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Corsair RGB Current Usage


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As systems get more and more (and more!!!) RGB, the load on the 5V rail on the PSU is becoming more and more of a concern. To help with planning this, I've put together this table that shows the tested current draw of the various RGB items in the Corsair ecosystem.

 

All values in the tables are milliamps (mA) - 1/1000 of an amp. Measurements were taken with an Aneng AN870 digital multimeter measuring the current on the +5V pin (pin 1) on the connector. Devices sampled were all full retail packaged product taken from my personal "stash". When rounding measurements, anything over 0.3 mA was rounded up.

 

When planning for power availability, I tend to look at the worst-case scenario - 100% brightness, full white. This ensures that there is plenty of power available. During normal usage, however, actual current draw may (and likely will) be different. So I also measured current draw at 66% brightness and 33% brightness (set using the brightness slider in iCUE) and also took measurements of the min and max current draw of spiral rainbow after a minute for each device. I also provide measurements of individual colors (Red, Green, Blue) at 100% brightness.

All White
  # LEDs 33% 66% 100% mA / LED
ML-RGB 4 47 90 135 33.75
HD-RGB 12 149 290 436 36.33
LL-RGB 16 199 420 639 39.94
LL-SE (White) 16 168 354 543 33.94
SP-PRO RGB 8 102 198 297 37.13
QL-RGB 34 188 355 531 15.62
Strip 10 125 244 367 36.70
LS100 Short 15 190 368 553 36.87
LS100 Long 27 339 657 990 36.67

 

Spiral Rainbow

  # LEDs Min Max ML-RGB 4 62 62 HD-RGB 12 188 204 LL-RGB 16 270 299   LL-SE (White) 16 230 250   SP-PRO RGB 8 125 137   QL-RGB 34 241 242   Strip 10 163 164   LS100 Short 15 234 260   LS100 Long 27 429 444  

 

Single Color
  # LEDs Red Green Blue  
ML-RGB 4 49 49 49  
HD-RGB 12 153 153 154  
LL-RGB 16 228 227 223  
LL-SE (White) 16 192 193 194  
SP-PRO RGB 8 103 102 103  
QL-RGB 34 188 188 189  
Strip 10 128 128 128  
LS100 Short 15 192 192 193  
LS100 Long 27 343 343 344  

 

Edited by DevBiker
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  • 1 year later...

Hi Devbiker

 

Thanks for this really useful.

 

I did my corsair crazy build recently and I have just ordered the "Corsair CL-9011109-WW Lighting Node Pro RGB Lighting Controller with 4 Individually Addressable RGB LED Strips, Black" https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MYDTC2C.

 

I already have 9 QL-RGB fans going through "two lighting node cores" (6 in one 3 in the other). Based on your figures one lighting node core is doing ~3.2A (When i run white at 100% brightness) and the other is ~1.6A.

 

If I Add in the LED Strips I will be adding another ~1.5A on a lighting node pro.

 

I am assuming that because i have the lighting node core and pro i wont be impacting the commander pro.

 

The commander pro has LED1 connected up to liquid cooling CPU, PUMP and GFX. (42 LEDs). Fan 1 to the case pwm repeater supplying 6 fans, fan3-5 suppling 3 radiator fans. fan 6 to pump.

 

i am using 2 sata chanels on a HX750 PSU to power all the SATA conecters for fans/rgb.

 

one molex for the pump on a seperate chanel.

 

do you see any problems?

 

I wish Corsair had an RGB configurator :-D

 

Cheers

 

Pom

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I wish Corsair had an RGB configurator :-D

 

THIS.. is whats needed.. good call buddy...

 

 

as for your limits..

 

Your PSU has a 25a limit on its 5v rail. its a good psu and it will protect its self before you damage anything. you should be fine. just remember.. its not just whats in the case.. if its usb.. 5v...

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@zotty.

 

Cheers :-)

 

I have 2 virpil joysticks, vipil throttle, corsair k70 mk2, dark core mouse, snowball mike, logitech flight instrument panel, ls100 (self powered) + expansion kit (on its way)

 

LS100 is self powered so thats no issue.. its usb items with no PSU of their own..

 

you wont know if its too much until the PSU kicks its fan up.. shame it's not an i-series PSU as you could have monitored it

 

so.. FYI.. as far as 5v loads go....

 

pretty much across the board (from CX to AX)

.. you have 2 groups of PSU to pick from in Corsairs PSU range.

 

1000w and lower.. 25a limit for 5v

 

1200w and higher 30a limit for 5v.

 

should you find your PSU fan is running a little louder than you like....

 

try dropping brightness on anything with RGB.. most of mine is at 50% and this is more than bright enough.

 

should that not cover it.. look at something with a bigger 5v limit..

 

be warned tho.. grass is no greener on the other side.

 

seems all PSU designers are still living in 2005 and only have a usb keyboard/mouse and external hdd. and no internal RGB lol. so the other 'big' brands cant offer any more. Corsair is still where its at for PSU's. Hopefully the more of us that speak up about PSU fans spinning and why will bring us something to step the 5v game up a little...

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@zotty

 

I did look for rhe HX i series but it seems to have been phased out and only refurbished ones available.

 

I couldn't afford the ax series :-(

 

Covid and Supply buddy.. its hit hard everywhere.. afaik.. the HXi range is still very Current (excuse the pun lol)

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Hello,

 

I have a few questions regarding the QL fans.

 

I see the current draw drops considerably when set to all white/full brightness. I understand why this happens... 6 x 34 WS2812B LEDs going full throttle are going to overload the SATA power connector, never mind any fuses or safeguards there may be on Node Core/RGB Hub/Commander Core!

