there will be availability of 100 different "brands" of counterfeit Corsair fans...

[@Quizack]

Really appreciate all the hard work that has gone into OpenRGB. PC building would be so much worse without software like OpenRGB, Fan Control, and other programs like them.

[@cpin5224]

i skipped the rgb in my current rig, but as a linux user i have to thank the open rgb devs for not only making rgb tolerable in general, but usable on linux without a windows vm.

[@breadworkshop]

I really appreciate GN's willingness to express concerns about vendor lockin and other predatory, anti-consumer practices in the hardware space. In a lot of cases you guys are some of the only KZbinrs who are willing to confront those issues head-on, absolutely vital service to the PC community. I'm a big fan of a variety of other popular PC KZbinrs, but you guys are the ones who are most consistently on my side as a consumer, with no tolerance for sycophantry or marketing bullshit

[@Finsternis..]

"predatory, anti-consumer practices" Dude... give 5 people the task to solve a problem and they turn out to be different and not compatible to each other. You cannot, even if it may actually be the case, conclude from that fact alone that there is any maliciousnes in it. To phrase it like that is disingenuous at best. If you want a unified standard that actually works, go and form some kind of forum, think of a system that is useful and upgradable (see how well that works) and in an acceptable price range to manufacture and pay the big player manufacturers to adopt it so the smaller ones follow suite.

[@breadworkshop]

@@Finsternis.. yeah I realize this situation is more complicated and it’s not some big conspiracy, really just emerging tech where standards aren’t defined yet. But there definitely are a lot of cases in the hardware space where manufacturers could have adhered to standards and chose not to because of greed, and i appreciate when reviewers have the gumption to call out that kind of behavior

[@m4ster_root]

​@@breadworkshop Same in the software space... Gamers hate having a million launchers, right? That's like having a million fan hubs... The chances of eventually getting an open standard for fan connections is higher than the chances of getting an open API for game launchers. They all make their own, as they want the features they think is cool and needed. Sharing specs would make it possible for consumers to simply buy another brand, it's financially much better for them to force consumers into a proprietary eco-system. If game launchers all had an open API for basic functionality like user management/friend list, lobbies/server invite, chat, voice chat and so on. If launchers allowed you to connect to third party services and list, update and launch games from that service... If launchers had a store that could search across all linked services, then these services could host their own little store section, they wouldn't have that sales cut that eventually made publishers create their own launchers, it would be such a better experience for gamers. One unified launcher with support for all gaming services, no one having monopoly on the launcher/store market... They could all make a launcher the way they think it should look, and simply support the open API for cross-connectivity, seems so simple and smart, but there's no value in it for any of them to do this. If they did Valve/Steam would no longer be able to take their 20% to 30% cut of sales. Valve is in an anti-competitive and anti-consumer position, but unlike so many other brands, people blindly loves Valve and Gabe. These fan standards being proprietary, especially during development is really not that big a deal. Smack a few hubs in your system and use a few apps... Having an open standard also restricts you from how you can develop that standard, especially if you intend for other brands to join in. This is not just software that can easily be modified, this is physical hardware that hopefully stays supported for many years.

[@Lishtenbird]

With how many fan manufacturers are adding protruding connectors to their fans now, I do have to wonder if case manufacturers will start adding more and more dead space around fans to account for that...

[@RipJawsX95]

That is indeed a very good point and will be very problematic with older cases and not to mention with multiple radiators where the protruding connectors may interfere with your other fans...

[@jeremytine]

i would be more impressed if someone tried to create an open source standard for cross compatibility

[@CalcProgrammer1]

I've been trying!

[@-opus]

They want you to be locked into their system, forcing you stick with their brand. The same issue applies to battery tools.

[@jeremytine]

@@CalcProgrammer1 by someone I mean a major manufacture, but if you can get the job done and adopted, more power to you.

[@Lishtenbird]

(CalcProgrammer1 is the person behind OpenRGB, for context.)

