Link Problems and General Thoughts

[Stormsys]

Hi Guys,

 

Warning: Rant incoming :D

 

I've had the Corsair Link Kit for less then a week and thus far i'm very unimpressed.

 

So my first complaint is that the software seems unable to modify the RPM of the 650d stock fan - its not a big issue this one anyway as i was planning on putting another 120mm BitFenix Specture Pro in place of it.

 

Secondly, the cooling node in general doesn't work as described... i have setup a custom fan curve for all my fans, an example of the 120mm rear exhaust(BitFenix Specture pro fan) can be seen here: http://oi48.tinypic.com/118fxpc.jpg. So to test this i had prime95 do a bench mark on my CPU, i didn't want to push it too much knowing that the link software had issues responding to changes, anyway i let that run for 10 minutes and took the screenshot, at the point the cpu hadn't dropped below 60 degrees yet the fan had been oscillating between 820rpm and 860rpm the entire time(before and during the benchmark) my profile clearly tells the fan to max out above 50 degrees.... and the fan should not be at that speed unless its below 40 degrees(it was idle at about 36 mind you). oh and just for the record if i put the max speed setting on the fan goes at about 1400rpm(or 1363 as shown in the information tab). needless to say this is the same behavior for all other fans and profiles on my system using the corsair link.

 

My Third issue was that the Link Commander sporadically wants to make really load high pitched buzzing noises, originally i coudn't work out where it was coming from but its defiantly the commander, and at the point in time i had no idea what triggers these, its not TOO often, but often enough that it bugs me.

 

Anyway now that i am on a rant i would also like to moan about the quality of the LED strips provided by corsair, i will note that asside from my following observations, the lighting kit does work fine as described and responds well to change requests...

but anyway the cables provided to to connect the strips to the link kit are very short, and make it hard for good coverage on the case, the led strips provided are very low quality compared to say the BitFenix Alchemy LED strips, they are not as bright and look very fragile in comparison, the led strips themselse have bulky connection heads which are almost half the size of each strip(Why??) which actually makes it more awkward to hide inside the case...

 

and lastly, i hate to fault corsairs support as they did sort out a really good service with an rma for my 650d side panel, but i raised a support ticket about 5 days ago, i have only had one reply asking me what software version i'm using and nothing else. i'm seriously considering returning these as for the price tag it is defiantly not worth it right now.

 

 

Usefull info:

Link Software: 2.3.4816

Commander: 2.0.6

Lighting Node: 1.1.9

Cooling Node: 1.1.12

 

Fans:

1x 120mm Corsair fan(comes with the 650d case)

1x 120mm BitFenix Specture Pro

2x 200mm BitFenix Specture Pro

 

rest is on my profile.

[Zoubiey]

Tried updating the cooling node FW so the curve would work?

[Stormsys]

Ah, i wasnt sure that it was an older version, it doesnt seem to be clear on the products support page, is the lastest version 1.2.5?

[Toasted]

Have you tried plugging the Commander unit into a different USB 2.0 internal header?

Does it still have the high-pitched noise?

 

FW 1.2.5 for the Cooling Node can downloaded here

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/attachment.php?attachmentid=10809&stc=1&d=1339030649

[RAM GUY]

And FYI many of the larger fans will not work they way you want them to work including our stock case fan as the range of the RMP is only about 400 RPM.

It would be best to set these to a fixed RPM so they do not shut down. And I would not update the cooling node Firmware unless you are using third party fans.