Are you building a new gaming PC and want to add some RGB lights for a personal touch? Want to create a gaming area of your own and hope RGB lighting effects can add color to your experience? First you should decide whether you want RGB or ARGB. You may already be familiar with RGB, but what is ARGB? This time I will explain the differences and help you decide which option is right for you.
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Image source: Auros
If you want to add some color to your life, let’s first understand what is RGB and ARGB?
What is RGB?
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RGB means “red, green and blue” (Red, Green and Blue). By mixing the three primary colors, the device can create all colors in the visible spectrum. In the context of PC building, RGB or more precisely “non-addressable RGB” refers to the legacy 12V RGB standard used by many older, cheaper devices. They are especially common on cheap RGB fans and LED strips.
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Each color in an RGB device is emitted by a single light-emitting diode (LED). On most computer components, the red, green, and blue LEDs are packaged in a unit called an SMD LED. The 12V RGB LEDs are wired together and controlled by a 4-pin connector that plugs into some sort of RGB controller or motherboard. The LEDs on the 12V RGB device can change color simultaneously, with static colors, color cycling, flashing lights, fading effects and more.
What is ARGB?
ARGB stands for “Red, Green, Blue Addressable”. Each LED on an ARGB device is individually addressable, meaning you can control each LED independently on a single device. ARGB uses a 5V system and uses only one pin to transmit all color data. You can think of ARGB operating as “digital”, while 12V RGB is more “analog”.
Image source: Razer
What is the best? Naturally ARGB
ARGB is like an improved version of 12V RGB. You can achieve everything that 12V RGB can do, such as static colors, gradient lighting effects, etc. Since you can control each LED, you can create various advanced effects. You can make the lights dance to the beat of the music, get beautiful rainbow waves and spirals, and make them ripple with every keyboard stroke or mouse click. There are also higher level effects such as meteors, sunrises and northern lights, or by synchronizing them with a single game. The best part is that you can sync all your ARGB devices and peripherals to work together. Configure effect settings that start on the keyboard and end on the RGB fans, so when you watch your computer remotely, all effects are synchronized and consistent.
Image source: Govee
But one thing you need to pay attention to is that since there is no standard ARGB technology, some PC hardware manufacturers have their own unique RGB technology, such as Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion and Corsair’s iCUE. If you like to mix and match products from different brands, then you will have a hard time getting all your lights to work together happily. Microsoft is working on a solution for RGB sync, but it’s still in the early stages. Luckily, there are a few different solutions for syncing ARGB, such as using programs like SignalRGB or OpenRGB to sync RGB lighting and still get great effects. However, universal RGB programs have limited scope and compatibility. There are some limitations, basically they work better with peripherals.
Image source: Razer
For internal parts such as RGB chassis, RAM and fans, the best solution is an ARGB splitter, hub or controller, with controllers being the best but most expensive solution, such as the Razer Chroma ARGB controller, which has six connectors, works with almost all ARGB devices. Or you could simply use the same brand for all parts and use their proprietary RGB software.
RGB is cheaper and more than adequate
If you like generic colors but don’t want a rainbow all over your desk, 12V RGB will suffice. You can set static colors for all parts manually or via an RGB program. At the same time, you can connect the 12V RGB hub to the RGB connector on the motherboard and use the motherboard’s proprietary software to control all RGB devices. This is a very simple, fast and convenient solution.
Image source: Govee
RGB and ARGB use different connectors
Traditional RGB devices use 4-pin connectors. The first pin is 12V VDC, followed by the green, red, and blue pins. These pins use an 8-bit per channel system to transmit color data in the intensity range 0-255, since 8 bits can represent up to 256 different values. A value of 0 for red means the red light is off, while 255 means the red intensity is 100%. 12V RGB connectors are still relatively common on motherboards, and these connectors are common on all motherboards.
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The ARGB has the same 4-pin connector but only uses three pins. The first pin is for 5V VDC, followed by the data pin, blank pin and ground pin. On some Gigabyte motherboards, you may find a unique 3-pin VDG connector that is only used by some RGB Fusion compatible devices. Fortunately, you can still use an adapter to connect the standard ARGB connector to the VDG connector.
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Although they appear similar, the 12V RGB and 5V ARGB connectors are not compatible. If you try to connect one to the other, you will permanently damage your parts or they will not work. The easiest way to tell them apart is to check if it has 3 or 4 pins, or just check the markings on the connector/header to see if it is 5V or 12V.
Shine brightly and don’t forget about the quality of life
RGB is very interesting and allows you to enter a unique scene while playing games. You may also find RGB useful because it lets you see keys more clearly in the dark and allows for color coding in macros for individual games.
But RGB shouldn’t just be about the aesthetics of the game. Too many bright lights can easily distract you and even disturb your sleep (if your play space is in your bedroom). Plus, you can save some budget on PC components. Indirect lighting in the style of RGB strips can make computer equipment look interesting without distracting from what’s really important, and it would be even better if there was a switch to turn off the lights when you take a break.
2023-12-27 06:01:33
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