I got so fed up with different control software that I simply went with OpenRGB when I builty my new PC in May. It controls the lighting on my Fractal fans, EK AIO, Corsair RAM, Corsair keyboard and Razer mouse whilst using virtually zero resources.

You should keep it at 6 not override to 12 - the count is there to get effects correct for waves etc, not anything to do with power. You have 6 addresses out of your maximum of 8.

Just built my first pc using your videos for reference. Now I’m going through your videos about tuning. Built in the NV5 with a 13700k/7800XT using the phanteks glacier one and their d30 fans.

We desperately need newer standards in this segment, preferably both for the interface and software. OpenRGB does help, but they can also only do so much with reverse engineering. In the meantime I have a rPI Pico with Corsair Link emulation and some soldered ARGB connectors, but the box looks nice as well, as long as it works with OpenRGB (because the Pico emulating a Corsair Lighting node pro, it can only run 2 headers, not 6). Also you should probably set the LEDs to the number of controllable LED groups. So the 12x strip should be 6, not 12, because it can only control 6 groups. It needs the count not for power or anything physical, but to be able to correctly do effects. So for something like a ping on the strip if you set it to 12, but it only has 6 groups it will cycle to LED 1-6 and you will see it, and then continue with 7-12 which doesn't exist, so you can't see anything as it addresses LED groups that don't exist. So you should probably just let it figure out the count on its own.

I really like the narrative style you use to present your topics. Even though I am not so interested in RGB, I found your presentation very interesting. This is why I rarely miss your videos.

Being able to give the ports a "user friendly alias" would be great. That way it can use Port4 internally but you can see Rez, or front bottom fan, etc

That overcurrent warning is super cool to see. ASUS need to implement that. Would be interesting to see if other companies eg corsair, lian li have that.

About the Molex, apparently high LED count controllers use Molex because SATA just can't provide enough juice to reach higher numbers

Jay, a Molex connector can deliver up to about 130 watts on the 12v line depending on the quality of the wiring backing it up; SATA can't do that. A SATA 15-pin connector is designed to deliver a maximum of 1.5 amps of current at 3.3 volts and 5 volts and 2.0 amps at 12 volts.

Being able to get different effects, depending on the position of the components in the virtual layout is actually pretty awesome, because effects will stretch over the whole plane. This way, especially rain or the effects that run from side to side, are represented 1:1 in the real world, and you will see the colors changing in the order there are laid out physically.

I have one of these for my build, I have too many rgb devices for my motherboard headers and I did not want any splitters in my build. I love this little box and will definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to build with a bunch of rgb devices. I did have an issue with the 3pin connectors staying plugged in, but I made it work once I cable managed everything together.

11:14 but if you set it to 12 if there is only 6 "pairs" any light effects will be shown only half way.

I bought one of these as well, and one of the reasons was it's compatibility. (Plus I have a Razor mouse and headphone stand.) I love it. Agree with some of the usability issues of Synapse but it gets the job done.

I just finished setting up one of these in my system to handle my Phanteks D30 fans with SignalRGB. It works great and was easy to set up. I did have to re-wire a few things though since it will only handle 2 of the fans per channel. Other than that it's pretty awesome. Especially for only being $40.

Been using this exact controller for 2 years and absolutely love it! Been able to make the fan blades one color and the rgb rings on the fan frame a different color. Have never had an issue or a bugged update. I do agree that they need a way to rename the connected devices though. Thanks for doing this video!

Jay could do a whole month of comparing and contrasting Signal RGB vs OpenRGB and testing em with different hardware.

@jayztwocents you need to break down the fans into separate fans on the software (fine to wire them in series still). You do this on that first screen you were on with the controller by selecting "add fan". Then divide the number of LEDs up between the fans. It means you can then have different effect on each fan as well. And in the studio you can also name them

I actually used this exact box and 6 argb strips to make a budget ambient back light system my setup. You can use the ambient awareness function and have a system similar to the Phillips back lighting system for a fraction of the cost.

