iCUE, rainbow waves, and fans

[Parmenedes]

I’ve noticed that iCUE treats the rainbow wave function (one of my favorites) with fans the same way that it treats it with light strips - namely, the wave on one fan starts where it left off on the last fan. While I can see how this might be ideal for some, I’d really love to synchronize the rainbow wave with all my fans, so that they all cycle through the same colors at the same time. I’ve read that there is support coming regarding the orientation of each fan since we tend to orient them according to cable management rather than having them all oriented the same way, which would also help here.

 

As near as I can tell, there is no way to synchronize fans with a rainbow wave in the way that I’d like. If I’m missing something and there is such a way, could some please fill me in on how to do it? I’ve fiddled with the software quite a bit and haven’t managed to get this working yet.

 

If there’s not a way to do this currently, it’s a feature I’d love to see added to iCUE at some point. I believe that before I installed iCUE, my fans all defaulted to this, so I know it’s possible, and in fact I’m tempted to uninstall the software and just let the fans run the way they do with no software for now, but then I wouldn’t have much control over fan speed and temperature sensors.

[DevBiker]

The way that you'd accomplish this is to have an instance of the Rainbow Wave effect for each fan. So ... if you have 4 fans, you'd for copies of the Rainbow Wave effect. Each effect is then applied to only one fan.

When you first set it up, they won't be in sync. So ... switch to another profile and then switch back. When they are all set, they'll all start at the same time on the profile. And all the fans will be in synch.

[Parmenedes]

Thanks, Biker! I had tried this before without changing profiles and couldn't get it to work, but sure enough, once I switched to a different profile and then back to the main one, the fans were all synced. Been slammed with work so haven't had time to do this until tonight.

 

Exactly what I wanted! It seems like it would make sense to have them sync without having to switch profiles - just some feedback.

 

I'm also looking forward to the upcoming ability to change the orientation of the fans in iCUE based on the way they are oriented in the case.

[Parmenedes]

One more question, Biker:

 

Right now i have a 140mm ML RGB fan attached to a 140-to-120mm adapater (since the radiator that came with the card is 120mm), which is then attached to a 120mm shroud that pushes air through the radiator for my Corsair liquid-cooled graphics card. I set it up this way for a few reasons:

 

1) I didn't like the always-on white LED fan that came with the vid card.

2) I figured a 140mm fan would push more air through the radiator more quietly and efficiently.

3) I already had the 140mm ML fan that used to go in that spot in my case before I bought the vid card.

4) I've never understood why most liquid cooling systems come with fans that only cover maybe half of the radiator area (a circular fan inscribed in the square radiator shape starts out with less than 80% of the area of the radiator having air pushed through it, then you'd have to subtract the center part of the fan that doesn't push any air along with the brackets that also block air flow. It's always seemed to me that it would make way more sense to put a spacer in there so that more of the air from the fan flows over more of the area of the radiator.

5) Science! I like to experiment.

 

I haven't noticed a significant difference with the vid card temps, although I also haven't pushed it particularly hard or run any real tests. The only parts I was able to find that would let me do this were pretty limited too (both in variety and in functionality), and in order for me to really do it right, I'd need to plug some gaps with silicone or something so that air doesn't flow out the corners or edges, thusly maintaining a higher static pressure. Putting two adapters between the fan and the radiator is also pretty unsightly and causes the fan to stick out into the chassis in a rather inelegant way.

 

So I'm curious if you've experimented with this or have any thoughts. I thought it's possible that no one designs radiator/fan combos this way because you get more static pressure (and cooling) by having the fan as close as possible to the radiator even if much of the radiator goes uncooled, but my research in this area hasn't yielded much, and I don't really know.