[@jeremytine]

@@-opus ugh don't get me started on tool batteries

[@AndrewBabbitt]

As someone who develops software in the RGB space.... I have been striving to work with companies on at least standardizing the software side of things, it can be really hard to get multiple companies on the same page. It's an absolute nightmare. Creating open APIs and protocols are the way I have approached it and have attempted to get some companies like Corsair and Razer on board

[@cpin5224]

razer really needs it too, their software is atrocious.

[@TheGameBench]

I like how Corsair is implementing this, but this NEEDS to be standardized... NOT proprietary. And while they've taken care of my least complaint, spaghetti monster levels of wires, but we have yet to see if they can make an RGB software that doesn't suck. I know Signal and Open RGB exist... but they have their own issues. Also, I had a lot of hardware problems the last time I tried Corsair's RGB fans... so, I'm a bit hesitant to try them again for that issue alone. I think it's also worth noting that the Mini-Fit Jr. standard that the PEG connector uses, on a dual row 6-pin OR 8-pin, is rated for 7 amps with 20ga wire, 8.5 amps with 18ga wire and 10 amps with 16ga wire... per 12v terminal. So, if they're using the standard three 12v terminals in a PEG connector, even on crappy 20ga wire, you could get up to just over 250 watts before you're overloading the connector. Still... best to not exceed the 80% rule. The whole 75/150 watt spec is a PCI Sig spec that's related to sensing and has nothing to do with the actual load rating of the Mini-Fit Jr. standard. The standard pre-dates GPU's even needing dedicated power.

[@AyoKeito]

I remember EK tried to push their own controllers too. They are EOL today. Not surprised. We definitely need more competing standards. Right? Right?? xkcd: 927 "There are 14 competing standards".

[@warpedphreak]

where have you been????? iCue BS been out for years =complete crap and closed Eco

[@Apollo-Computers]

Lol the ekwb controller never worked. Not really sure on the hardware part but the software never did, they shipped hardware with non functional software. They immediately suspended sales and like 6 months later tried "new software" that didn't work either.

[@AyoKeito]

@@Apollo-Computers It kinda worked. I still have one lying around. I was about to hook it back up in my PC a week ago when i needed more temperature sensors, but realized i have no spare USB on my mobo. But the software was trash, that's true.

[@CalcProgrammer1]

RGB hardware with garbage software? Now I want one to try and add it to OpenRGB...

[@AyoKeito]

@@CalcProgrammer1 the one interesting feature it had is 5 temperature sensor ports. I wanted to hook one up to 4090 power connector :D

[@talis84]

I got turned off from Corsair just recently. I have an issue with my Virtuoso SE and they are being hardball on the warranty. I have the headset, an AIO (and their fans), a PSU, and keyboard all from Corsair. It sucks that they are faceless and after a while of sending emails, ghost me as a warranty claim.

[@-opus]

How good a company is only becomes known when you need customer service.

[@cpin5224]

corsair's support is some of the worst in the industry, with asus leading the pile good luck on your returns, i learned this lesson a long time ago

[@DeinonychusCowboy]

Great to see this happening, I look forward to using it in 10 years when manufacturers finally settle on a standard connector

[@pf100andahalf]

I fixed the rgb issue by not having any rgb.

[@stephanhart9941]

I can't wait for Microsoft's RGB control software!!! Wonder how Corsair feels about it? Cause they SUCK!

[@grgspunk]

This proprietary RGB bullshit is something that Corsair's been doing for years. This is 100% intentional on their part. They've been using their own proprietary A-RGB connector that will only fit properly on a iCUE Commander hub this entire time--If you try to connect their proprietary connector to a standard 3-pin mobo header, the contacts inside will be too loose and it won't work. This is just Corsair being Corsair. It's a shame that Hyte is trying to do the same thing.