Arctic have rgb box cheap and easy to use works fine over years and ther fanhub too works fine ! :)

Tbh, I just bought a Chinese RGB controller on AliExpress (7,55 $) and it's driven by a remote. The only thing that is linked to my PC is the SATA power and the USB 3.0 cable to insert the light show/program that I want. Once it's done, I remove the USB cable, I close the software, and from this moment all my RGB thingies are just controlled by my remote. No CPU resources used. No RAM space wasted. And the best part is that I just have to click on one button of the remote to shut it down when I go to bed (because my PC is next to my bed and I hate having a UFO with flashing lights trying to blind me when I'm trying to fall asleep ^^).

Looks like a great box! I’d love to see a video on how much system resources is used by each brands software to find a definitive winner from an efficiency standpoint.

that blue loading ring on the mouse cursor does the same for me & i figured out its because of the lian li software & soon as close out of it from system tree

Ive been using one for 3 years now to sync my non corsair products to signal RGB. I often get drops though as not all three pin connectors are built equally. Some wedge snug others fall out over time. I've remedied by wrapping with black Teflon tape to make up difference in connector width.

16:09 the grid is basically a large bitmap but razer isnt rendering the bitmap so you dont know what the colors will be, they should look at how signal does it and make their background of that grid the actual bitmap so its easier to judge.

I have one of these controllers and while I'm no longer using it, I did have good experiences with it (when I had Razor devices especially). I agree with you that RGB hardware and software in general is a mess and it would be nice if the companies would cooperate with each other.

Dannng I weas looking for a video about this product for some time now. Got similiar problem in my system and was wondering how capable this little box is. Thanks Jay!

Thanks so much for making this video! I am putting together a computer for a friend and the board I am using is an older Z370 that only has a 12v rgb Header! Absolutely perfect timing

Yeah this ARGB hub is awesome, i've used mine since it came out!

Been loving the channel as a new PC user!

Great thing about synapse is that you can use it for lots of other companies components and peripherals like MSI, Asrock Lian li etc. I use synapse for all my razor peripherals with my corsair icue fans+ adapter and argb aio to the chroma hub and msi gpu all detected and working.

I used the razer argb hub because i had zero argb headers on my motherboard and it works great, i use signal argb to keep everything together and easy, only downside is its really hard to remove argb connections from the hub, takes a very strong grip! Other than that its great

I'm surprised you're only just getting one of these, Jay. I was given one of these as a test sample a month before they were released and I was able to give feedback as well. I've been messing with the different effects for a few years now, so I may be able to help if you have any issues. I've never tried any other controller and I doubt I ever will. The only thing is I believe you can still only use 1 of these controllers per computer, which sucks since I have way more than 6 rgb devices and some need to share effects.

This is actually helpful for my sons PC we just built. Thank you for sharing and explaining this.

I've been using the Razer Chroma module for a couple of years now and have been very happy with it. I am also overloading it but only once in a great while does it show that warning message and once I shut down the system and power it back up again, it works just fine.

Thank you jay i was looking for this tape of controller .

I went total Lian Li. Their 3 packs have the controller that can handle up to 8 fans with leds etc. Daisy chaining and only connector helps a lot. Takes 2 Satas to power it fully though...

Aw man, about time. This thing is awesome. I've had mine for years. As others have said, the led count is for effects, not for a total. Having a higher count then what's actually addressable isn't too bad, but having less will have the end of the strip not light up. Also, it's molex for a reason. It's a higher power spec, allowing the device to actually power a huge amount of LED's per channel.

I used to have that same controller and I remember being upset about the molex connection but I guess it needs that as it can provide more power than a data connection and that’s how it is able to support 80 leds on each channel

You cannot install 2 of them on the same system! It is documented by razor on their website. Only 1. Also if you have phantek fans or other argb phantek, you won't be able to properly fit them. I bought some y adapter online to fix this issue cause it did cause a lot of problem.

I picked up the Razer Chroma early this year. I'm running 5 Be Quiet light wings fans through it. I control the lighting on my fans, ram, gpu and keyboard with Signal RGB. It takes a little work, but everything looks amazing. Signal has a few videos on KZfaq to help you set it up.

This is what I use in my custom Batman build with Arctic ARGB fans. Its sooooo good, by far the best thing I've come across for customisation. Effectively have 3 different effects behind different bat logos.

