Using a RGB header splitter with different RGB peripherals brands for software control ?

[insorior]

Hi Guys !

This is my first topic at this forum so my apologies if I'm not asking the right way

I'm currently building my 1st RGB PC. Without knowing how it was going to work, i owned several rgb components :
Corsair HD120 fans with controller (i think i wont be able to connect them to the mobo)
An aigo CPU water cooling Aura sync ready
A led strip Aura ready
My case is an pantheks p350x Aura ready

My motherboard is a Gigabyte aorus z390 pro, which has two rgb headers.

Good news : They'll work with both 12 & 5V, and all my peripherals that can be connected to the mobo are aura ready.

Bad news : I have 3 peripherals to connect to only 2 rgb headers on the mobo.


Question 1 : The Z390 Master features two RGB led strips headers and two digital led strips headers. What's the difference between those ? Which one should I use ?
This is shown on pages 30 & 31 in this manual : http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_z390-audio.pdf

Question 2 : I actually have 3 devices to connect to 2 headers. I spotted a rgb header splitter from Cooler Master. Is that a good solution (assuming that all the peripherals on the same headers are all 5v or 12v). Is there any risk ?



Again, I'm not new to computer science but totally new to rgb customisation so any help will be welcome !


Thank you very much

 

[Aeacus]

Q&A:

1) Difference between standard RGB header and digital RGB header is the pins they have. Standard RGB header has 4x pins while digital RGB header has 3 pins. To know which ones to use, look at your peripherals.
E.g your PC case has digital RGB, thus it should be connected to the digital RGB header (D_LED1/D_LED2).

2) With general hits to some of your RGB peripherals, i can't say if you need to connect all 3x to the same analog/digital header or not. Provide specs of your AIO and LED strips if you want answer to that question (e.g official specs page).

Bad news: To actually control your Aura Sync Ready RGB peripherals, you'll need Asus MoBo since Aura Sync is Asus product. What you have is Gigabyte MoBo and their RGB software is RGB Fusion, which for one, isn't compatible with your PC case. Also, there's a big difference between Aura and Aorus, despite they sounding similar. First is Asus RGB solution while latter is Gigabyte MoBo series.

Btw, what you linked above is actually your MoBo audio setup guide and not user's manual. For MoBo manual, this link is correct,
link: http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_z390-aorus-pro_wifi_1001_e.pdf
And RGB headers are listed on pages 18 and 19, not on pages 30 and 31.

 

[insorior]

Q&A:

1) Difference between standard RGB header and digital RGB header is the pins they have. Standard RGB header has 4x pins while digital RGB header has 3 pins. To know which ones to use, look at your peripherals.
E.g your PC case has digital RGB, thus it should be connected to the digital RGB header (D_LED1/D_LED2).

2) With general hits to some of your RGB peripherals, i can't say if you need to connect all 3x to the same analog/digital header or not. Provide specs of your AIO and LED strips if you want answer to that question (e.g official specs page).

Bad news: To actually control your Aura Sync Ready RGB peripherals, you'll need Asus MoBo since Aura Sync is Asus product. What you have is Gigabyte MoBo and their RGB software is RGB Fusion, which for one, isn't compatible with your PC case. Also, there's a big difference between Aura and Aorus, despite they sounding similar. First is Asus RGB solution while latter is Gigabyte MoBo series.

Btw, what you linked above is actually your MoBo audio setup guide and not user's manual. For MoBo manual, this link is correct,
link: http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_z390-aorus-pro_wifi_1001_e.pdf
And RGB headers are listed on pages 18 and 19, not on pages 30 and 31.

Hi !

Thanks for replying, which really helped.

Regarding my second question, I was assuming that it was just some sort of software layer issue and that you could actually connect them and manage them using different softwares directly from windows.

Will I still be able to power the lightning using those headers even if unable to control them ?