[@CalcProgrammer1]

At least Corsair's existing 3-pin ARGB connector is still electrically compatible with existing ARGB devices (+5, GND, WS2812B-compatible Data). You can buy Corsair-to-3-Pin and 3-Pin-to-Corsair adapters. It looks like the new connector will be electrically different, though maybe just adding additional signals and leaving the standard ARGB line in place. This hopefully will at least allow auto detection of the number of fans/LEDs connected whereas right now you have to manually specify this in software.

[@grgspunk]

@@CalcProgrammer1 There was still absolutely no good reason for them to make that older proprietary connector in the first place. The only reason why they did that was to force you to use their iCUE Commander hubs. If they wanted to really be pro-consumer while introducing this new tech, they could've done the same thing with EKWB's Loop FPT fans and just integrate a daisy-chainable A-RGB/PWM dual cable into the fan, which you would then connect to an (included) extension cable that splits into *standardized* A-RGB and PWM connectors--Connectors that you can plug *directly* into a mobo. There was no reason to introduce this "ecosystem" shit other than to get us to buy extraneous accessories made exclusively by Corsair. There's no way they would include those iCUE hubs with the fans.

[@davidthedj]

Soon there will be a RGB Group making standards like there is for PCIE, DDR Ram and video connectors 😂

[@CalcProgrammer1]

Wouldn't that be nice...

[@flyingtentacle7631]

Imagine if there was already a widely used port that carries both data and power and is relatively cheap to implement. Then we can solve the problem with these fan ecosystems. We could call it "universal fan bus controller" or UFB type C for short. In fact, we could even use it for non-fan related things and call it USB type C for short. That would be super amazing.

[@Destructificial]

USB is WAY too expensive to implement for something like this, and its protocol is unfit for this application. Using USB would add at least $5 to each fan - and you would be limited to linking three or four in a chain. Something like I2C or RS485 is a way better choice.

[@detractioncontrol]

I like how you think but yeah USB C would be ridiculously overkill and expensive for this purpose

[@puciohenzap891]

Ah yess, when I hear the word 'ecosystem' I think 'another proprietary cancer', sadly.

[@DrMuFFinMan]

I agree with Steve, it basically makes it so you buy into an ecosystem and either have to replace everything if one thing breaks or switch to a different platform. The sad part is the low power of fans and small amount of data for Argb shouldn't be made so difficult.

[@ledoynier3694]

It's good to see Corsair moving away from what is the most ungodly RGB connexion scheme on the market :) But all i've seen here feels extremely cheap.. connectors straight to PCB traces NES style.. i really hope they gold plate the things or it's going to become pretty unreliable.. those GPU blocks are convenient but a joke. Already their current range of full cover waterblocks give slightly better than air cooled temperatures on powerful GPUs, but those gizmos are probably going to perform pretty poorly.. the benchmarks are going to be fun to watch.. I wish the first thing they would overhaul MASSIVELY was iCUE. the version 5 is a good step in the right direction wit the modular install, but it's still massively unreliable. The only thing they have for them is the LED count really.

[@EdDale44135]

I hate the proprietary cables. I’m stuck with a set of LianLi fans that are on two different standards for RGB and power. One new, one old. And I cannot find the cable to plug the old fans into the new controller.

[@TheFPSPower]

The fact you have any faith in Corsairs software is surprising, iCue sucks massive balls, I installed it just to change the RGB color on my RAM kit and it used 500mb of memory doing NOTHING, it doesn't detect devices properly, sometimes you boot the pc and suddenly there's no devices. So I uninstalled it and just left a static color. Throw iCue in the nearest trash please.

[@zodwraith5745]

I actively refuse to buy any fans with this proprietary connection bullshit. I've had a fan that was only a couple years old that the bearings failed on and ended up tossing the whole set of fans due to their bullshit proprietary connections to the hub cause I couldn't find the single fan. Even sticking to one maker doesn't help because they keep changing their own shit. This is exactly what they want and why I refuse to buy this crap. We should be moving _towards_ unified standards and this Computex I seem to be seeing nothing but MORE segmentation BS.

[@WSS_the_OG]

Ecosystem = RGB markup 50x greater than BOM .... All hail ICue! (Vomits in RGB).

