Disappointed in Corsair

It's been decades since I built a computer however my son is of age and so I'll say this is our first build.

Compatibility first... RGB is the thing for my son, be it crazy color cycles or a static color. However the stance that Corsair takes (our way or go away) in reguards to syncing with motherboards or GPU, the lack of support for Aura, Fusion or others is IMO a failure on Corsairs part. Its easier to kick Corsair out of and around our pc case than it is to kick out (example) Asus MB and GPU that sync.

Have purchased, not knowing in many cases at first that all RGB doesn't work with each other we have booted ML fans, Keyboard 95, and mouse. At this time we are sticking with the H115I and rub mouse pad as I have not found something to replace those with yet on the RGB side of things (Aura).

Memory, I thought hard on Dominator, but the SE (blackout etc..) are sold out, I liked the timings but... The torque is not a pretty match... G Skills seems a bit better overall, may not be a big difference for gaming but limited edition Ram being sold out lost you cash.

I'm not a Corsair hater, just a buyer giving feedback.

It's not Corsair that you should be disappointed in but, really, the entire industry.

What do you think would happen if you put an MSI graphics card on that Gigabyte motherboard? Do you think they would sync? They won't. Who would you blame for this? Gigabyte? MSI? How about an Asus card? Again, it won't. What if you went with RGB fans from NZXT, would they sync? Again, no. There is one vendor - MSI - that includes a single Corsair RGB header on their motherboard and that worked with their Mystic Light sync; it won't work with the Corsair software. Now ... the various motherboard vendors do have SDKs but most of what I've seen is that the SDKs that they release are flaky on their best day.

The thing is ... there's no industry standard for these things so everyone is doing their own thing. The RGB landscape is pretty much the wild west right now. By the way ... the RGB headers on that Gigabyte motherboard are 12V ... but the addressable RGB LEDs are all 5V.

So what's it going to take? Serious push back from consumers and the industry press. And that's just not happening.

I agree that it's frustrating. I have an MSI GPU and an Asus board and a truckload of Corsair RGB. I've basically set the MSI and Asus to something that's tolerable and focus my RGB on the Corsair stuff ... which is more noticeable anyway.

Perhaps, at some point, the SDKs from the various vendors will be stable enough to actually use and either Corsair will integrate them or provide an open platform that 3rd parties can extend to add support for the various vendors RGB APIs. In fact, I'd really like it to be the latter ... I'd love to be able to add plug-ins to Link that would synchronize RGB with other devices ... and then extend it to control things like Asus and MSI and Philips Hue and other, outside the computer, RGB systems. That would be awesome.

Motherboards are and should be the foundation to RGB lighting and it's the companies that build these boards that have the upper hand. It's accessory companies like Corsair that either step up and acquire a Motherboard manufacturer or start building their own line of motherboards to compete for the RGB race. I understand RGB is not for everyone, maybe it's here to stay or will leave in a few years... Point being, many want RGB to match their motherboard if they have it. I guess if the MB doesn't have RGB then Corsair is a good choice (GPU being a ? mark)

I don't mind ASUS not matching Gigabyte GPU (RGB) or vise versa, If I buy ASUS MB, I buy a ASUS GPU (especially in this RGB arms race).

With H115i PRO (In my case) I really thought Corsair would of gotten on board with Aura and Fusion... But I guess I could go on the ASUS forum and complain how they don't make a water cooler like the H115i lol

Anyways... Corsair, please view attached picture. See the compatibility of these fans? This is what should be all over your products as well.

That simply means that they have 5050 connectors ... limiting them to a single color at a time and are not addressable. You plug them into a motherboard header and control them with the motherboard software.

The Corsair system is MUCH more flexible and provides a LOT more options.

There was a time ... about a year or so ago ... when I would have agreed with you. But after dealing with Asus Aura and its issues for a year and getting annoyed by the limitations of the 5050 RGB system, I have to disagree with you now. AsRock (which I also have) is more stable but even less configurable than Asus. At one point, both of these boards were using all 5050 RGB LEDs and the motherboard software. It was neat at first ... because it was new ... but the lack of options and flexibility to really do crazy stuff pushed me to the additional flexibility offered by the Corsair RGB ecosystem. Both of those machines are now rockin' Commander Pros, Corsair RGB strips and RGB fans.

To be fair, I've not seen the Gigabyte software but I did research their board; again, they use 5050 LEDs and have the same limitations. The motherboard manufacturers just don't have the flexibility or configurability that I have with my Corsair RGB. They don't have the different lighting effects. They don't have profiles or variable brightness.

But it's also a question of your priorities and what you want to do. If you're good with a single color across all LEDs ... well, 5050 will do that. If you want lighting effects, multiple colors and color "shows" ... 5050 won't do that. One color per header. That's it. Not addressable. Which would be super-lame on the LL or HD fans. And, until relatively recently (the past 6 months or less), there was no way to integrate with Aura or Mystic Light UNLESS you simply plugged into the motherboard headers. Asus and MSI have released SDKs but they haven't been out long and they haven't been particularly stable.