[SOLVED] A lot of rgb

[Latchland]

G'day all!

I am getting a new case to transfer my build into (enthoo pro 2). I'm wanting to deck it out with a dumb amount of rgb (son likes the colours). All up including add on rgb for ram, rgb fans and rgb cables / rgb connectors there will be something stupid like 20 rgb 5v 3 pin connections needed. What is the best way to make this work. The fans come with controller but they only do 5 connections. My motherboard is an Aorus Z390 ultra (2 5v argb headers). Is it possible to do some sort of 1-6 splitting of rgb connectors to accommodate all the lights? Any help is appreciated.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Any help is appreciated.

i would imagine you want to sync all of the devices with the same colors/patterns/etc.

your best option would be to find a powered aRGB hub with a few more connections than needed, incase you're adding additional devices later.
this will allow you to connect all devices to it, then connect it to a single aRGB motherboard header and you would be able to control all device's LEDs simultaneously through the motherboard control software.

 

[Latchland]

i would imagine you want to sync all of the devices with the same colors/patterns/etc.

your best option would be to find a powered aRGB hub with a few more connections than needed, incase you're adding additional devices later.
this will allow you to connect all devices to it, then connect it to a single aRGB motherboard header and you would be able to control all device's LEDs simultaneously through the motherboard control software.

Yes syncing them to rgb fusion would be good but not essential. Are there any such controllers that can handle a large amount of rgb devices? Everything I find is a maximum of 10 and that's usually using proprietary connections. I know running 2 would give me 20 rgb connections but is there anything that will allow me to add more? Or can I use splitter in some way to run multiple rgb of one header in the controller?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

if they are SATA or molex powered hubs you should be able to use a splitter for two of them to a single motherboard header.

depending on the hub though you may need to actually verify how much power they might still draw from the motherboard.
but you have 2 aRGB headers on the board so you wouldn't need a splitter, just plug them both into separate headers.

 

[Latchland]

if they are SATA or molex powered hubs you should be able to use a splitter for two of them to a single motherboard header.

depending on the hub though you may need to actually verify how much power they might still draw from the motherboard.
but you have 2 aRGB headers on the board so you wouldn't need a splitter, just plug them both into separate headers.

They use sata power. Using 2 controllers, one on each header, will only yield me 10 devices. But I need almost double that.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Everything I find is a maximum of 10...
running 2 would give me 20 rgb connections

Using 2 controllers, one on each header, will only yield me 10 devices

well these two statements are completely contradicting each other, so which is it?

 

[Latchland]

well these two statements are completely contradicting each other, so which is it?

Ah sorry. My original question said that the controllers I have only do 5. Was referring to that. My bad. But yes getting 2x 10 port controllers would give me 20. What if I need more than 20 though? Sorry, I'm not being very clear.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

What if I need more than 20 though?

what 20 devices could you possibly have that need separate headers to run?
most LED cables and those types of items you've mentioned run with their own colors or patterns with no option for custom control.

if you have 8 or 10 fans, a couple light strips, the case itself, and few other devices that's still a bit under 20.

a better option instead of getting RAM add-ons would be to get RGB RAM modules that will be recognized by the motherboard on their own.

you can also get a case that has it's own LED hub so 5-6 devices run to that, it runs to one of your new 10 header hubs,
then you've cut another 5-6 devices out of the mix.

or you could tell your son, "forget it, we're limited here so go stare at some lights somewhere else".

 

[Latchland]

I dont really want to tell my 5 year old to "go stare at lights somewhere else"...

I want to (if possible) run:
15x fans, 4x rgb heatsinks (one rgb connector each), 1x ek waterblock rgb, 2x rgb cable combs, 1x 24pin right angle connector. So yeah 23 in total.

I understand that I can get rgb ram and other variants of the hardware itself but I'm not replacing 32gb of 4400mhz memory just to get rgb. The $35 (aud) add on for some rgb on my ram is much more acceptable to me. Replacing perfectly functioning gear with something else is what I'm trying to avoid by getting all the little rgb odd bits n pieces.

To me, it doesn't matter if it's useless or gains me nothing but fancy lights but it's what I'm trying to achieve.

 

[Paperdoc]

To start, understand the difference between a HUB and a SPLITTER, and here we are talking only about such devices for LIGHTING. More specifically, for lighting of the ARGB type - 3-pin, 5 VDC system. A SPLITTER merely connects all the load devices in parallel to the source mobo header, so ALL power for the loads comes solely from the header. Hence the total load you can connect to that one header is limited by the ability of the header to supply power. CONTROL line signals (in an ARGB system) also are shared out to the loads, but they draw very little power from the header. A HUB, on the other hand, has an extra connecting cable from it to a SATA power output from the PSU, and supplies all power to its connected devices from that source, drawing NO power from the header. Thus the connected loads power limit for one Hub depends on the power available from a SATA power source, which is much bigger than the limit of a mobo header. The Hub still does simply pass the header's CONTROL line signal to all the load devices.