[@deviantbuilds]

Their lcd screen kit just screwed up a previously perfect working condition 420mm aio today. Rgb profile is messed up and shows the wrong color values. Keeps saying pump failure even with stock cover on it. Great job corsair on launching new garbage when you never fixed the old trash.

[@ADR69]

iQue is a link to bloatware immersion

[@jrstepos]

it barely uses any cpu usage and storage brother what are you on about and it’s iCUE. not iQue, clearly you don’t know shit about it lmao

[@nicholash8021]

The fact that the software is over 1GB should tell you something. As a software engineer, it just seems outrageous that it takes over 1GB to control some LEDs, setup profiles for settings. It is at least 100 times bigger than it needs to be. Also, the number of background jobs that iCue runs is literally ridiculous. I ended up uninstalling it and just using the default colors.

[@tsundokujim]

now that MSFT is about to build RGB control into Windows, it will be interesting to see if these proprietary systems will be made compatible with it, or if the manufacturers will try to force users into walled gardens.

[@reaperreaper5098]

I forsee Microsoft's implementation of RGB control being the worst option out there, especially with their track record on Win 11.

[@tsundokujim]

@@reaperreaper5098 I just want to be able to turn the stuff off without needing to run bloatware to do it. My MB has a switch to turn Polychrome (ASRock's RGB control) off in the BIOS, but I still have to run the separate Polychrome app in Windows to keep the RAM and GPU lights turned off across reboots. That's crazy.

[@LFPGaming]

I hate proprietary stuff. It's the reason I don't buy apple's crap. If at all possible, then proprietary products shouldn't be supported

[@tacticalcenter8658]

Corsair is garbage and i would avoid like the plauge.

[@ROBERT-ml7ml]

And that's the last we will see gamers nexus in a Corsair booth. PERMA BAN! 😂

[@cromefire_]

And ideally you can just open the software once, program the controller once, save it and just leave it closed and it works regardless of OS or system state.

[@thatoneannoyingtornadosire8755]

This. Corsair's complete hatred or laziness to get iCUE on linux is baffling. Is it really that much of an inconvenience for the 5 cavemen working on that buggy software to find people to create a version that works for linux?

[@Krackorn]

Corsair has won my money again. There just great fans. I’m currently using QL120s x9.

[@StephenGillie]

Manufacturers are about to have their lunch eaten by 3d printed case fans. Why buy what you can make? And this opens up new designs, including toroidal fans.

[@CalcProgrammer1]

I see someone watches the Fan Showdown. Now if we could just print motors and LEDs.

[@liarus]

All these good ideas like the mobo connectors on the back (msi, asus, gigabyte), the psu connectors on the side(corsair), the RGB + power daisychain (lian li, corsair, hyte), the GPU powered at the side of the PCIe slot (Asus) needs to be spread between all manufacturers but in an organized way, there is a need for something in the lines of the "The PC Standards foundation" or something, where all manufacturers collaborate to make things like these become standard, AND organized, it's not with all this proprietary stuff that we're gonna go anywhere.

[@bottomtext5872]

What the hell is with every company creating proprietary fan connectors.

[@Hyde-Jahf]

Standardize connectors or I keep using individual cabling. Simple as that. I love the idea but same reason I didn't go for the other solutions on my last build. Once there is a standard and I can add other brand fans as needed and I'll be into this.

[@TheSuperSpecialOne]

ICUE is complete trash! And it leaves trash files behind on the PC when you update ICUE. What's the point of spending all that money on RGB hardware that you can't control because of a trash software called ICUE. I can't think of any worse software than ICUE...maybe ASUS' Armoury Crate coming in close 2nd. 🤦‍♂

[@billcipher534]

I do think corsair routing the aio power through the sleeving of the tubes was a very neat idea.