 

My question is how does it actually do this? Are there extra resistors on board the fan itself which limit current?

 

Does iCUE automatically lower the brightness when it is programmed to supply data for 5 or 6 QLs?

 

Are QL LEDs dimmer than their LL counterparts? (when set to "maximum" brightness in iCUE)

 

Or perhaps they use the smaller, more efficient Capellix LEDs?

 

I only own LL fans. I have just purchased a QL120 for the sake of experimentation to find out how this works, but I would appreciate any information about them that you, or anyone else, may happen to know as fact or from experience.

 

Thank you,

 

G

 

 

*EDIT: Sorry, after taking a closer look I see that the QL LEDs use less power across the board, not just at white/full brightness. All my questions still stand.

Edited by G_Major_Tech
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seems all PSU designers are still living in 2005 and only have a usb keyboard/mouse and external hdd. and no internal RGB lol. so the other 'big' brands cant offer any more. Corsair is still where its at for PSU's. Hopefully the more of us that speak up about PSU fans spinning and why will bring us something to step the 5v game up a little...

 

 

Are you sure about that? My old rig has 230 assorted LEDs running and I have never had a current problem. 144 of them are dialed back to 66% brightness but the rest are at 100%. They also are not set to white, so not worse case. I looked up my EVGA 1000G3 PSU. Spec says +5VDC rail max current is 24A. My new rig has a Thermaltake TPI-0850F2FDP. It's spec says +5VDC rail max output current is 20A but the protection does not trigger until it hits 35A.

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Are you sure about that? My old rig has 230 assorted LEDs running and I have never had a current problem. 144 of them are dialed back to 66% brightness but the rest are at 100%. They also are not set to white, so not worse case. I looked up my EVGA 1000G3 PSU. Spec says +5VDC rail max current is 24A. My new rig has a Thermaltake TPI-0850F2FDP. It's spec says +5VDC rail max output current is 20A but the protection does not trigger until it hits 35A.

 

Yup and 230 LEDS is a small number compared to what a lot are pushing now.. 30+ Per QL fan for a start. imagine a 1000d full of them.. or indeed a 5000x with a capable 13+ QL set up and then add pumps and blocks and all manor of 5v using items....

 

 

No RGB

 

http://i.imgur.com/XIflDFhl.png

 

RGB

 

http://i.imgur.com/SsgibWzl.png

 

to Note....

 

Fan/5v child power in/out widgets .. the PSU is nowhere near its limits at its fan is at 1500+ rpm

 

Same result on an HX1200i/AX1200i/AX1500i/AX1600i and everything below those monsters.

Edited by Zotty
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  • 4 weeks later...

Dear Zotty,

 

I have a Corsair CX550F RGB PSU that has 20A on the 5v rail... at the moment i have only two stick of vengeance pro sl ram illumiating, but in nezt days will arrive K70 mk2 lp keyboard (usb2) and m65 elite mouse (usb2)...

...and i hope in the summer to get LL120 fan kit and a commander pro.

 

it will be enough?

 

keep in mind that i have also a nvme ssd and two sata disks, 1tb crucial ssd and 1 tb hdd seagate, all two are 2,5" sata, so 5v powered.

 

Hope to hear soon...

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Dear Zotty,

 

I have a Corsair CX550F RGB PSU that has 20A on the 5v rail... at the moment i have only two stick of vengeance pro sl ram illumiating, but in nezt days will arrive K70 mk2 lp keyboard (usb2) and m65 elite mouse (usb2)...

...and i hope in the summer to get LL120 fan kit and a commander pro.

 

it will be enough?

 

keep in mind that i have also a nvme ssd and two sata disks, 1tb crucial ssd and 1 tb hdd seagate, all two are 2,5" sata, so 5v powered.

 

Hope to hear soon...

 

Hi buddy..

 

with your case and what you have.. you should be fine.

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I'd like to connect 2 250mm and 2 350mm strips to it but I think I've heard there's a limit to the number of LEDs that I can use one one channel

 

Yes you can do that on one channel.. dependent on whats on the other channel.. i just tried it with 6 LL fans on channel one and 2 x 250mm and 2 x 350mm on channel 2 and it wasnt a problem.

Edited by Zotty
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Hey,

 

I'd like to put some of the LS100 strips into my pc. I've made a schematic of what the wiring would look like if I got them. Would I need to get something separate to power the LS100 RGB strips?

 

I just noticed that your lighting node core is wired to your commander rgb. The LNC is actually controlled through USB, so instead you would connect it to an empty usb channel on the commander pro.

 

Nice diagram!

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THIS.. is whats needed.. good call buddy...

 

 

as for your limits..

 

Your PSU has a 25a limit on its 5v rail. its a good psu and it will protect its self before you damage anything. you should be fine. just remember.. its not just whats in the case.. if its usb.. 5v...

 

Just a warning - the SATA connector itself has a max 3x1.5A limit before the cables start to heat dangerously, regardless of the PSU's capabilities.

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  • 1 month later...

Here's my build and it's components.

 

Intel i7-9700k

EVGA RTX 3080

PSU Silverstone SX700 Gold

4 x Corsair LL120

2 x Be Quiet Shadow Wing 120

2x 8GB Corsair Vengeance RGB

1 RGB Strip (60 LEDs)

1 GPU Backplate (20 LEDs)

1 RGB Light Bar (18 LEDs)

 

Anyway, as you can see, my PSU being a 700w, it's pretty close on getting the maximum power draw possible. I was wondering if I could replace the 4 LL120s in my build to the QL 120s. From what I'm getting, even though the QL120 fans have more LEDs... the total power draw seems to be less?

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