When you first start up your PC, you may notice some unexpected behavior from your LED strips. They may glow white, or may not glow at all. Don’t panic—like any hardware device, the controller will need drivers (and perhaps a firmware update) to complete your installation. Supports Asus Aura Sync, MSI Mystic Light Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion software, Flexible, RGB LED Controller, supports Daisy Chaining

Depending on your comfort level with programming simple hardware, you might want to use an external controller module; this can add to the fun of the project as well as simplify the color choices and minimize the performance drain on your PC. On the other hand, if you want even more complex synchronized effects and don’t mind running a software suite to do so, you can easily create effects such as smooth color gradients. Many RGB light strips and RGBW strips now come with Bluetooth or wireless connectivity, letting you use your smartphone as a remote control or programming unit.

Dress up Your New Gaming Machine: If you’re looking for a way to make your new gaming machine stand out, an RGB lighting kit can provide some custom aesthetics for a unique look. RGB lighting kits offer millions of color options, and their modular design makes them endlessly configurable. Thus, they enable a degree of personalization most new machines don’t offer from the factory.

The best smart bulbs, in most cases, can save you money too. Whether you pair your lighting with a sensor in your home, or you schedule on/off times using an app, you can enjoy a more convenient way of living and lighting up your home. Similarly, using light strips, you can jazz up any corner of your home at an affordable cost, whether it be your kitchen or gaming PC. A light strip does a lot to increase the ambiance of your space, but sometimes those LEDs can be a little overwhelming, and that’s why we love the Philips Hue Gradient Ambiance Smart Lightstrip. You still get 16 million colors to choose from, though multiple colors can blend together to create a seamless, ombre look. To make for a more enjoyable experience, those tiny LEDs live in a sturdy silicone wrap that features a milky finish. This extra diffusion creates a gentle glow and may even reduce eye strain. In the recent trend to make sure absolutely every PC component is outfitted with RGB LEDs, the major motherboard vendors have kitted out their boards with lighting. We built our example PC with the MSI Z170 Gaming Pro Carbon, which has a fairly subtle LED line tracing around the board and an RGB zone along its right edge. The color is configurable with MSI’s software. It’s a minor lighting element compared to an LED strip, but it does help to illuminate the small details of the motherboard surface. And motherboards are cool! Important Note: RGB and ARGB LED strips are not compatible with each other headers or connectors. This means you cannot use a 12V RGB LED strip on a 3-pin RGB header (5V), and an ARGB LED Strip on a 4-pin 12V header, and if you do so, then you might end up damaging your motherboard RGB header/connector or the RGB LED Strip itself. So, always use the proper header or connector that a particular type of RGB LED Strip supports. If you don’t have RGB headers on your motherboard then you can buy an RGB LED Controller that you can attach inside the case using double-sided tape, velcro, or using a glue gun. Here we have RGB LED Strips from Phanteks, which is a popular hardware brand known for its high-quality PC cases and case fans. It also manufactures CPU coolers, power supplies, and other PC accessories. This Phanteks RGB LED strip comes in 400mm, 1 meter, and 2-meter sizes and is very flexible. The RGB LEDs and magnets in this strip are enclosed in a sealed transparent silicone housing, which also makes it waterproof. The built-in magnets are decent enough to hold on, but they could have been stronger for better grip. You can also use the included 3M double-sided tape to keep the LED strip firm and intact in its place. For connectivity, it comes with a 4-pin (+12V,G,R,B) connector that goes on to the 4-pin RGB header of the motherboard or in an external RGB Controller.Lumens: 2,000 | Color: Adjustable White and RGB | Wattage: 23 watts (80in strip) | Length: 40-inches | Extendable: Yes | Smart Home: Yes | Warranty: 2-year LEDs are known for their very long service lifetimes compared to other forms of lighting. This is true for RGB strip lights too. The individual LEDs have an average lifespan of 50,000 hours. Other factors that affect LED lifespan include the power level and the temperature. A PC RGB LED strip will thus last longer if it (and the PC itself) is kept cool. Over time, typically after five to six years of normal operation, LEDs may begin to shift colors or noticeably lose brightness. Match Your Other Gaming Peripherals: If you’re looking for more design freedom than you get with standard RGB gaming keyboards and other accessories, then configurable RGB products might be excellent gaming peripherals. You can use these to add matching lights to a gaming keyboard, mouse, monitor, and headset. Many kits come with an additional controller that gives you even more freedom to arrange the LED strips however you like. Why RGB Strips Might Not Be For You

