iCue (and some Corsair) Questions

I realize iCue is in early access, but I am having trouble identifying what my expectations of the shipping product will be.

It's time for me to build a new rig, and I have been very impressed with Corsairs accessories. I am considering going "all in" on corsair RGB products to unify the look and feel, but I am worried that my expectations of what Corsair intends to do will not match what they expect to accomplish. Is there a list of features they hope the shipping product will have? I called customer support / tech support today but they seem to be working off of a limited trial of the software.

Right now I have 24 RGB strips, 6 from Phanteks and 18 from Ikea, that I would like to replace so they unify with my other Corsair accessories. (It's not that bad. They are in the PC, behind the monitors, and under the desk. It look a lot better than I make it sound.) I haven't looked to far into this yet, but Corsair Tech Support told me I can daisy chain Lighting Node PROs until I have enough lighting channels to meet my needs.

For airflow, aesthetic, and cable management reasons I also keep my PC on the left side of the monitor with my ST100 and Void Pro, and my Glaive, MM800, and portrait display on the right. I only mention this because all the product images show the PC on the right side. Will I be able to adjust the software so it knows where my hardware is located on my desk and animates correctly across corsair devices?

Besides a strange RMA experience I haven't really had a lot of contact with Corsair. Do they reach out to customers (or should I say, Corsair enthusiasts) to refine their products or are they an empty shell of a company that ships what they have and abandons users when they need to revive a product line?

I am ready to go all in and just buy a few of each on their store, but I am a little reserved that the iCue team, especially when advertising a beta product, doesn't have direct email contact.

I would love some feedback from other users. If Corsair reads their forums maybe they can add some input.

I realize iCue is in early access, but I am having trouble identifying what my expectations of the shipping product will be.

 

It's time for me to build a new rig, and I have been very impressed with Corsairs accessories. I am considering going "all in" on corsair RGB products to unify the look and feel, but I am worried that my expectations of what Corsair intends to do will not match what they expect to accomplish. Is there a list of features they hope the shipping product will have? I called customer support / tech support today but they seem to be working off of a limited trial of the software.

 

Right now I have 24 RGB strips, 6 from Phanteks and 18 from Ikea, that I would like to replace so they unify with my other Corsair accessories. (It's not that bad. They are in the PC, behind the monitors, and under the desk. It look a lot better than I make it sound.) I haven't looked to far into this yet, but Corsair Tech Support told me I can daisy chain Lighting Node PROs until I have enough lighting channels to meet my needs.

You can put any number of Lighting Node Pros (NoPros) into a system or outside of a system. The limiting factor is available SATA power connectors and USB ports. The can also be outside the system - there is a user on here (Zotty) that has many. He put together the RGB FAQ that you see in my signatures. NoPro's can't exactly be daisy-chained; that implies that you connect NoPro A into NoPro B. You can do that with the Commander Pro (CoPro), which also has an internal USB header. The CoPro also has lighting channels and can provide advanced fan control. It's one of my personal favorite devices.

For airflow, aesthetic, and cable management reasons I also keep my PC on the left side of the monitor with my ST100 and Void Pro, and my Glaive, MM800, and portrait display on the right. I only mention this because all the product images show the PC on the right side. Will I be able to adjust the software so it knows where my hardware is located on my desk and animates correctly across corsair devices?

That is in the plans.

Besides a strange RMA experience I haven't really had a lot of contact with Corsair. Do they reach out to customers (or should I say, Corsair enthusiasts) to refine their products or are they an empty shell of a company that ships what they have and abandons users when they need to revive a product line?

YES! They absolutely do! There is a group of Corsair enthusiasts that is deeply involved in beta testing; I'm in that group. You'll also see a number of Corsair employees active here on the forums. They do engage with their community and quite actively. It's one of the things that sold me on the ecosystem.

I am ready to go all in and just buy a few of each on their store, but I am a little reserved that the iCue team, especially when advertising a beta product, doesn't have direct email contact.

 

I would love some feedback from other users. If Corsair reads their forums maybe they can add some input.

Just look around here ... they are pretty active. Anyone with "Corsair" in their name is a Corsair employee. There are others as well and they are tagged as Corsair employees. Doing it on a public forum ensures that everyone gets the benefit of the advice given on the forum, not just one person via email. It also helps them scale tremendously.

Personally, iCUE is a nice step-up from the earlier CUE software; I don't yet have a desktop with LL fans, but you can still create profiles for them.

I like it so far as well a great deal, it fixed a number of previously persistent bugs

Now that's marketing! :laughing: Like the device preview from CUE 2. The drill down capability (which link had, but all in one app) makes icue a great way forward.

I wan't to be clear - the Cue platform is *a lot* better than some of the other software packs I have had to use by other companies. So please keep in mind that I really like the Corsair products I have purchased so far. Replacing my $9 Amazon mouse with a GLAVE resulted in this conversation: "What's the difference between this mouse and what you had?" "Enjoying it."

You can put any number of Lighting Node Pros (NoPros) into a system or outside of a system. The limiting factor is available SATA power connectors and USB ports. The can also be outside the system - there is a user on here (Zotty) that has many. He put together the RGB FAQ that you see in my signatures. NoPro's can't exactly be daisy-chained; that implies that you connect NoPro A into NoPro B. You can do that with the Commander Pro (CoPro), which also has an internal USB header. The CoPro also has lighting channels and can provide advanced fan control. It's one of my personal favorite devices.

Thanks! I guess it's only a $10 difference to get the CoPro instead of the NoPro, but it looks like it takes up a lot more space. I'll take a look at the links and take some measurements.