Been using the 1st gen version since it came out, its really useful. Only downside is the ports are a touch too large to for the cable to stay in snug on its own.

Yo Jay this video was a real live saver for me! When I set up my system roughly 4 years ago I bought a little box with sata power that connects to the motherboard rgb header and has like 9 rgb ports on it. I'm rocking static green color and everything seemed fine (I have like 16 RGB devices in my system so I daisy chained a few of those 9 ports). About 3 months ago the RGB on my GPU block started to go nuts. It would color cycle, some LEDs would randomly turn off/on etc. I was gonna drain/refill it over new years anyway so I began researching how to swap the RGB strip in my GPU Block, as I figured that was the problem. That is until I saw your video. I tried to change it to pure white as you said, and just like that it began to act strange on all my RGB stuff. So I bought the same razer box you picked up and just like that everything is working fine again. The GPU instantly went back to normal. To relieve the stress I put what I could on the razer box and left everything else on my sata splitter box. Anyway, I just wanted to say that this video saved me the headache of taking apart my GPU block, replacing the LED strip only for it to not even fix my problem! Also probs to Razer, the box actually works just fine with SignalRGB! Thank you so much for the awesome content and hard work and good luck with your health in 2024!

I have one of these, and the only gripe I had with it is the sockets for the RGB plugs were too tight and hard to plug in. And since you can't see the pins while you do it, I ended up bending pins. So I ended up taking the case apart and ditching the top cover, and putting magnets on the bottom. I only kept the bottom plastic intact. It works great.

I bought a Corsair hub for my new build and was grumpy because I just use Synapse for my peripherals...returning it and getting one or 2 of the Razer! Thanks!!! 11 fans, 2 reservoirs...that should cover it nicely. Just have to deal with onboard lighting for the MoBo and RAM. Which sucks, but doable. Drives me crazy...I don't want/need fancy FX, just a solid color with a dimmer. Yeesh. Having finished the video now, yes, 1000% getting these over the Corsair. This is going to make things SOOO much easier. I had no idea these were a thing. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

I went with razer chroma on my build at the beginning of the year. Also have be quiet fans and an nzxt elite 360 aio with an nzxt fan conntroller. That way i can use razer for all my lighting and nzxt cam for my cooling. It works great and looks awesome in a corsair 5000d flow

I use and love this device. All my gaming builds I make us of server motherboards. Servers motherboards don't have RGB but with this device they do.

I've been using this for awhile! It's great, you can save profiles and they have a cloud save too!

Picked this up last week in order to work around an matx motherboard that had no argb headers. It works great, glad to see some cool customization options from your perspective!

Found this on amazon the other day was gonna ordering but wasn't sure if I could put 3 fans per channel, now I am thanks!

This was an awesome style video. Do more of these!

Been using one of these since 2021. I had to RMA the first one because two of the ports died, but the replacement has been solid. It's been being used in combination with SignalRGB as I have another third party controller that is no longer made in combination with it to give me a total of 14 individually controlled headers.

This is a really cool little toy. TYSM for sharing it Jay!

I have corsair icue setup with a dynamic temperature profile. Its rather useful because I can glance at my pc and see about where my temps are from the scale I set

I've wanted this for a long time and it looks like the software might even be good. huge razer w.

Thanks, Jay! This answers the problem that I am having with my build. I'll set it to rainbow with MSI then I'll come back and it's off. Great Video.

Signal RGB works with the Razor Chroma Controller perfectly. I also have Lian-Li controller that works well too. Only problem is that the refresh rate is slow when you have more than two channels. Signal RGB doesn’t have any data for EK parts but they are basically LED strip and can be manually added.

Honestly super cool to see Jay showcase products like this. I didn’t know if even existed before now 😮

I have the croma hub as well. That along with an Asrock z790 Taichi and corsair vengeance RGB ram. I use Signal RGB to control it all in 1 program. It even does my Rival 600 and GMMK pro. They are adding support for all kinds of things all the time. I know it also works with Mystic light and Aura as well. 1 piece of software to run them all...

