So, RGB...

LazyGamer

FPS Junkie
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Hadn't had a thing that supporting 'RGB' outside of what's built into motherboards up until I decided to rehome my current desktop from a Fractal Design Define 5 into a Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL. Mostly, despite the Define being a pretty roomy case, and this is with all of the internal drive bays removed, it still felt cramped. The O11 XL is anything but.

Also, since the O11 takes mostly 120mm fans, I decided to grab a pack of cheaper 'RGB' fans. And since the Corsair H115i I'd been using had become pretty inefficient, I grabbed a 360mm AIO for this move which is serving quite nicely. It also has AM4 compatibility for whenever my 9900K at 5.0GHz becomes intolerably slow.

Now, RGB. This ASRock board has two four-pin 'RGB' headers, and one 'ARGB' headers. The AIO uses three-pin ARGB, the fans four-pin; the RAM is its own thing, and the fan in the back is some ancient Corsair.

Thing is, since this is an ASRock board, I think I'm stuck using their software. And I have to use their software (or G.Skill's) to change the memory lighting because it doesn't show up in the BIOS. And that light bar up front is supposed to be 'addressable', but currently is controlled by one of the front buttons. Not sure where I screwed that one up and not in a hurry to dig back into the rats nest in the back of the case to try and fix it just yet either.

And what I'd really like to know is this: is there a better way?

I've fiddled with the colors briefly to try and get a decent white, or at least a matching white, though generally everything's running a bit 'cool', meaning too blue. Better software there would definitely help as the 'R' 'G' 'B' sliders don't update when you switch from one target to another, so you're basically starting over each time. I've looked into 'controllers', but so far I'm not finding anything with good software, let alone anything that can claim to be able to control all the different lights on the motherboard as well as the RAM. And I'd love to find something that lets you set a good 'neutral'!

127228012_284079449710178_4453149734246637847_n.jpg
 
Nice man, even tho I probably would find it a bit distracting personally.
I like those cases, even tho I dont use glass myself.
 
Ready4Droid said:
If you find a better way, please share as rgb is still a huge mess of proprietary software.
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It's terrible; at this point I'd really just want to pay attention to how well each motherboard manufacturer is doing. I can fault ASRock a bit here, but man, at least it can be brought into a 'working' state, and I've read bits of horror stories from other manufacturers.
Daniel_Doty said:
That's awesome looking man!!!! Good clean job!
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Thanks! Do have a bit of tidying up to do, this was the first 'function check' with the sides on, even still have the plastic protectors on the inside of the glass. Mostly thinking about learning to do cable sheathing or heatshrink wrapping for all of the silly RGB wires, but overall, it's come out pretty nice!
Auer said:
Nice man, even tho I probably would find it a bit distracting personally.
I like those cases, even tho I dont use glass myself.
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You know, I had an Antec P180 pack in the day, and still have the Define R3 that I replaced it with hosting a server build; for a time, I preferred non-descript closed boxes. Still do for the server, so it works!

Where this case fits in is that it's easy to work in, and that it's large enough to have very good cooling as well. I typically preferred smaller cases and have an on-again off-again love affair with ITX, but for my personal workstation, I arrived at a place where I wanted it to look good, to be easy to work on, and to be able to handle whatever hardware I threw at it. The RAM is G.Skill Neo, the AIO has adapters for AM4, and I have room for the 240mm AIOs that come on the current hybrid GPUs, whenever those hit stock.

It's also my first run at something like this, so if it does wind up too distracting, I'll swap it for something else :)
Niner51 said:
Very well done.

Decided to upgrade to a 011 XL a while ago myself, but used 140mm fans on the top and bottom.
View attachment 643
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Thanks!

Still have them of course, no flashy lighting (yet), and I may wind up moving the AIO to the side for a push-pull setup. As it stands I'm quite happy with my 9900K hitting 4.9 AVX / 5.0 non-AVX while running under 90c. Should be able to handle a 5900 or 5950 with ease in here.

Also, the vertical GPU mount - I considered that, but was put off by how it is a pretty janky arrangement. Not that it doesn't look great in your setup, my 1080Ti is **** ugly by modern standards, but I just wasn't impressed with how Lian Li implemented it with it taking up so many slots. I was hoping that they'd move it further toward the left side - higher off the board - and used the panel that's 'above' the slots instead.
 
LazyGamer said:
Also, the vertical GPU mount - I considered that, but was put off by how it is a pretty janky arrangement.
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I went with the Cablemod GPU mount and am very happy with that. The Lian Li one seemed very low to me and barely clears the bottom fans from what I could tell on other builds. I also don't use the RGB all the time with my build, mainly took that picture for aesthetic purposes. Just use a static color 99% of the time.
 
Niner51 said:
I went with the Cablemod GPU mount and am very happy with that. The Lian Li one seemed very low to me and barely clears the bottom fans from what I could tell on other builds.
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I thought I was going to use the Lian Li one when I bought the case, I'll look into the Cablemod one, thanks
Niner51 said:
I also don't use the RGB all the time with my build, mainly took that picture for aesthetic purposes. Just use a static color 99% of the time.
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Yeah, I'm going for a static white. I have no need for pulsing, at least that I know of; perhaps if there's a reason to change the color I might, just so I can. But I'm a fan of white.
 
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