How do I hook up my fans with all of these extras?

[Without Value]

Hello,

I recently got 4x LL140mm, 1x LL120mm, RGB Fan Hub and a Commander Pro through Amazon. My motherboard (the x570 Gaming Pro Carbon) has a dedicated "Corsair" slot on it and wondering how my fan set up would be with the items I have bought when connecting to this slot (such as: X gets plugged into Y before getting plugged into Z).

As a new builder I am getting pretty confused and overwhelmed with all the new information I am learning, upon getting all of these new shiny (literally) fans with an abundance of wires I am unsure where to start or what order to plug it all into, if I use more than just that one slot on my motherboard, or even if I bought too many of the extras for the fans (like, did I even need the Commander Pro if it came with the Lightning Node Pro?). My end goal is to have full control over my fan curves as well as be able to sync the RGB with my current Vengeance RGB Pro RAM and in the future an AIO cooler from Corsair (once I get some more money...).

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you for taking your time to help me out :)

Here is a picture of the motherboard header in question:

[DevBiker]

Start with the RGB FAQ linked in my signature.
The JCORSAIR header on the MSI motherboards will act as a single channel in a Lighting Node Pro or Commander Pro. So you could put a fan hub on there ... or strips ... but only a single channel.
Commander Pro isn't required for the RGB but it has more functionality than the Lighting Node Pro. In particular, using it to control fan speeds along with the built-in thermistors is pretty powerful and compelling. It also allows you to route fan cables to the back instead of on the motherboard, reducing your visible wires (if managed).

[Without Value]

Originally Posted by DevBiker

Start with the RGB FAQ linked in my signature.
The JCORSAIR header on the MSI motherboards will act as a single channel in a Lighting Node Pro or Commander Pro. So you could put a fan hub on there ... or strips ... but only a single channel.
Commander Pro isn't required for the RGB but it has more functionality than the Lighting Node Pro. In particular, using it to control fan speeds along with the built-in thermistors is pretty powerful and compelling. It also allows you to route fan cables to the back instead of on the motherboard, reducing your visible wires (if managed).

So if I understand it correctly:

Fans into the hub, hub into commander and the single commander cable into that header? Powering the hub and commander separately and plugging the other fan components into the commander as well?

[c-attack]

Ordinarily, no... you leave the Jcorsair header empty unless you really wanted to control them like one long RGB strip through Mystic Light. Since you have a Commander Pro, you are going to be running iCUE anyway, so there is no reason to reduce your lighting options. You will have more (and better) lighting options through iCUE. The Commander Pro will connect to the motherboard via USB 2 (internal) and communicate with the software that way.

Or at least that is the definite answer for anyone not running a new x570 board. You may have already seen that AMD has joined Intel in making the chips super responsive to the way most monitoring programs and you will be keeping Vcore up with iCUE or any other monitoring program running. Now Vcore up and power consumed are not the same thing. My 8700K is Vcore is up all the time, but the cores don't move a single degree and sit placid at the coolant temperature. The cores are relaxed, but the measured Vcore is up. We'll have to see if that holds true for the new Ryzen. So, if that creates an immediate problem for you, the interim solution is 1) set the system up for iCUE as previously described and then set the program's hardware lighting options for running without iCUE. The fans can be made to follow orders by using the temperature probes included with the Commander Pro. Option 2) is put the lighting on the Jcorsair and use mystic light sporadically to change things. You would still need to set the fans up for control via the temp probes to run without iCUE. I don't see a lot of value for option 2. Even the hardware lighting choices for the LL fans will be better in iCUE than Mystic Light that was not designed for them.

[Without Value]

Originally Posted by c-attack

Ordinarily, no... you leave the Jcorsair header empty unless you really wanted to control them like one long RGB strip through Mystic Light. Since you have a Commander Pro, you are going to be running iCUE anyway, so there is no reason to reduce your lighting options. You will have fast more (and better) lighting options through iCUE. The Commander Pro will connect to the motherboard via USB 2 (internal) and communicate with the software that way.

So by the sounds of it, MSI just added that header so you can still control Corsair products with their "Dragon Center" software?

I do prefer to use iCUE for my RGB and fan curves since I have other Corsair products to sync.

Originally Posted by c-attack

The fans can be made to follow orders by using the temperature probes included with the Commander Pro

While I plan on using the temperature probes (not sure where yet, though..) is it still possible to set a fan curve without them (say if the GPU, MOBO or CPU gets to a certain temp)?

[Zotty]

Originally Posted by Without Value

is it still possible to set a fan curve without them (say if the GPU, MOBO or CPU gets to a certain temp)?

Hi bud

Yes you can do that... you get a drop down box to select the temp source when setting up a Custom Fan curve.

Should be noted that iCUE needs to be running for this to continue to work, should you want that sort of option with out running iCUE then you would have to use the probes as the source,,,, hope this helps bud

[DevBiker]

Originally Posted by Without Value

So by the sounds of it, MSI just added that header so you can still control Corsair products with their "Dragon Center" software?

Exactly ... Corsair RGB controlled via Mystic Light.

Originally Posted by Without Value

I do prefer to use iCUE for my RGB and fan curves since I have other Corsair products to sync.

While Mystic Light isn't as bad as some of the other motherboard RGB software out there, it's not as powerful as iCUE either. And it wouldn't be sync'd. So ... yeah. I'm with you there.

Originally Posted by Without Value

While I plan on using the temperature probes (not sure where yet, though..) is it still possible to set a fan curve without them (say if the GPU, MOBO or CPU gets to a certain temp)?

Yes, you can. Just keep in mind that fans will be kickin' it 100% until the software loads. With the temp sensors, the CoPro can do fan speed control without the software running.