That is in the plans.

Awesome! Is there a forum post with other features... or do I just submit my thoughts as new posts?

YES! They absolutely do! There is a group of Corsair enthusiasts that is deeply involved in beta testing; I'm in that group. You'll also see a number of Corsair employees active here on the forums. They do engage with their community and quite actively. It's one of the things that sold me on the ecosystem.

Thanks! I'll keep my eye out for them as I sift though the forum.

Just look around here ... they are pretty active. Anyone with "Corsair" in their name is a Corsair employee. There are others as well and they are tagged as Corsair employees. Doing it on a public forum ensures that everyone gets the benefit of the advice given on the forum, not just one person via email. It also helps them scale tremendously.

That's a fair enough reason, but I hope they can see how a new customer might be suspicious. Microsoft tells you the same thing, and let's be real, if you don't feel ignored over there you probably feel misunderstood.

Personally, iCUE is a nice step-up from the earlier CUE software; I don't yet have a desktop with LL fans, but you can still create profiles for them.

Again, I realize it's early access but it's not always the most intuitive software for a new user.

I downloaded the new software and while replacing the two programs with a single application is nice I find myself confused when I try and do some things. For one I have no idea how to sync the lights with what is on the screen. I don't know what the feature is officially called, and none of the lighting options seem to accomplish it. I really hope this feature doesn't have to be baked into the app by the app developer. It's fine if it's part of a promotion with Ubisoft right now, but I hope it works with other games and applications. It would be really nice to sit back and watch YouTube, Netflix, or MLB.tv and have the same immersive experience as fighting off a wolf. Searching Corsair's website hasn't revealed to me how it works, and clicking the big FarCry 5 ad in the iCue software takes me to a "Not Found" Corsair page.

Unrelated to lighting, I also struggle with the dashboard. I keep trying to reorganize the panels because they don't make sense to me where they are, only to remember that they can't be moved, recolored, or renamed. I keep expecting that if I hover the mouse over something an overlay will tell me more about that item. Or at least see a larger graph with labeled axes with historical numbers. I expected similar function to occur in other places in the software (software... tell me more about single and multi rail OCP), but it feels like a notable omission in the dashboard.

Boy now, wouldn't it be nice to have a single button that checks iCue for new software and also checks all connected devices for new firmware.

I don't yet have a desktop with LL fans, but you can still create profiles for them.

If you want, you can download iCUE as a standalone software. It has a demo mode where you can configure devices and see the effects that should be displayed on your actual devices. I think my favorite are the LL fans which have 2 light loops so you can get some awesome effects with them.

I saw I could preview what the effects would look like on the NoPro and CoPro (but not the H115i), but I don't see how I sync them with what is on screen. Maybe that would create a feedback loop the software can't deal with?

Thanks for all the feedback!

Thanks! I guess it's only a $10 difference to get the CoPro instead of the NoPro, but it looks like it takes up a lot more space. I'll take a look at the links and take some measurements.

It does but it also does a lot more ... like control fan speeds, provides 2 additional USB headers, and has additional thermistors for temperature monitoring. I, personally, have both ... 1 CoPro and 2 NoPros.

Awesome! Is there a forum post with other features... or do I just submit my thoughts as new posts?

Submit them on the iCue Early Access section: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/forumdisplay.php?f=280.

That's a fair enough reason, but I hope they can see how a new customer might be suspicious. Microsoft tells you the same thing, and let's be real, if you don't feel ignored over there you probably feel misunderstood.

While I can expound on this for days as I spent 9 years at Microsoft, I'll refrain. As for Corsair ... just browse around. You'll see a lot of responses from Corsair folks. And in the early access section, you'll see responses from Corsair James, who is the lead/boss man on iCue, as well as others.

Again, I realize it's early access but it's not always the most intuitive software for a new user.

Take a look at the videos that I have on YouTube (linked in my signature). There's also an iCue Guide by Inheritance, another beta team member, at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxxTPSlwvrHSdHxzM5x2m8g_MpzRFg6CDtjjrHX4Rhk/edit.

Unrelated to lighting, I also struggle with the dashboard. I keep trying to reorganize the panels because they don't make sense to me where they are, only to remember that they can't be moved, recolored, or renamed. I keep expecting that if I hover the mouse over something an overlay will tell me more about that item. Or at least see a larger graph with labeled axes with historical numbers. I expected similar function to occur in other places in the software (software... tell me more about single and multi rail OCP), but it feels like a notable omission in the dashboard.

Good feedback ... better over in the iCue Early Access section. As for moving them around ... yeah, it's a pretty frustrating until you get the hang of it. And then it's just occasionally mildly annoying. You have to get just the right spot, click and hold for a couple of seconds and then it'll come undocked. I show that in my videos as well. That's something that they are definitely working on.

Boy now, wouldn't it be nice to have a single button that checks iCue for new software and also checks all connected devices for new firmware.

Again, good feedback for the iCue Early Access section.

I saw I could preview what the effects would look like on the NoPro and CoPro (but not the H115i), but I don't see how I sync them with what is on screen. Maybe that would create a feedback loop the software can't deal with?

They should be pretty in sync with the devices. And while a "feedback loop" might be possible, I think that's unlikely. I've added over 100 Lighting Link effects simultaneously across my devices and it handled it quite well in fact. The H115i doesn't support all of the lighting effects that you can get in iCue ... that's a hardware limitation, unfortunately. Only the new Pro series coolers support all of the funky things that you can do with iCue.