[@DaRaginCajun81]

Is Asus giving Steve the cold shoulder at computex? Actually I haven't seen any asus products from all the youtubers at computex.😮

[@ShhTime]

asus lend a laptop to ltt so they could make a supermicro video, at least I know they are there but what you said is true, haven't seen their stuff being covered

[@DaRaginCajun81]

@Eric Dominguez Linus, aka "defender of the consumer," must have gotten neutered. He seemed very quiet on the whole asus thing.

[@OhItsThat]

I have two PCs and each have hundreds of dollars in Corsair QL fans stuffed in them. x10 120s in one and x6 140s in the other. I keep having that issue where some of the LEDs go bad and turn purple. 4 fans so far. It was a inconvenience when they were in warranty and I had to deal with getting a replacement. It really sucks having to buy replacements now that the warranty has expired. Between that and the bad looking hot spots I’ll probably never buy Corsair fans ever again.

[@Wooskii1]

Using iQue is something I will always avoid like the plauge! I bought a "10 programmable button" Corsair mouse (macros too apparently) and only the standard 3 buttons out of the box, so I had to download iQue, to use a mouse, which hijacked ALL of my fans and RGB. My RGB froze and my fans (including the 3 on my brand new 3080) got stuck to ~50% speed. A mouse shouldn't REQUIRE a multiple GB download, or mess with any other hardware (especially fans). Totally unacceptable. Do they really expect me to ditch my whole fan and RGB setup just to use their crappy mouse? Not gonna happen, I don't trust fan control programs to begin with, so I run them through the BIOS.

[@David-yx3bd]

Eh, I wouldn't worry too much. If any of these really catch on? It'll become the standard moving forward, in the mean time? I don't think it'll effect the DIY base at all. For a couple of reasons: 1) Inevitably adapters will come out to make all of this proprietary stuff work with everything else. Proprietary designs really only stay proprietary for a few months. 2) The DIY scene has to deal with a lot bigger hurdles than wiring their fans and RGB. It's an annoyance at most, not a real problem that needs to be solved. They're solving it because it is a convenience, and the upside of convenience? You can charge extra for it. It's the convenience store model. 3) The vast majority of the "blingy" RGB builds you see on instagram and twitter, aren't DIY builds. They are prebuilts, sometimes masquerading as a custom build, but yeah they aren't DIY. 4) For actual DIY? It's like water cooling, it's a subset, and usually in DIY subsets, money and "standards" becomes less of a factor because it's the cool factor. You water cool because it looks cool not because of massive heatloads that really only exist in synthetic tests to begin with.

[@Erelyes]

The payoff-vs-cost for RGB really isn't there. It's supposed to be a 'nice to have' bonus feature, not something that dictates your entire purchasing approach, doubles the cost of your components, and requires onerous bloatware to operate. I far prefer Noctua's approach to their fans rather than Corsair's. Maybe Noctua should get into the PSU market....

[@Questchaun]

ITS NOT A DAISY CHAIN.

[@vollhorst140]

I kind of disagree, 20% from 1$ production cost for the rotor/blades isn’t that much. Especially if your are noctua or Corsair how charge north of 25 bucks for a fan. It’s all about margins, nothing more.

[@DavidPruitt]

The hardware is cool and all, but like Steve said iCue software is trash. A 1GB download is insane, then it crashes, randomly stops working, and forgets its settings sometimes. If you don't install iCue basic functionality is hobbled so you're screwed either way.

[@user-xl5kd6il6c]

can't fans just be fans? Where are the cheap fans for PCs that just do their job properly? I bought RAM multiple times in the last 5 years, and all of them had to come with RGB because there was no good option without it. I feel like this is being pushed to people for no reason. There should be standard options that are good and cheap. Seems to be that the market is trying to put RGB everywhere to try to justify increasing prices

[@caffarellaailyze7609]

Dat RGB flashbang grade "ecosystem" is what drove me to just standard fan for casing, No RGB = Less cable, no need pricy controller too, basic one work fine.

[@TheStowAway594]

I will never again mess with any of the RGB stuff. God what an absolute nightmare, every company does it differently, nothing works together, and like Steve said the software is absolutely garbage. Such a waste of time and money.

