iCue enhancements and ideas from a product manager

I've been using Corsair products and software (RIP link) for some time now, and I have some ideas that I'm hoping the product and engineering teams (both hardware and software) have already considered or have on their road map.

As an avid PC water cooling enthusiast and someone who has OCD, and needs system stats and vitals front and center at all times, I feel like iCue could use the following:

1. Standalone, lightweight (non system resource intensive) widgets that can display vital information like water temperature, D5 pump speed, fan speed etc. independently of the full iCue dashboard / software suite. The widget could be as simple as a rainmeter widget clone or an interactive wallpaper that can customized to suit the users needs. This leads to an actual hardware product that I think Corsair can execute and bring to market (see #2).

2. The widget can be supplemented with an iCue USB display that can be purchased separately, included with enthusiast Corsair PC cases, or users can leverage their own display.

This display can be mounted within the case, outside of the case, or placed on the users desk. The iCue version of the display will have full touch controls which will allow on the fly profile changes, fan speed changes, rgb lighting changes etc. Last but not least the iCue display can show real time system stats like water temperature, D5 pump speed, fan speeds etc. You could even add a wifi radio to the unit and have it fully controllable through connected home devices like Alexa, Google, or just an iCue mobile app.

Think of this as the evolution of the commander pro if you were to include IO for PWM fans, temp sensors, and USB. A commander Pro XT or Elite if you will

3. Allow Corsair iCue and other software to play nice. HWinfo and Corsair iCue can coexist. This is an easy fix that the software engineers could fix in an hour.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

3. Allow Corsair iCue and other software to play nice. HWinfo and Corsair iCue can coexist. This is an easy fix that the software engineer could fix in an hour.

Actually, it is an easy fix that a user can do in 10 seconds. Disable the Corsair Link/Asetek support in HWInfo. Works like a charm. I run HWInfo all the time.

The hardware can only support a single device accessing it at a time. Period. So not a software issue. With the Pro series and higher cooler with dynamic lighting - or with the Commander Pro and dynamic lighting - iCUE is accessing the device all the time. If they did a system-wide mutex, it'd cause a significant latency increase (resulting in lighting artifacts, flashes and other issues) due to the overhead of the mutex as well as waiting for HWInfo to release the mutex. They did actually try this and it introduced issues.

Or ... perhaps ... the software fix is for HWInfo to not access the hardware that causes these issues. Or even have the default to not access it and force the user to opt-in with appropriate warnings. These hardware interfaces aren't intended for third parties to access them and they aren't published. As a PM, when you have a dev tell you that they discovered an undocumented API in the Windows API and they are using it, does that fill you with warm fuzzies? (It shouldn't - accessing an undocumented API is always a dangerous and risky thing). Same thing here.

As for the other stuff - it sounds like an awesome device. I'd like the same.

Actually, it is an easy fix that a user can do in 10 seconds. Disable the Corsair Link/Asetek support in HWInfo. Works like a charm. I run HWInfo all the time.

 

The hardware can only support a single device accessing it at a time. Period. So not a software issue. With the Pro series and higher cooler with dynamic lighting - or with the Commander Pro and dynamic lighting - iCUE is accessing the device all the time. If they did a system-wide mutex, it'd cause a significant latency increase (resulting in lighting artifacts, flashes and other issues) due to the overhead of the mutex as well as waiting for HWInfo to release the mutex. They did actually try this and it introduced issues.

 

Or ... perhaps ... the software fix is for HWInfo to not access the hardware that causes these issues. Or even have the default to not access it and force the user to opt-in with appropriate warnings. These hardware interfaces aren't intended for third parties to access them and they aren't published. As a PM, when you have a dev tell you that they discovered an undocumented API in the Windows API and they are using it, does that fill you with warm fuzzies? (It shouldn't - accessing an undocumented API is always a dangerous and risky thing). Same thing here.

 

As for the other stuff - it sounds like an awesome device. I'd like the same.

I did not know you could disable Corsair link in HWinfo. This is great. Also glad someone else thinks my Corsair product idea was a good one, it came to me in the shower much like most good (or bad) ideas. lol.

I did not know you could disable Corsair link in HWinfo. This is great. Also glad someone else thinks my Corsair product idea was a good one, it came to me in the shower much like most good (or bad) ideas. lol.

In addition, use the "portable" version of HWInfo as it doesn't install persistent drivers.