Question ARGB Lighting Header?

[common47]

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone could offer some assistance. Bought some new fans for my rad and case, connecting into Gigabyte X370 Gaming 5.

Didn't even think to check the connections on my motherboard for the whole argb side of things. I had read that there are connectors (?)
The board has a LED_C2 connection, but says it is 12v while the argb on the fans is 5v.

Based on this and the links, can anyone point me in the direction of the connector I need and spot on my mobo for it.

Thanks in advance. Appreciated.

https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/cooling/fans/101903-acfan00276a
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/cooling/fans/100837-acfan00258a

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AX370-Gaming-5-rev-10#kf

 

[Paperdoc]

There are two basic types of fans with lights in their frames. The simple design is plain RGB and it uses a FOUR-pin connector supplying 12 VDC power and three control lines. That is the type on your mobo. It also has a variation on that design that adds one pin for a White control line, for a few lighting system wired that way.

The more complex system is Addressable RGB or ADDR RGB or ARGB. It uses a THREE-pin connector supplying 5 VDC power and one digital control line that carries addressed digital data packets as instructions. That is what your fans have in them. These two systems are very different and cannot be mixed in one lighting circuit. So you can NOT plug any of the LIGHTING cables of those fans into any header on your mobo.

FYI, lighted fans like this are really two devices in one unit. Those fans each have TWO cables from them. On the end of each cable are TWO connectors. This is so you can make daisy-chain connections of one fan to another, and connect the entire string to a single mobo header if you wish. This is Arctic's "PST - PWM Sharing Technology" - design. On the first fan, the female connector plugs into the relevant mobo male header. Then the female from the second fan plugs into the male from the first. etc. ONE cable with a FOUR-pin connector is for the fan motor only. The other cable with a THREE-pin connector (looks like it had 4 but one is missing) is for the lights only.

The best solution for you is to buy and install a third-party ARGB Controller. This is a separate box that does for you what a mobo ARGB header would do if you had one. There are various designs, but the most convenient is a type like this one from RAZER

Razer PC Accessories - Laptops, Desktops, and more | Razer Canada

An assortment of Razer PC accessories - laptop stand, laptop sleeves, cables & chargers, capture card, and more.

www.razer.com

Amazon.com

It has two cables to plug in: one connects to a SATA power output connector from your PSU for power, and the other connects to a mobo USB 2 header so it can communicate with the mobo. Then you download a free software utility called RAZER Synapse 3 that you run from your keyboard and screen to set all the lighting parameters you want using that USB 2 communication link to the Controller box. The box has six recessed ports along its sides for plugging in standard 3-pin ARGB lighting connectors. The software allows you to treat each of those separately or have two or more do the same thing for "synchronized" displays. You can connect several lighting strings (or lighted fan frames) to each port, so the "dsiay-chain" system for your fan lights makes that easy.

 

[common47]

There are two basic types of fans with lights in their frames. The simple design is plain RGB and it uses a FOUR-pin connector supplying 12 VDC power and three control lines. That is the type on your mobo. It also has a variation on that design that adds one pin for a White control line, for a few lighting system wired that way.

The more complex system is Addressable RGB or ADDR RGB or ARGB. It uses a THREE-pin connector supplying 5 VDC power and one digital control line that carries addressed digital data packets as instructions. That is what your fans have in them. These two systems are very different and cannot be mixed in one lighting circuit. So you can NOT plug any of the LIGHTING cables of those fans into any header on your mobo.

FYI, lighted fans like this are really two devices in one unit. Those fans each have TWO cables from them. On the end of each cable are TWO connectors. This is so you can make daisy-chain connections of one fan to another, and connect the entire string to a single mobo header if you wish. This is Arctic's "PST - PWM Sharing Technology" - design. On the first fan, the female connector plugs into the relevant mobo male header. Then the female from the second fan plugs into the male from the first. etc. ONE cable with a FOUR-pin connector is for the fan motor only. The other cable with a THREE-pin connector (looks like it had 4 but one is missing) is for the lights only.

The best solution for you is to buy and install a third-party ARGB Controller. This is a separate box that does for you what a mobo ARGB header would do if you had one. There are various designs, but the most convenient is a type like this one from RAZER

Razer PC Accessories - Laptops, Desktops, and more | Razer Canada

An assortment of Razer PC accessories - laptop stand, laptop sleeves, cables & chargers, capture card, and more.

www.razer.com

Amazon.com

It has two cables to plug in: one connects to a SATA power output connector from your PSU for power, and the other connects to a mobo USB 2 header so it can communicate with the mobo. Then you download a free software utility called RAZER Synapse 3 that you run from your keyboard and screen to set all the lighting parameters you want using that USB 2 communication link to the Controller box. The box has six recessed ports along its sides for plugging in standard 3-pin ARGB lighting connectors. The software allows you to treat each of those separately or have two or more do the same thing for "synchronized" displays. You can connect several lighting strings (or lighted fan frames) to each port, so the "dsiay-chain" system for your fan lights makes that easy.

Hey mate,

Thanks for the reply, and taking the time to explain.