 

[Aeacus]

Well, you can give it a go and install Asus Aura Sync to your PC but i highly doubt Gigabyte MoBo will allow you to control it's RGB headers, which are built to work with RGB Fusion only.
Also, if 12V RGB and 5V DRGB headers would have universal software to control them (like e.g fan headers have), then there wouldn't be any need for each MoBo manufacturer to develop and release their own RGB software which are:
Asus - Aura
MSI - Mystic Light
Gigabyte - RGB Fusion
AsRock - Polychrome
Biostar - Racing
NZXT - CAM
EVGA - Eleet-X

As far as powering RGB peripherals without using RGB Fusion, here i don't know. Most likely your RGB peripherals, that are compatible with RGB Fusion will follow the default RGB profile built-in to the MoBo. Thing what i'm unsure about is, if you actually need the RGB Fusion software to power the RGB headers or not. Since my 3x MoBos (2x MSI, 1x ECS) doesn't have RGB headers on them, i can't test it out either.

 

[insorior]

Well, you can give it a go and install Asus Aura Sync to your PC but i highly doubt Gigabyte MoBo will allow you to control it's RGB headers, which are built to work with RGB Fusion only.
Also, if 12V RGB and 5V DRGB headers would have universal software to control them (like e.g fan headers have), then there wouldn't be any need for each MoBo manufacturer to develop and release their own RGB software which are:
Asus - Aura
MSI - Mystic Light
Gigabyte - RGB Fusion
AsRock - Polychrome
Biostar - Racing
NZXT - CAM
EVGA - Eleet-X

As far as powering RGB peripherals without using RGB Fusion, here i don't know. Most likely your RGB peripherals, that are compatible with RGB Fusion will follow the default RGB profile built-in to the MoBo. Thing what i'm unsure about is, if you actually need the RGB Fusion software to power the RGB headers or not. Since my 3x MoBos (2x MSI, 1x ECS) doesn't have RGB headers on them, i can't test it out either.

Thank you very much ! I'll give it a try & give feedback hoping that it helps other people in the same situation.

 

[insorior]

Hi Guys ! Time for some feedback !!
I hope that it will be useful to some other people.

My experience about all this is quite mixed.

Regarding the cable : It definitely works with 3 components of the same brand. We tested it with 3 RGB fans from cooler master and it works like a charm. I didn't have a chance to test it using different brands (more about why below) but there's as far as I've read no reason that it doesn't work as long as you don't go over the amperage (depends on your MB) and that they are all 3 either 5 or 12v.

That being said, I'm now giving some feedback about my RGB setup. My actual choice of LED components was :
Some actually non controllable components :
_RAM cooler from G.SKILL (provided with the ram) has 2 fans, 3 led per fan which will remain white (so 2017)
_CPU Cooler Aigo Tracer DT240 : It has a beautiful rainbow lightning but it's not controllable, fans will remain rainbow on the border and the pump will light up only when under use. I wished it was always on but it was $60 so I won't complain.

A MB component that are directly controlled by the MB slots :
_a Gigabyte GPU

Some internal components :
_A LED bar from Jonsbo (thanks AliExpress)
_3 Corsair HD120 fans with their fanhub


So the cable was basically not needed as long as I had only 1 RGB component to connect to the MB (the led bar). My good surprise was that it's advertised as being only compatible with aura sync but it works perfectly fine on my gigabyte motherboard, and will be controlled with RGB Fusion.

My huge deception came from HD120 fans. They actually CAN'T be connected to a motherboard. You can only control them using the provided remote. The turnaround is to BUY another of their hubs, which you can then connect to your computer by usb and control them with corsair software. But not only that this is an extra cost, but it will still not be synchronous with the other components (LED BAR and all MB LEDs (Believe me, Z390 master has a lot of them). I can tell you that asynchronous rainbows or static colors + rainbows are very ugly (you can only tune color and mode, no color intensity from the remote)

This was so frustrating because to me, these are just LEDs, they are controlled very basically and this was just a hardware limitation made by corsair to make more money and have you using their software.
And I had the confirmation when I found a topic at corsair's official forum : "Got HD-120 fans working w/ Gigabyte's RGB Fusion Software!"
Holy crap !! There's actually a lot of topics on their official forums from people who make modifications to their own products. Apple wouldn't let this happen.

So long story short this guy is explaining that he turned corsair's remote cable into a corsair to RGB header cable and guess what : I gave it a try a few hours ago and it works PERFECTLY. Now, my Corsairs hub is linked directly to my Gigabyte MB and RGB Fusion offers tons of modes that are lovely. The whole think looks very cool (except this RAM fan which i think I'll get rid of soon enough).


So, actually no need for the multiplexer cable but still, there's lots of things to try and lots of good surprises to have.
Thanks to the people who have read this !