XG7 5700xt rgb

Got a real quick question, think I know the answer already. Got a XG7 for my 5700xt. Got a Gigabyte x570 Auros Elite MB. Can you plug the RGB into the RGB header on the MB? i have searched these forums and can't find a straight answer. I did see some answers on other forums but they weren't straight answers and confusing.

:sigh!:

Thx for any help you can provide.

Not directly. You'd need an adapter for that. It's designed to connect to a Lighting Node Pro but you can either make an adapter (see my signature for the link to part numbers) or buy from a 3rd party (http://www.piratedogtech.com).

Understand this now that I have purchased it. It's too bad that Corsair has chosen to go with their own proprietary gear. So none of your stuff plays well with others. And if this is the case once i get this waterblock on my GPU. It will be the last Corsair product I buy. Over the last 4 years I have purchased about 30 Keyboards and mice. Not that is a big purchase or anything, but I was someone who always supported the brand. A shame we all can't play well together. Will I become a Corsair hater? not at all, just won't suggest them anymore. My Fault for not reading it better also. Will be my last time though. Why make something that is not capable of plugging into a basic RGB header? Ever think that one thing people love, is compatibility. Frustrated with myself for not reading it well before purchasing. Frustrated on the "We are our own"stance Corsair has taken.

Understand this now that I have purchased it. It's too bad that Corsair has chosen to go with their own proprietary gear. So none of your stuff plays well with others. And if this is the case once i get this waterblock on my GPU. It will be the last Corsair product I buy. Over the last 4 years I have purchased about 30 Keyboards and mice. Not that is a big purchase or anything, but I was someone who always supported the brand. A shame we all can't play well together. Will I become a Corsair hater? not at all, just won't suggest them anymore. My Fault for not reading it better also. Will be my last time though. Why make something that is not capable of plugging into a basic RGB header? Ever think that one thing people love, is compatibility. Frustrated with myself for not reading it well before purchasing. Frustrated on the "We are our own"stance Corsair has taken.

 

<RANT>

While I can kinda understand why you feel this way, in all fairness Corsair released addressable RGB devices when no motherboards had it. At all. None. Zero. Zilch-a-mundo. So - it wasn't an option to use motherboard-style connectors. You'll see this with other vendors as well. NZXT (a mish-mash of various assorted different connectors ... ugh!), Barrows (who uses, crazily enough, 3-pin fan connectors), Swiftech (JST-ZH), AquaComputer, Thermaltake (who uses 10-pin USB-style connectors that combine RGB and fan PWM) ... they all have their own connectors for their own ecosystem. And while you can certainly complain about the lack of an industry standard, the reality is ... there isn't an industry standard. And there doesn't seem to be motivation on the part of the industry to get together and agree to one. That's not solely in Corsair's lap - even if they wanted to get everyone to agree, it's not likely to happen. And note that, while of these vendors use different connectors, not a single one is proprietary.

 

Now, certainly, when HydroX was released, motherboard-based addressable RGB was available. But they also has a large customer base with their stuff. Do they tell customers that have already invested in their ecosystem to throw out all of their stuff? That'll go over well. Furthermore, why exclude those users that are "still" running z270, z170 or even earlier boards? Or those current-generation motherboards that don't have RGB (or, if they do, only analog RGB) connectors built in? Furthermore, these aren't an industry standard. They are a hacked version of the 12V 5050 connectors (with one pin missing) that have become common primarily through the overwhelming market force of Asus (and, to a lesser extent, MSI). That Asus-style connector, in all honesty, is garbage and was likely chosen because it was super-cheap for them to put on the boards since all they had to do was remove a single pin from connectors that they already had laying around. And when the first came out, nothing supported that connector.

 

As for "proprietary" - Corsair's connectors are not proprietary. They are Molex SL-series connectors (https://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=sl_connectors). Part numbers for these can be found in the link to "Making and Repairing RGB cables" in my signature. The LEDs that they use are standard WS2812B addressable RGB - just like everyone uses. And, to be honest, the connector that they use is much better for the use case than that hack job of a motherboard connector introduced (yes, introduced ... as in, it didn't exist, no one used it and it was nowhere to be found) when the z370 motherboards came out. These "Aura-style" connectors don't have an official name or standard because, well, they just made them up on the spot. And the big problem with them (and it's a big issue) is that they only have a friction lock - they do tend to wiggle loose. The Molex SL series have a latch lock; they don't wiggle loose. Ever.

 

Now, the closest thing to a standard for addressable RGB at the time that Corsair's addressable RGB came out was JST-SM connectors. If you read the docs for the Lian-Li Strimer, they even refer to the JST-SM connector on the Strimer as a "standard" addressable RGB connector. If you look on Amazon, you can get a truckload of addressable RGB strips with JST-SM connectors on them. But JST-SM is rather bulky and it doesn't have a wire-to-board interface (Molex SL does). Between the bulkiness of the connector and the lack of the wire-to-board interface, it makes a poor choice for internal computer addressable RGB. It's great for stringing RGB across the room with just a wire-to-wire interface where you aren't constrained by tight spaces ... but that doesn't really describe the use case well. Molex SL is one of the few connector systems from either Molex or JST that has wire-to-wire and wire-to-board interfaces.

</RANT>

Yep I agree with most of what you said. I guess I was just frustrated that something as simple as adapter cables couldn't be included.

There should be a standard. Unfortunately MB manufacturers and the like can't get it together. There doesn't have to be a set standard but one common connection could be used. And if just a couple of companies decided to play nice together a common could be found. A good example would be the vape community and the "510" connection for tanks. A standard wasn't set, but widely accepted.

However I don't accept the concept of they had a large base of customers as a reason as not to move forward with something different. That to me is an easy cop out. You have to move on sometime and things change. So the question is, are we going to change with the community or gonna stay with what we have. It's a dice roll.

All of this being said it still makes myself and many others having to purchase something else to make this work. When a couple of adapters for an additional cost in the package would have been easy fix and would have made me and many new customers happy and they would have an even larger customer base. :)