So you can use a HUB to connect many load devices to a single header without drawing power from the limited header. And if you connect TWO such Hubs to a single header, each of those Hubs has its own power supply connection to the PSU and still draws NO power from the header. How to do that? Well, use a simpler SPLITTER from the mobo ARGB header, and plug two HUBS into that Splitter output. Since the Hubs are NOT drawing power from the header, the use of a Splitter for this makes no difference in header load. Thus, in your situation, OP, you could use one Splitter and two 10-output Hubs on one header, then a third Hub on the second header. If you get 10-ouput Hubs like this

https://www.newegg.com/black-en-labs-1ft-rgb-splitter/p/1W7-005X-00074?Description=argb hub&cm_re=argb_hub--9SIACJFAG83265--Product

that would give you 30 ARGB output ports in total.

Here is a 2-pack of 2-output ARGB Splitters

https://www.newegg.com/p/1W7-005X-00061?Description=ARGB Splitter&cm_re=ARGB_Splitter--9SIACJF8XN9888--Product

NOTE that all the connectors on the ends are female, but the kit comes with four gender-changer adapters so you can convert two output arms of each Splitter to males.

You should be able to find similar Hubs and Splitters at many on-line outlets where you live.

 

[Latchland]

To start, understand the difference between a HUB and a SPLITTER, and here we are talking only about such devices for LIGHTING. More specifically, for lighting of the ARGB type - 3-pin, 5 VDC system. A SPLITTER merely connects all the load devices in parallel to the source mobo header, so ALL power for the loads comes solely from the header. Hence the total load you can connect to that one header is limited by the ability of the header to supply power. CONTROL line signals (in an ARGB system) also are shared out to the loads, but they draw very little power from the header. A HUB, on the other hand, has an extra connecting cable from it to a SATA power output from the PSU, and supplies all power to its connected devices from that source, drawing NO power from the header. Thus the connected loads power limit for one Hub depends on the power available from a SATA power source, which is much bigger than the limit of a mobo header. The Hub still does simply pass the header's CONTROL line signal to all the load devices.

So you can use a HUB to connect many load devices to a single header without drawing power from the limited header. And if you connect TWO such Hubs to a single header, each of those Hubs has its own power supply connection to the PSU and still draws NO power from the header. How to do that? Well, use a simpler SPLITTER from the mobo ARGB header, and plug two HUBS into that Splitter output. Since the Hubs are NOT drawing power from the header, the use of a Splitter for this makes no difference in header load. Thus, in your situation, OP, you could use one Splitter and two 10-output Hubs on one header, then a third Hub on the second header. If you get 10-ouput Hubs like this

https://www.newegg.com/black-en-labs-1ft-rgb-splitter/p/1W7-005X-00074?Description=argb hub&cm_re=argb_hub--9SIACJFAG83265--Product

that would give you 30 ARGB output ports in total.

Here is a 2-pack of 2-output ARGB Splitters

https://www.newegg.com/p/1W7-005X-00061?Description=ARGB Splitter&cm_re=ARGB_Splitter--9SIACJF8XN9888--Product

NOTE that all the connectors on the ends are female, but the kit comes with four gender-changer adapters so you can convert two output arms of each Splitter to males.

You should be able to find similar Hubs and Splitters at many on-line outlets where you live.

Damn. That's a lot of info. You know your stuff. Pretty sure I can't ask for anything else. Thanks man!

 

[Paperdoc]

You're welcome. Good luck, and enjoy your build with your son.

 

[Latchland]

You're welcome. Good luck, and enjoy your build with your son.

Well. Things got worse. I won't go into details but I am replacing Thermaltake fans that somehow had their RGB leds fried when installing the TT sync contoller. The el cheapo fans i got from amazon (that came with a controller) arrived and I plugged them al in. Pop, fizzle they all died and are now stuck on random colours. FML.

 

[Paperdoc]

No details there, but this all sounds a lot like what happens when you plug ARGB lights (3-pin connector with 5 VDC power) into a source from a plain RGB system (4 pins with 12 VDC power). But that's hard to do, AND OP starts out quite aware that it is ARGB systems here. So ai am puzzled how all the lights got destroyed.

 

[Latchland]

No details there, but this all sounds a lot like what happens when you plug ARGB lights (3-pin connector with 5 VDC power) into a source from a plain RGB system (4 pins with 12 VDC power). But that's hard to do, AND OP starts out quite aware that it is ARGB systems here. So ai am puzzled how all the lights got destroyed.

There is only one way these things can plug in so yeah I didn't manage to plug it into the 4 pin.