**A Rant About RGB Fans and Their Industry Practices**

I recently had to spend an extra $60 to buy an eye commander just to look at my fans, specifically my new HD 120 S RGB fans. I was excited to see how they would perform, but as it turned out, the extra cost of their RGB implementation was not worth it for me. If you look at this 3-pack on Newegg at the moment, it costs around $78, which is a sale price that can usually be found for $90. However, I decided to take the sale price just to give a benefit to the RGB implementation.

One of the issues I have with these fans is their proprietary plug connector. This connector makes it difficult to unplug and reinsert the fan into its socket, as it has an extra SATA power that needs to be powered for the RGB feature to work. If you're using a modular power supply, this can cause problems because you'll need an additional cable just to power this connector, which is frustrating.

While talking about these fans brings me to my second caveat: cost. The HD 120 S RGB fans are significantly more expensive than their non-RGB counterparts, the Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3. A single fan from Be Quiet! goes for around $20, but the HD 120 S RGB fan costs $30. If you were to buy three fans, that's an extra $12 compared to buying the non-RGB option. However, this is not just about the cost; it's also about compatibility.

The issue with these fans is that they don't work with other brands' RGB systems. For example, if you want to add a lighting strip to your system and also use a different fan brand that has an RGB feature, you'll need to find one that is compatible with your existing system. This makes it difficult for users to choose products that will fit together seamlessly.

Another problem I have with these fans is the lack of cross-compatibility between brands. This proprietary connector that comes with the NZXT H500 lighting strip won't work with other fans, even if they are from a different brand and are specifically designed to be RGB-compatible. This means that users can only choose products from one specific brand if they want to use their system's RGB feature.

The industry around RGB accessories is not always transparent about what you can expect when it comes to compatibility and cost. This makes it difficult for users to make informed decisions about which products to buy and how much they will cost in the long run. The extra cost of RGB features, such as the proprietary connector that comes with these fans, may seem like a small price to pay upfront, but it can add up quickly.

If you're a beginner, this lack of transparency can be overwhelming. You'll already need to worry about what CPU works with your motherboard and which graphics card you should get, let alone trying to figure out which RGB accessories are compatible with each other. It's frustrating to have so many options available, but not being able to make informed decisions because the industry is not always clear.

