How and why RGB lighting appeared on the PC market


What for? Why is this needed at all? As Quentin Tarantino would say, "because it's fun, Janet"! If you look at the history of home PC design, it's easy to see that aesthetics were usually left untouched. The guys at Intel, Dell, and HP saw computers as working tools, and as you know, they don't need to be pretty. The main thing is reliability. One of the first to think about the "wrapper" was Apple, which tried to give a twist to the appearance of angular iMac computers. However, the real revolution in design occurred when computer manufacturers officially divided the PC into components (case, monitor, components and peripherals).

True, both manufacturers and buyers could not get used to this division for a long time, so all PC elements, although they were produced separately, seemed to go together as a set. But the ice broke - mice, keyboards and other peripherals acquired the first shades of individuality. Especially Logitech and SteelSeries succeeded in this direction. One of the first backlit keyboards was the legendary Logitech G15, which every student dreamed of. The trend has taken root in the market, devices of a similar nature with plain white, green, blue and red backlighting have rained down. The latter was especially popular, which is why red has become the unofficial colour of all video game lovers.

The real revolution took place at the turn of the last decade, when custom PCs flooded the market. As it turned out, many gamers were tired of the monotonous black boxes and, for fun, tried to assemble cases on their own from improvised means. Most often, they turned out to be nonsense, but if the project was successful, then the photo of the coveted case flew around literally all gaming communities, and there were more and more people who wanted to join the ranks of modders (note: modders are enthusiasts who independently change the appearance of the PC and components) every day. . This decision promised serious profits, because with backlighting the computer looked more impressive, even if the contents in it were not the most impressive. However, not everyone had enough knowledge and skills to make beauty on their own. Therefore, component manufacturers have put modding on stream. And their main weapons are cases with mirrored doors and viewing windows, as well as ubiquitous RGB lighting.

How Light Sync Works


We offer you to go back 10 years for a moment and feel like a moderator. Before us is a chic handmade case: it is painted scarlet, a massive Celtic cross hangs over the door, and a pentagram from Diablo is blazing on the side. It remains to connect the backlight and hoist the computer in the most prominent place. But how to do that? You can independently stretch the RGB tape around the case and add light bulbs, but it will be a so-so spectacle. A specialized controller would be useful here, but not everyone will be able to install and configure it correctly. Yes, and it's not very convenient. This is where lighting synchronization systems come into play.

In short, the current lighting timing systems are sets of LEDs that are controlled using a specialized RGB controller and software. Unlike conventional LED strips, RGB lighting receives power from different channels - for example, LEDs for cooling systems are connected to a reobas (note: a device for controlling fan speed), and an RGB system - using a special cable to the controller. Also, a graphics card, RAM and other components can be equipped with a backlight.

RGB backlit cases

What are the differences between RGB and ARGB?


People who have never bought glowing gadgets usually do not understand the difference between RGB and ARGB lighting. Although, in fact, these are completely different things. Conventional RGB backlighting is very limited in its capabilities. It is friendly with the entire spectrum of rainbow colours, however, the 12v diodes used in it are capable of reproducing only one colour at a time (white, red, yellow, green, blue, purple and black, i.e. no backlight).

A more advanced addressable ARGB system uses 5v diodes, is equipped with a control circuit and is able to individually distribute colour signals between diodes. Simply put, ARGB can make an LED strip glow in several colours at the same time, including synchronously with other similar strips connected to addressable connectors.

All this means that ARGB illumination allows you to build much more complex and beautiful PC backlighting with numerous shades and soft transitions between special effects. Classic RGB systems are more limited in this regard: colour changes are sharper, and special effects are limited to a basic rainbow, ripple, and sequential colour changes. Due to the limitations of RGB power schemes and often lousy implementation by the manufacturer, many gamers routinely turn off the base lighting so that the computer does not look like a poorly decorated Christmas tree.

ARGB Backlit Carcasses

What you need to know before installing the backlight


It's beautiful, but difficult. On the one hand, the RAM, graphics card, mouse and backlit keyboard do not require additional power. Connect, sync and go. On the other hand, the most spectacular lighting is usually created by internal coolers, and you will have to tinker with them by connecting additional power cables and backlight control. Usually they are made longer so that even the most massive cooler is enough, so by the last stage of assembly you will have to think about where to hide a bunch of unnecessary cable "noodles".

