CORSAIR has just announced iCUE LINK, a novelty that will undoubtedly surprise and delight all those people, whether they are individuals or are dedicated to it professionally, who choose CORSAIR components to assemble equipment and who have a preference for those that integrate REG LED lighting, an aesthetic component that has not stopped gaining presence over the years, while also becoming more popular and appreciated by users. In my case, as an example, at first I didn’t like it, but today I do have a clear preference for equipment, components, peripherals and accessories with this type of lighting.
When assembling a PC with components that have RGB LED lighting we have two options, either choose that they are all from the same manufacturer or that each one is “from their father and their mother”. The advantage of the first case is that, with manufacturers offering a centralized management tool, such as CORSAIR iCUE, lThe lighting of the various components will be synchronized, thus providing a coherent visual composition. With pieces from different manufacturers, the experience will be more similar, in this sense, to a night walk through the town fair.
The current problem is that, as a general rule, it is necessary to connect each of these components independently to their control unit, that is, to the already abundant wiring that we can find inside a PC, and that in addition to making its assembly more complex, can also affect the ventilation flow, in addition to add new surfaces where dust and other external agents that slip inside the PC can accumulate. All these are not major evils, but they certainly complicate the assembly of a PC and its maintenance.
CORSAIR has decided to provide a solution to this with iCUE LINK, a really simple and elegant solution that makes a big difference. When reviewing the web page about this new assembly model, I have read a phrase to define iCUE LINK that I think defines it perfectly and that I liked a lot: One connector to rule them all. And it is that, in addition to appealing to Tolkien, which is always a success, it perfectly defines the new component assembly model with lighting managed through iCUE.
Thus, as you can see in the image shown above this paragraphiCUE LINK allows you to connect, in chain mode, the various components with illumination. For this purpose, each one of them has a microcontroller that provides the necessary intelligence both for the management of its own leds and the connection with the rest of the devices in the chain. This starts at the System Hub, a central hub and controller that is responsible for managing the elements, and can end at any of the components.
According to data from the brand, iCUE LINK It can reduce the assembly time of a high-performance PC by up to 50%, by eliminating the problem of wiring each component to the current model of control unit. And it is that the great advantage is not so much that it saves time as that it makes the process easier, which can encourage many people who have been wanting to build their own PC for a long time, but who until now did not launch because they saw it as too complicated.
Just this morning we learned that CORSAIR has released a major update to the iCUE management software, which, in addition to optimizing the application, has also improved its usability thanks to a more modular design. This undoubtedly shows us the great importance attached by the manufacturer to lighting functions of its components and devices, aware that, as I indicated at the beginning, more and more users prefer this type of function.
The first components compatible with iCUE LINK They will begin to arrive on the market from June and, among them, we will find fans, all-in-one cooling systems and more. You can find more information on their website.