Overall, my experience with these fans has left me frustrated with the industry around RGB accessories. While I understand that the extra cost of RGB features may be worth it for some users, I'm not convinced. The proprietary connectors and lack of cross-compatibility between brands can make it difficult to make informed decisions about which products to buy.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere are two things about RGB that really irritates me and if an RGB implementation has either of these problems it's pretty much a deal-breaker now the first example I'm going to use for my issue with RGB is a reven cooler I did a review on recently and it's pretty much a cooler master hyper 212 Evo with an RGB fan on it now the problem with the implementation on this is that the RGB fan is one of the main selling points of this cooler although it has two connectors so you've got the normal four pin PWM connector and then you've got another four Panaji be connected now this isn't too much of an issue but it does mean that it's an extra cable that you have to route and then because of where RGB headers usually are on motherboards your it's not gonna reach so then you have to get an extension cord to get it to go around back and that's just a bit of a pain and then when I did find me get it to reach the actual RGB header for some reason gigabyte uses a different header than everyone else they use a 5 pin RGB header so it meant that I couldn't use the RGB on it because of some weird implementation that gigabyte has and that brings me to my second example of it difficult to use RGB implementation now this is a 3-pack of Corsair HD 120 fans now these fans are pretty good and on the actual box here it tells you that it's an RGB LED series of fans that it's got you know 12 independent RGB LEDs per fan and it's got seven unique lighting effects and an easy-access RGB controller and PWM fan control and then on the back it gives you more examples of how the RGB implementation works now nowhere on this box does it say explicitly that you do have RGB implementation through USB but it doesn't say that you don't either and then when you open up the box you're met with this little accessory pouch which comes with with all of this stuff right now this is an actual this is like the RGB fan controller thing right so this doesn't actually control the fan speeds this is purely to plug this RGB header into and I'll get to this connector in a bit but you have this whole thing that you need to put in somewhere and then you have this little remote which is the only way you have to control the RGB so you have to leave this out of your case somehow and then you're able to play with it there isn't a way to plug this into your motherboard which is really irritating because for you to be able to plug these fans into your motherboard and use software control you have to spend an extra 60 dollars to buy an eye commander and just look at that do you have the normal PWM fan connector and then you have this thing hanging off of it as well and honestly this connector is an absolute nightmare because when you plug it in it works quite well all right it kind of sits into the thing quite easily but then to unplug it it it just you it's really difficult to get out the only way that I figured out is you have to stick something in there and push it down and then it still doesn't it's like honestly it's a huge pain to get out and then the problem becomes even worse because this whole connector has an extra SATA power that you need to be able to power the RGB which is really irritating if you're using a modular power supply and only have em not to SSDs in your PC because then you have to add a whole extra modular cable to your power supply just to power this irritating little interface and while talking about these fans it brings me to my second caveat which is cost now if you look at this 3-pack on new egg at the moment it costs you about $78 now this is a sale cost and you can usually get it for $90 but I'm gonna take the sale cost just to give a benefit of the dots to the RGB implementation now if you want to buy a single fan it's $30 now if you look at its closest competitor or just a competitor the be quiet silent winged threes go for about $20 a fan for a version that has a similar airflow performance to these at 55 CFM's for the silent winged threes and 54.4 CFM's for these fans but the silent winged threes perform a lot better when it comes to noise levels so the silent wing 3 is run at 16 decibels as opposed to 50 decibels on these HD 120 s that's a huge difference in noise and then when you're looking at $20 a fan as opposed to $30 a fan if you're buying three fans you're saving $12 going for the non RGB option which is technically a better fan without RGB and then the issue gets kind of worse because you buy these fans thinking that you can kind of plug them into an RGB header on your motherboard but you can't you have to spend extra $60 to get that functionality so that means you have 12 dollars more for the actual fans with another $60 to unlock the full RGB implementation and that's honestly extra price that RGB just isn't worth now there are a lot more examples of the extra cost of RGB but there is actually another thing that really irritates me about the industry around RGB accessories and that's cross compatibility now going back to this really irritating plug connector that I still haven't been able to get out this is a proprietary connector which means that let's say you buy an NZXT H 500 I which comes with a lighting strip and because it's an NZXT product with NZXT RGB in it you decide to go and buy an NZXT hue plus because you want extra functionality and then one day you decide to add RGB fans but you don't want to use NZXT srgb fan because you really like the build quality and the performance of these Corsair fans well you're kind of out of luck there because this connector doesn't work with the hue plus so you use Corsair RGB fans with an otherwise NZXT system and the same goes the other way around so all of these companies have their kind of own RGB ecosystems which makes it more difficult to choose products and honestly if you're a beginner you're already having to worry about watched what CPU works with one motherboard what graphics card you should get then you have to worry about what RGB thing is what connector and with that it brings me to the end of my ridiculous rant in this video let me know in the comments section below what experience you've had with various RGB implementations and if you agree with all of the stuff that I say in this video share it with your friends if you think they'll agree and yeah