First time building pc, RGB question

[socsbrian]

Hello all. I have the 1000D case. And I am planning to put 8 120mm fans in the front, 3 140mm top, and 2 120mm rear. So a total of 13 fans. I know the case already comes with a commander pro. But the device only can only handle up to 6 fans. Does it mean I have to purchase another commander pro?

And also the commander pro has only 2 LED spot. Does it mean only 2 of my RGB fans are going to light up?

Sorry if I asked some very silly questions. This is my first time dealing with RGB lol

[LeDoyen]

the two ports on the commander pro are RGB channels. To connect fans to them you need a RGB fan led hub, a little box with 6 fan connectors that goes in one of the two channels. so the commander pro can control up to 12 fans for RGB with these.

It's  either RGB hubs, or you can use dedicated controllers like the lighting node core, which is a device looking like the fan hub, but standalone, with its own USB connextion to to the motherboard, and it controls 6 fans too (RGB only).

 Maybe first have a look at that video from Devbiker presenting the various corsair controllers, that will explain a lot before going any further :

 

 

When you buy 3-packs of RGB fans, you get one LN Core inside. check the product descriptions when you get them 🙂

for PWM (fan speed control), usually it's best to limit the number of commander controllers you get. You do not need individual fan control for speed. Most likely, all the fans on the front will run at the same speed, then the fans on top will run as a group at another speed, also the back fans. So you could use only 3 fan channels of the commander pro, and connect the fans to powered PWM hubs. These are fan hubs with a SATA connection to the power supply. The PSU provides power to the fans, and the commander pro only manages PWM command and RPM reading. It's a way to control a lot of fans but not overload the commander pro.

So, if you get your fans in 3-packs, with the lignting node core controllers, and get some POWERED pwm hubs, you can easily manage everything.

Now you may not have enough USB headers on the motherboard to connect 3 LN core and the commander pro, so you might look at that too :

 

That's a lot of information in one go, but once you understand how corsair RGB works and what controllers are available, it will make preparing your build a LOT easier.

[c-attack]

You are probably going to need a Commander XT as well since one LED port on the included case Commander Pro is reserved for the case logo lighting. It can be done with other RGB controllers and PWM repeaters, so figure out which Corsair fan type you want, then we can make a plan. Pro controllers need a RGB lighting hub for fan RGB support while the newer Core/XT controllers have that fitted into the device. 

[socsbrian]

Thank you for all the inputs. 
 

I have another question regarding radiator and fans placement. So for the 1000D, my plan B is the following.

Reservoir/pump combo > GPU > CPU > top radiator > front radiator > reservoir/pump combo

Both front and top radiator are going to be sandwiched with fans, so called push-pull configuration. But since the only air source for the top radiator is going to be the warm air coming out from the front radiator, is it going to affect cooling performance?

[c-attack]

That's correct.  The cooling potential of a pass through the radiator is dependent on the air temperature entering the radiator.  There are some metrics out there in professional reviews, but the simple way to look at this is your minimum possible coolant temp in the top radiator will always be equal to the exhaust air temp of the front radiator or the case internal temperature.  So you prefer not to do this for maximum cooling effect, but sometimes it can't be helped.  If you do have to do it, your pathway above is the best possible way.  CPU + GPU out (in either order) creates the highest possible liquid temp before entering the top radiator.  In then cools 1C from that pass and maybe another 1C from the front radiator.  This keeps the front radiator exhaust air temp just slightly lower than the top radiator coolant and you still get a cooling effect from the top radiator.  Doing this in reverse would make the top radiator a passenger and possibly heat the liquid as it passed through rather than cool.  

 

Most 1000D owners are going to run this way or with dual loops, one to top and one to front.  Because of the flashy front, not too many people are going to run a reverse flow and turn the front fans around.