Idk if anyone else noticed this but the 12 led strip that are in parallel got brighter when you switched it I think it gives it more power to feed the extra legs you input it in the tool.

I just stuck an esp32 with wled on in the side of the case. Works fine. Addresses upto 256 LEDs without a problem. Unlimited customisation for less than $5

I use this controller with signal rgb. I have the lian li al120 fans (9 of them) and this controller works really well to control the argb with signal rgb.

The led count in the software is for the series count, it doesn't care about parallel. It needs series to address properly. Setting your dual string of 6 to 12 just tells it its 12 led's long so in reality you have 6 extra addressed led's that dont exist.

Another option for this would be an aquacomputer quadro or octo paired with an aquacomputer farbwerk or something else that runs over the RGBPX bus that aquacomputer have, that would sort you for fan control and also RGB all in one piece of software

I just built a new system using a Lian Li o11 dynamic Razer edition case, ASRock Taichi Razer motherboard, and Razer 140mm fans exhausting out the top. However my intake fans are Pccooler fans and they would not communicate with the argb header on the motherboard. So I plugged everything into one of these Razer control boxes and everything is working flawlessly now. It was definitely worth the purchase!

I have been using this controller for a couple of years. It works great. You should check out the ambient awareness effect. I use it to create an ambilight effect behind my monitor and under my desk it looks sick!

I bought one of these and it works absolutely excellent. I too was having the same problem. I was also so tired of having multiple RGB softwares, so when I would go and turn on my computer I would have like six different softwares trying to boot and it would slow it down. But this controller has seem to take care of all of that in my system. It works awesome. I've had no problems with razer products. And this is no different. It's a good product and it took care of the problem. My motherboard doesn't have RGB headers. So that was the whole reason I got this.

My first thought was to just connect 12v to 5v rectifiers to the 12v controller, something like 7805 rectifiers. But that would probably have its own share of issues and possibly won't work correctly if it uses variable voltage to change the colors instead of pwm.

Look at the task manger, signal rgb is constantly sending data and cpu cycles, it is constant. Similar for this too.

Since I have a razer mouse and keyboard, I snagged one of these a few months ago. It's been great so far! MSI dragon center for RAM and MOBO lighting. The rest is on the Razer chroma controller.

The price for this is really good. I have a couple of "dumb" RGB hubs that were about 20 bucks each. They are SATA powered to take the load off of the motherboard header, but they just split the signal 8 ways and still leave Armoury Crate controlling everything. The shortcoming of this is that all the LED strips, fans, or whatever other RGB devices split off of the hub need to have close to the same number of LEDs or the lighting can look like it's not synced. It works with all motherboards that have RGB control since it just plugs into the ARGB header on the motherboard directly for the lighting signal and any open SATA power connector from the PSU. I bought them on Amazon years ago and they are made by XSPC. They also make hubs that look identical for 12v RGB and PWM fans, so be careful and double check if buying them.

I am quite new and built my first pc a week ago (i9 13900kf and rtx 4070ti on a gigabyte z790 uc ad). Everything is good except for not having enough rgb headers lol. I swear this video couldn’t have come at a better time for me lol. Appreciate the work you do Jay! Cheers from 🇨🇦

it also gave you three notifications ...white being dim,,,all red (common OC symbol) and then the software...sounds well made and exactly what i need...im getting one

You can use argb spliter with sata or molex connectors it’s deliver power from psu and you can forget about overcurrent. It crabs + and ground from psu and ground and data from controller.

Well done, very informative!!!

Merry Christmas Jay and family thank for the years of pc content.

Cool video. Since I discovered signal RGB over this past year I've been getting heavily into creating very cool aRGB setups with many regions. Signal RGB allows me to create phenomenal looking light shows with even cheap RGB fans. Course it takes a bit of tweaking and know-how but once I got to understand that program it is quite impressive. Forget icue😅....

the powerdraw thing, can just be fixed by using 5v and gnd from a different source, and only wire up a 2nd ground and digital wire to the mainboard/controller

The Razer hub is really good, currently using it together with my MB to get 8 dedicated ports with one of them connected to another replicating hub providing power to some fans with a mirrored effect. It is basically invisible with only the USB plug connected and works perfectly on Linux with OpenRGB.

