Even if you’re not a fan of super-bright rainbow lighting effects,
illuminating your PC with coloured lighting can add flair while still looking
tasteful. If you’re going for a specific colour scheme, RGB lighting can
complement it, and it’s usually easy to combine components into groups
so the lighting is easy to manage, even if you’re dealing with lighting tech
from multiple manufacturers.
Most waterblocks come with RGB lighting, which is often powered
using 3-pin digital RGB headers. As such, you’ll need to use your
motherboard’s software or another application that can tie your
motherboard’s control to its own software, such as Corsair’s iCUE.
Manufacturers such as Phanteks offer a huge range of RGB
components, and while they use proprietary connectors to hook up to
each other and Phanteks’ own controllers, the company does ship them
with 3-pin and 4-pin adaptors, so you can connect them to other RGB
ecosystems. With our PC this month, the fans, waterblocks and other
components were so vivid that there wasn’t a need to add dedicated
lighting strips, so you may not need them either.
Placement of the lighting is important, as you need to decide if
you want the LEDs to be visible or if you just want to illuminate your
hardware. If they’re going to be visible, check if you’ll be able to see
them when you’re actually using your PC. They might look great for a
few hours, but they can be annoying if they’re in your face all the time.
The rear of the case is a great location for illuminating your hardware
with LED strips, although rear fan mounts can interfere with them. If
the interior of your case is white, this colour will respond better to the
lighting as it’s more reflective, while black interiors tend to put more
focus on how the lighting illuminates your hardware.
Remember that RGB lighting will add considerably more cables
to your case, so you’ll need to carefully consider whether the extra
spaghetti is worth it, especially if you’re using a small case with little
cable-tidying space.RGB LIGHTING
RGB fans really help to liven up an otherwise dull-looking radiatorThe rear of the case is a great location for illuminating your hardware with LED stripsThe lighting on our fans, waterblocks and other components
were so vivid that we didn’t need to add dedicated lighting strips