like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one I've got an Instagram and a Twitter account go check out those and with all of the plugging out of the way thank you very much for watching until the next videothere are two things about RGB that really irritates me and if an RGB implementation has either of these problems it's pretty much a deal-breaker now the first example I'm going to use for my issue with RGB is a reven cooler I did a review on recently and it's pretty much a cooler master hyper 212 Evo with an RGB fan on it now the problem with the implementation on this is that the RGB fan is one of the main selling points of this cooler although it has two connectors so you've got the normal four pin PWM connector and then you've got another four Panaji be connected now this isn't too much of an issue but it does mean that it's an extra cable that you have to route and then because of where RGB headers usually are on motherboards your it's not gonna reach so then you have to get an extension cord to get it to go around back and that's just a bit of a pain and then when I did find me get it to reach the actual RGB header for some reason gigabyte uses a different header than everyone else they use a 5 pin RGB header so it meant that I couldn't use the RGB on it because of some weird implementation that gigabyte has and that brings me to my second example of it difficult to use RGB implementation now this is a 3-pack of Corsair HD 120 fans now these fans are pretty good and on the actual box here it tells you that it's an RGB LED series of fans that it's got you know 12 independent RGB LEDs per fan and it's got seven unique lighting effects and an easy-access RGB controller and PWM fan control and then on the back it gives you more examples of how the RGB implementation works now nowhere on this box does it say explicitly that you do have RGB implementation through USB but it doesn't say that you don't either and then when you open up the box you're met with this little accessory pouch which comes with with all of this stuff right now this is an actual this is like the RGB fan controller thing right so this doesn't actually control the fan speeds this is purely to plug this RGB header into and I'll get to this connector in a bit but you have this whole thing that you need to put in somewhere and then you have this little remote which is the only way you have to control the RGB so you have to leave this out of your case somehow and then you're able to play with it there isn't a way to plug this into your motherboard which is really irritating because for you to be able to plug these fans into your motherboard and use software control you have to spend an extra 60 dollars to buy an eye commander and just look at that do you have the normal PWM fan connector and then you have this thing hanging off of it as well and honestly this connector is an absolute nightmare because when you plug it in it works quite well all right it kind of sits into the thing quite easily but then to unplug it it it just you it's really difficult to get out the only way that I figured out is you have to stick something in there and push it down and then it still doesn't it's like honestly it's a huge pain to get out and then the problem becomes even worse because this whole connector has an extra SATA power that you need to be able to power the RGB which is really irritating if you're using a modular power supply and only have em not to SSDs in your PC because then you have to add a whole extra modular cable to your power supply just to power this irritating little interface and while talking about these fans it brings me to my second caveat which is cost now if you look at this 3-pack on new egg at the moment it costs you about $78 now this is a sale cost and you can usually get it for $90 but I'm gonna take the sale cost just to give a benefit of the dots to the RGB implementation now if you want to buy a single fan it's $30 now if you look at its closest competitor or just a competitor the be quiet silent winged threes go for about $20 a fan for a version that has a similar airflow performance to these at 55 CFM's for the silent winged threes and 54.4 CFM's for these fans but the silent winged threes perform a lot better when it comes to noise levels so the silent wing 3 is run at 16 decibels as opposed to 50 decibels on these HD 120 s that's a huge difference in noise and then when you're looking at $20 a fan as opposed to $30 a fan if you're buying three fans you're saving $12 going for the non RGB option which is technically a better fan without RGB and then the issue gets kind of worse because you buy these fans thinking that you can kind of plug them into an RGB header on your motherboard but you can't you have to spend extra $60 to get that functionality so that means you have 12 dollars more for the actual fans with another $60 to unlock the full RGB implementation and that's honestly extra price that RGB just isn't worth now there are a lot more examples of the extra cost of RGB but there is actually another thing that really irritates me about the industry around RGB accessories and that's cross compatibility now going back to this really irritating plug connector that I still haven't been able to get out this is a proprietary connector which means that let's say you buy an NZXT H 500 I which comes with a lighting strip and because it's an NZXT product with NZXT RGB in it you decide to go and buy an NZXT hue plus because you want extra functionality and then one day you decide to add RGB fans but you don't want to use NZXT srgb fan because you really like the build quality and the performance of these Corsair fans well you're kind of out of luck there because this connector doesn't work with the hue plus so you use Corsair RGB fans with an otherwise NZXT system and the same goes the other way around so all of these companies have their kind of own RGB ecosystems which makes it more difficult to choose products and honestly if you're a beginner you're already having to worry about watched what CPU works with one motherboard what graphics card you should get then you have to worry about what RGB thing is what connector and with that it brings me to the end of my ridiculous rant in this video let me know in the comments section below what experience you've had with various RGB implementations and if you agree with all of the stuff that I say in this video share it with your friends if you think they'll agree and yeah like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one I've got an Instagram and a Twitter account go check out those and with all of the plugging out of the way thank you very much for watching until the next video