Thank you, needed a solution for my ARGB fans. Just bought it!

Razer Chroma fixed my rgb on the Inwin Dubili. 2.5" drive mount is absolutely clutch. i have this on a usb splitter and it still work: better than a lian li controller in that aspect.

I love this thing. As soon as I saw the thumbnail I thought it was what it was. I use this and the Razer PWN fan controller to control everything in my customized Alienware Graphics Amplifier

I use that very same Razer ARGB Hub in my system, i have a total of 14 ARGB Devices (11 Fans, 2 RGB Strips and the EK Waterblock) all connected, I use the different ports for different fans (3 Intake Fans at front, 3 Fans on Radiator 1, 3 Fans on Radiator 2, 2 fans on Radiator 3, 2 LED Strips and the ARGB Water block. Best hub i have ever used so far

Same thing happened on my Z690 Maximus Extreme. Whenever there is updates on Armory Crate related to the board it will default to those lights. I chose not to run the hub though I ended up just splitting my ARGB between the 2 ports. Hope it works for anyone else in the same situation.

the constant blinking loading circle next to the cursor happened to me as well, I found it coming from armory crate. Fixed once I forced update it.

I have one of these and earlier version it never worked right, and I had to use hot glue to stop the ARGB connectors from falling out. It’s now in a box with all the other RGB stuff that never worked right.

I have been using this box with my Z390 for years, it is great and mfg/oem agnostic

I'm using Cooler Master hubs. They work perfectly and allow you to change each connected device individually. One of the two is ARGB 2. And the software works decently enough. Always make a backup of your profiles when you finish though. It always messes with them when you update the software and updating is mandatory. The only thing I hate about it.

Awesome ! Good stuff! Thanks j

I bought 2 interfaces from Coolermaster, I have almost the same number of LEDs, with one exception, I have 4 strings of UV LEDs, and they are connected to the 4 pin 12V connector. Because they either have to be on or off. Functions perfectly. And works with Aura Sync. I have a be quiet case and took out the controller, precisely because I only wanted to work with one type of software. I can also fully adjust the RGB of my Corsair memory and of the GPU as well.

Very cool video, keep up the good work!

My son has a few things he will get at Christmas to start building a new PC, bought something similar to handle the fans and RGB, the Deepcool SC790, hoping it works as well as tge Razer one does

As someone who has been using Razer products for nearly 15 years now, I'd like to point out that Razer Synapse 3 has a memory leak right now where it slowly uses more and more memory over time, however the Task Manager and similar tools (Resource Monitor, Process Hacker, etc) won't show any Razer processes using high amounts of memory. You'll realize it's Razer's software when you restart the "Razer Game Manager" service and suddenly your RAM usage drops by 10+ gigabytes.

Don't be afraid Jay. Ditch the RGB.

This is why people Love/Hate RGB. Like I like RGB when it works. It allows a level of customization that is really nice. But getting it all to work, play nice, and scale is not easy. And sometimes you can't even tell why it's not working. I'm glad you found something you thing will work for you.

Jayyyyy same! My mouse has that ring in it and sometimes it won’t go away

I have 4 in my rig, the only downside to synapse (last time i checked) is it will only recognize 1 controller where as openRGB and signal rgb(i currently use this one) will recognize all of them. I would definitely go back to synapse if they would change it to recognize more than 1 controller at the same time

As an base statement - all RGB and FANs and water cooling control stuff should be standardized anf be open source. Ot should be no problem what hardware area you use - the hardware and software compatibility should be proof and safe to use.

I've been using the Synapse 4 Beta for a few weeks. Loads much faster than 3. Feels snappier for what I need it for.

Signal is so much better! Please do a little review on signal. I absolutely love it. Everything that you showcased there in razer studio is significantly improved in signalRGB Currently using Lianli strimer v2, 6 cooler master halo fans, 1 ek rgb fan, and a gpu 12 LED holder. All connected via the razer chroma. So in total I exceed the total amount the controller can “handle” but still works great. Thanks for all the awesome videos as always❤