Here we have high-quality RGB LED Strips from NZXT that are 30mm long. These are 5V ARGB LED strips that are only compatible with NZXT HUE 2 Lighting Controller, which you have to buy separately. The connector used here is a 4-pin proprietary connector from NZXT, which only works with NZXT HUE 2 Lighting Controller. The LED strip is flexible and the lighting is vibrant and bright enough. The LED strip is waterproof with transparent silicone covering it. The installation is done by the use of built-in magnets, and you can also use double-sided tape for extra grip. The second thing to look for is the type of lighting the strip actually produces. If you’re looking for white lighting, examine the color temperature, and whether it’s adjustable. If you’re shopping for RGB, you’ll want to find out how the strip’s RGB lighting works. Can you set different colors for different sections (or even individual lights), or does changing the color impact the entire strip at once? Is the lighting static, or can it be dynamic? Are there presets and, if there are, can you customize them and create your own?

PSU shroud: Smart lighting means hiding the components you don’t want people to see. Cases with a shroud for the power supply help keep cables and the boxy power supply out of sight. Continue routing the extension cables between the LED strips until they’re all connected. You can fine-tune their location later, but for now, lets move on to the Aer RGB fan. Prefer air cooling? There are RGB air coolers, too. We recently tried out Phononic’s Hex 2.0 cooler, which has a side-mounted RGB logo controllable via software. Most other CPU air coolers we’ve seen don’t have lighting built-in, or are paired with a single-color LED fan, like this one from Deepcool.

While other components will all be helping accent your case, LED strips are going to be doing most of the hard work. You have a ton of options here. Do you want RGB strips that you can change with the press of a button on a remote? Do you run colored lighting or pure white for illumination? How do you attach them to your case? A standard RGB LED Strip from Deepcool that is 550mm long and comes with 12 RGB LEDs. The LED Strip uses a 4-pin (+12V-G-R-B) connector, and for mounting it comes with a built-in magnet and double-faced adhesive. The strip is covered by transparent Silicone material for protection, but the light coming out from the LEDs is not diffused, which is not in the case of white translucent material. The LEDs are bright and the colors look vibrant. The strip is flexible which allows for better placement and makes it non-breakable too. Do you need RGB strips? While they don’t add any functionality to your gaming PC, they’re a great way to add some color or accent lighting to a custom PC you’re building. They also provide a simple and enjoyable way to put some programming skills to use. So if you enjoy hardware and easy wiring tasks, you can experiment with a virtually unlimited array of custom color combinations. You can also add unique design touches to an otherwise drab PC gaming setup. Finally, on a practical level, RGB strips can make it easier to troubleshoot loose cables and make adjustments to your gaming monitor in an otherwise dark room. Each of the major gaming motherboard manufacturers uses its own RGB control software. So whether it’s an LED strip light or a case fan, make sure the product you’re buying supports your motherboard’s RGB software before purchasing. Closing Thoughts Yep, your cooler can join in the RGB party, too. For our build we used an NZXT Kraken cooler, which has an RGB LED built into its pump. The color of the LED was easily configurable with NZXT’s CAM software in Windows. Corsair’s line of liquid coolers mostly have RGB LEDs, too. Unless you go for a more specialized cooling setup, those are both great options, though we prefer the design of the Kraken.Lumens: 1,600 | Color: Adjustable White and RGB | Wattage: 19 watts | Length: 6.7-feet | Extendable: Yes | Smart Home: Yes | Warranty: 2-year RGB stands for red, green, and blue. The three primary colors used in an additive color model to produce a wide spectrum of hues—think millions—based on the different intensities of those three colors. Concerns about Power Usage: If you’re concerned that the additional power draw of RGB lighting will affect your motherboard performance, you might understandably be hesitant to install strip lights on your gaming PC. However, newer 5-Pin RGB headers typically use less power than the older 12V 4-Pin RGB LED header designs. In addition, many modern ARGB strips come with a 3-pin connector type and only use 5 volts. Remember, while RGB strips can produce white, only RGBW strips can produce a clean white like standard light bulbs. Once you know what you need, make sure you measure your space to ensure you get proper coverage. If the length of your light strip doesn’t exactly match the space, see if the strip can be cut or trimmed, and how that could impact the colors it can display.