How about something like this:

Deepcool RGB Convertor 600mm 5V ADD-RGB to 12V RGB Transfer Hub - The Computer Guy Charmhaven

Deepcool RGB CONVERTOR 600mm 5V ADD-RGB to 12V RGB Transfer Hub, 5V ADD-RGB equipment can be compatible with 12V only RGB motherboards

tcgonline.com.au

I was thinking this might do the same, though it would connect sata for power and then to my 4 pin rgb on my mobo? Then I can control the lights from icue or RGB Fusion?

 

[CountMike]

Hey mate,

Thanks for the reply, and taking the time to explain.

How about something like this:

Deepcool RGB Convertor 600mm 5V ADD-RGB to 12V RGB Transfer Hub - The Computer Guy Charmhaven

Deepcool RGB CONVERTOR 600mm 5V ADD-RGB to 12V RGB Transfer Hub, 5V ADD-RGB equipment can be compatible with 12V only RGB motherboards

tcgonline.com.au

I was thinking this might do the same, though it would connect sata for power and then to my 4 pin rgb on my mobo? Then I can control the lights from icue or RGB Fusion?

Looks like it should work. it's an active ARGB controller.

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, that Deepcool Converter would do the job for you. It accepts the signals from a standard plain RGB mobo header and translates them into signals for a standard ARGB lighting unit, including providing the proper power supply voltage. It has a few limits that you should understand.

You have on your mobo a plain RGB header. In those lighting units there are LED's all along the lighting strip (or around the circle of a fan frame) of three colours: Red, Green, Blue. All the Red ones are connected to one control line, all the Greens on another, etc. The controller chip can vary the brightness of each colour's control line over a large range, so mixing those three colours in varying brightness can create millions of colours. At any one moment, the entire string is the same colour, but that colour can be changed quickly.

The ARGB lights in your fan frames work differently. The same three colours of LED's are used, but they all are arranged in Nodes. Each Node contains one LED of each colour, plus its own controller chip. All the node chips in the unit listen to the single Control Line that carries instruction packets with digital addresses. Each Node control chip accepts instructions only for its address and controls only its three LED's. Thus at any one moment every Node can actually be a different colour from all the others in that string, and again that can be changed quickly. So one string can have many colours along it like a rainbow, and it is even possible to move that rainbow along the string. These more complex displays cannot be done by a plain RGB system, so the photos and videos of ARGB lights always show you that feature.

The Converter you linked to simply makes an ARGB light string do whatever a plain RGB string could do, and it works well. But it cannot make the ARGB lights do the complex displays that are unique to ARGB full systems because the plain RGB mobo header cannot generate instructions for those. When you use it, you use the software utility called Gigabyte RGB Fusion that comes with your mobo for keyboard / screen control of the lighting display.

So, if having your lights to anything a plain RGB system does is enough for you, then this Converter will work well. Of you really want to have all of the more complex real ARGB displays, OR if you want to sub-divide your lighting units into different groups that can do different patterns simultaneously, then you need that more expensive Controller with several separate output channels.

 

[common47]

Yes, that Deepcool Converter would do the job for you. It accepts the signals from a standard plain RGB mobo header and translates them into signals for a standard ARGB lighting unit, including providing the proper power supply voltage. It has a few limits that you should understand.

You have on your mobo a plain RGB header. In those lighting units there are LED's all along the lighting strip (or around the circle of a fan frame) of three colours: Red, Green, Blue. All the Red ones are connected to one control line, all the Greens on another, etc. The controller chip can vary the brightness of each colour's control line over a large range, so mixing those three colours in varying brightness can create millions of colours. At any one moment, the entire string is the same colour, but that colour can be changed quickly.

The ARGB lights in your fan frames work differently. The same three colours of LED's are used, but they all are arranged in Nodes. Each Node contains one LED of each colour, plus its own controller chip. All the node chips in the unit listen to the single Control Line that carries instruction packets with digital addresses. Each Node control chip accepts instructions only for its address and controls only its three LED's. Thus at any one moment every Node can actually be a different colour from all the others in that string, and again that can be changed quickly. So one string can have many colours along it like a rainbow, and it is even possible to move that rainbow along the string. These more complex displays cannot be done by a plain RGB system, so the photos and videos of ARGB lights always show you that feature.

The Converter you linked to simply makes an ARGB light string do whatever a plain RGB string could do, and it works well. But it cannot make the ARGB lights do the complex displays that are unique to ARGB full systems because the plain RGB mobo header cannot generate instructions for those. When you use it, you use the software utility called Gigabyte RGB Fusion that comes with your mobo for keyboard / screen control of the lighting display.

So, if having your lights to anything a plain RGB system does is enough for you, then this Converter will work well. Of you really want to have all of the more complex real ARGB displays, OR if you want to sub-divide your lighting units into different groups that can do different patterns simultaneously, then you need that more expensive Controller with several separate output channels.

Thank you for the extensive response and explanation. As my mobo only has the older 4-pin RGB header, I will be running that into the converter, sata to the PSU and then connect the 3-pin from the fans into the converter. Believe that is the correct order of things.

I am not fussed about all the colour control. When I get a new board, might play around with it. Ultimately, I just wanted to put some better fans in my PC and replace the standard Corsair ones. The lights are just a bonus to play with really. So a single colour is fine. Just wanting to use the fans as they should - even with the limitations, to have them operating and some colour.

Thanks again.

 

[Paperdoc]

Good plan. Use what you have for now. IF you change mobos, ensure you get one with one or two ARGB headers so you can get all the ARGB displays then without the Converter.