The second problem is related to the novelty of this market. Component manufacturers have not yet come to uniform standards, so everyone now has their own ecosystem with separate software for setting the backlight. At the same time, the same system can use different control controllers, and official websites often lack configuration guides. Even cooler, many of these timing systems are not particularly friendly with each other, so when you install an MSI graphics card in an Asus motherboard, you will most likely have to install another programme to control illumination. And it's like 2 housewives in the same kitchen. Therefore, the sages advise choosing a motherboard, graphics card and other components manufactured by the same manufacturer.

Next, we will look at the 4 most popular backlight control systems that are tied to the motherboard.

Asus Aura

Proprietary backlight system from Asus, which is divided into 2 types. A simple Aura RGB works and glows on its own. Complex Aura Sync links all RGB elements into a single whole and makes all lighting effects work in sync and in time. It was the latter that was known among gamers as the most stable and functional.

It has user-friendly software, a huge number of options, many presets with different lighting special effects and an extensive ecosystem of products. Asus has been actively increasing its presence in the gaming peripherals market in recent years, so with its products it is easier to assemble an all-in-one system - from the motherboard and graphics card to the keyboard and mouse.

In the video below you can see what it looks like live.


MSI Mystic Light

Another popular backlight system from the Taiwanese brand MSI, which in recent years focuses mainly on gamers. At first glance, it does not look as promising as Asus Aura due to a narrower range of devices. But this is absolutely not true. MSI is partnering with peripheral manufacturers so that RGB products from Corsair, Kingston, Steelseries, Cooler Master, ADATA, and HyperX can be connected and synchronized to the motherboard system.

In general, Mystic Light leaves an ambiguous impression. Synchronization with products from other brands is really cool. True, it does not always work as it should, and dynamic effects eventually go out of sync and pulsate out of time. At the same time, MSI makes it possible to connect to the motherboard and synchronize with the system almost any piece of suitable RGB tape. And this is a plus for modders. Well, the Infinity Mirror insert on flagship motherboards looks great.

And here's what Mystic Light looks like in real life.


Gigabyte RGB Fusion

The latest synchronization system that Gigabyte began to develop in parallel with the Aorus gaming line. And although this is the second version of RGB Fusion, this synchronization system is still damp, sometimes the software is buggy, and sometimes something just doesn’t work. And go understand what's wrong here. But it makes up for it in two important ways. Firstly, in the Fusion command centre, you can configure not only the lighting of the entire system, but also set individual effects. For example, the mouse and keyboard will glow in a static mode, and coolers and RAM will pulsate to the beat of the music.

Secondly, the Gigabyte ecosystem is full of RGB Fusion-enabled components and peripherals, which greatly simplifies the assembly of a system with a common lighting system. At the same time, they are so bothered with modding that they once released inexpensive dummy dice with backlight for empty RAM slots.

They say if you do it, it's beautiful.


ASRock Polychrome

ASRock ignored market trends for a couple of years and was reluctant to equip its products with LEDs. And then she took and presented several variants of Polychrome at once. Devices with a Polychrome RGB sticker are equipped with normal backlighting, while products "Polychrome RGB Sync" and "Polychrome Certified" are friends with full synchronization. In the latter case, we are talking about the products of partner companies. For example, Polychrome is the only system on the market that is friendly with Razer CHROMA illumination.


Like other synchronization systems, Polychrome runs under the software of the same name and can link illumination in fans, RAM sticks, power supply, case, graphics card, and interestingly, even under the chipset heatsink. If there is one, of course. The software allows you to set solid colours, select specific lighting zones, use a static glow mode or one of several special effects.

Light Sync Carousels

What about backlit keyboards, mice and power supplies?


In the last 3-4 years, almost every manufacturer of peripherals and components has decided that they need their own illumination system with a catchy name. Now Deepcool, Corsair, Razer, Cougar, Thermaltake, Cooler Master, Steelseries, NZXT, Fractal Design, Chieftec and a couple of dozen smaller companies have their own lighting systems. Fortunately, in 99% of cases you won't have to install additional software and then mess with syncing your mouse, monitor, and cooler. Almost all of them are fully compatible with the synchronization systems described above, which is usually mentioned in the product description.

Conclusion


Even though CIS gamers are leery of RGB lighting, a computer with the right lighting can look really nice. Well, if you get bored, then you can always make it less catchy or turn it off completely. We think that choice is better than no choice.

The main thing is to initially approach the assembly wisely. When you choose everything you need, we advise you to look at the official pages of these products and make sure that their backlights are compatible.