[@garethevans9789]

I don't want an eco system just an open standerd for compined PWM/ARGB cables. With Open software to access LEDs & LCDs.

[@kelownatechkid]

Absolutely not... Corsair has *patents* currently pending for this - no one should be buying into any of these systems. Proprietary non-standards are corrosive to the ecosystem.

[@johnysempoi]

The way the fans are evolving, it'll cost as much as a gpu in the future 😂

[@WayStedYou]

They do. A 3 pack with controller is 130 bucks

[@johnysempoi]

@@WayStedYou damn! The whenit comes to whre im located it'll be 180$ onwards! I wonder about the lian li fans with the lcd. How much it'll cost! 🥴

9:14 All proprietary connectors that doesn't look good. The Fan hub should be able to terminate on a 4 Pin hub or at least work the fan control should work outside of IQUE. The PCI-E power connector shouldn't need an adapter.

[@thechemtrailkid]

nothing can be good enough to excuse the use of icue for a fucking fan

[@3D-PC]

6pin gpu power for powering a device hub is just stupid. There needs to be a standardize standard between all and not locking you too one only. This new system will be worse than what they have now. No 3rd party cables/convertors can be used anymore.

[@mjc0961]

Hearing or seeing the word "ecosystem" always makes me significantly less interested in any product. I didn't need more reasons to never use Corsair fans, their screwy mess of RGB cables, control boxes, and absolutely garbage software was already enough. But Corsair's giving me more reasons to avoid their fans anyway. Thanks Corsair, I guess?

[@FreelancerND]

Exactly. Proprietary connectors, proprietary software. All Apple-like. I, as a consumer, want STANDARD stuff. Don't we have enough shit to enfure while picking dozens of options from CPU+MB+RAM+GPU+PC case to git it all? Now we also need to pick a FAN ecosystem??

[@speedydanny4624]

one thing i really...really dont like it about those RGB fans... and that is...they are literaly reducing the fan size just to add rgb in there (around the fan blades) i do not aprove that. i noticed that when i got some fans that were just like those corsairs, so they are reducing airflow just to add led's around it?

[@xaytana]

An open ecosystem for all of these components would be fairly simple, just use i2c. 128 devices on a common 4-wire connection. Not to mention software could be made fairly simply and be universal. Lian Li's approach of having each component being intelligently retained in software would be possible via device ID. This would also cover things like LCDs, it could even expand beyond just fans, LEDs, and LCDs. But the best part is that it could also be easily implemented at the motherboard as well, given it's just a 4pin header. Though part of me wants a 5wire solution, add a PWM line so that the fans will natively work without i2c functionality; but if this is implemented at the motherboard, this then becomes redundant. i2c isn't even the only bus to do this with, there's also UART, etc., i2c is just what I work with most often. The hybrid cooler is interesting, but I have concerns about the one-size-fits-all solution. Personally, I think a telescoping solution could be viable, have a linear slider with gasketed parts, that way a small package can expand to whatever a card requires. A secondary option could be vent louvers so that the air can be better guided, though this is also limited within a top-down design, if a card ever happens to have an atypically wide VRM setup. Another competent option would be to branch the tubing and have a loop just to cool the VRMs, throw a pump in where that fan is, that way fluid is forced through both this secondary channel and the microfins, to avoid path of least resistance issues, and just have a semi-modular fully watercooled setup; the reason for a branched setup would be the fact that VRM cooling would require a much smaller tube diameter, but while being integrated into the main cooler itself you don't need to source a special wye reducer yourself, and the semi-modularity of this provides a cheaper solution for a wider range of cards.

[@fzth-t7s]

That this RGB stuff sells is one of the greatest mysteries.

[@greebj]

Car ppl wonder the same thing about underbody neon Just be glad these people are willing to clearly identify themselves when it comes to the second hand market so you know who to run away from

[@jonathanellis6097]

So much engineering and R & D has gone into lights on PC's its almost funny. I will stick with fans with simple pwm conectors thank you.

[@mindnova7850]

iCUE is what you get when a company hires monkeys to code for an important software.

[@nicholash8021]

😆

[@jeremytine]

you are trying to play it off like the fan part of this design is fine, but it is still much inferior to LCP fans, especially in the noise normalized airflow metric. It isn't "fine".

[@RafitoOoO]

The fans are awesome, but proprietary stuff usually suck

[@aquilarossa5191]

How is it proprietary? The definition of that in computers would be Apple and how they only let you use certain hardware and peripherals. Corsair is just a brand and do not have propriety computer systems like Apple do (you can put just about any PC compatible hardware in a Corsair case for example). Phanteks, Noctua or Deepcool are brands. Are they propriety too? Their iCue is trying to be a unified system for lighting and stuff, but it does let you use other brands, unlike Apple and their propriety attitude to hardware. I have iCue and it does support using other brands. It's a bit janky though. I end up having to use several programs to control my RGB stuff. A pain in the butt really. Ciao.

[@moldyshishkabob]

​@@aquilarossa5191 Can you stick a set of Lian Li Unifans into this setup? They don't use the same fan hub connector as this new one.

[@RafitoOoO]

@@aquilarossa5191 lmao a Corsair white knight

[@extreme123dz]

@@RafitoOoO instead of Corsair white knight intead you can call him a trash garbage price os crap sheep.

[@ronniekregar3482]

​@@moldyshishkaboblol, why the hell would you even wanna do that?

[@KellicTiger]

I'm just sitting here thinking that Asus has a mobile booth outside in a semi that takes off the minute they see Steve and drives around the block a few times until he's gone. That's why we haven't seen him walk through Asus's stuff.

[@starwolf7365]

I have corsair in my machine that I built about 6 months ago... Never going back to corsair. iCUE is.... terrible.

[@fandomkiller]

i'l never buy another corsair product and everyone i know that is into pc's is in the same boat. "what should i get?" -not corsair

[@_mattlee]

Did you see the size of that proprietary connector. Thing is fucking huge. That’s gonna cause issues. Not to mention you have to use iCue

[@iHaveTheDocuments]

I absolutely hate ICUE software. It's borderline useless. Can't believe they use this trash still.

[@HCDVelcra]

Again too much wiring crap, the hytes are better plus not so fucking expensive like Corsair

[@RedLamentations]

This is actually the reason I moved away from rgb as a whole

[@ravenfeeder1892]

I still don't know what the point of RGB is. If I'm in front of the PC I'm looking at the screen not at some glowy thing next to it. If I'm not on the PC then I certainly don't want anything distracting me from whatever I am looking at.

[@Lishtenbird]

Then it's not for you, move on and enjoy the things _you_ like.

[@ravenfeeder1892]

@@Lishtenbird That's fair.

[@baririzqullah5782]

Just recently I read a reddit thread complaining about corsair peripherals and also their rgb ecosystem lol what a coincidence

[@Voidrunner01]

I swore off Corsair products entirely after a simple iCue update nuked my system. Killed my VGA and soundcard drivers, and no amount of reinstallation, driver cleaning, or what have you, would fix it. The fix was to roll back Windows to a restore point prior to installing the update. Well, or a complete reinstall. That was it for me. Got rid of keyboard, mouse, and AIO. Cleared up like 2 gigs of hard drive space by removing iCue entirely. Which is another ridiculous thing about their software. Kinda chaps my ass that their hardware always seems pretty solid, but the software is complete trash that might cripple your PC anytime it updates.

[@nicholash8021]

OMG 2GB for software that controls a bunch of LEDs. And how many background services is it running? Last time I checked it was like 10, so I got rid of it. It shouldn't be more than 1 or 2MB in size.

[@KRYSS27]

yea corsair keeps bringing more problems than solutions, thats why i passed from them to lian li

[@HABALQBALQ]

Yes, basically rgb ruining performance and we're paying more....