RGB theoretical question

[Zak33]

Here's a theoretical question:

You have a new item of PC technology - you might have purchased it, won it, been gifted it, or got it sent to you as a warranty replacement. The "how did you get it" is irrelevent.

It has an RGB elelement to it - lets not look at whether it's addressable RGB, easy or hard to activate, needs or doesn't need software.



Do you activate the RBG element of the hardware? Or do you leave it "off", whether that's switched off, or not fitted....

[Ttaskmaster]

Do I need to even answer this one?

[DanceswithUnix]

From experience...

I switch it off. I then get a BIOS update, which switches it back to the default of on. I switch it off.

Next BIOS update I don't bother and just leave it. I don't like it, but I don't care enough.

My mouse seems to understand that it should stay dark.

[cptwhite_uk]

Previously I would have said no, and obviously it doesn't make a blind bit of difference practically. However it can make your desk look pretty, and since I've built a few to market recently, it definitely attracts buyers to have a clean and pretty looking PC. So I guess if you can make it look nice, it's a "nice to have" feature.

Here's a few recent examples, this is my early foray into RGB lighting, so don't be too critical:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jNJLxfL2CnSLsvJ47

[Hoonigan]

I like RGB on my things, but I tend to use a single colour, typically purple.

I vote: on.

[Ttaskmaster]

The white Asus/Aorus/AMD build looks pretty good, actually!!

[Output]

I'd leave it off, unless I've decided that it somehow benefits me to have it on.

[Zak33]

I'd leave it off, unless I've decided that it somehow benefits me to have it on.

can you imagine a reason why it might benefit you?

[stevie lee]

that entirely depends on what the RGB is attached to.

i mainly use the LED lights on PC case fans, so i know the computers still turned on.
I said to my mum "if the lights are still on, dont turn it off at the wall, you'll break it". its pretty much a silent PC, so the lights stop the 'windows has recovered from unexpected shutdown' errors

light up keyboard and mice, can see them in the dark, so saves on lightbulb electric.

RGB for flashy, ooh pretty colours or ambient'ness, nah, don't use it or like it much, its just a distraction to me.

[Hoonigan]

can you imagine a reason why it might benefit you?

Many manufacturers now have integrations into some popular games where everything can flash red while your health is low, or there's a white flash across your peripherals when a flashbang goes off. They can definitely increase immersion.

One that I particularly liked was with Orcs Must Die: Unchained with the Razer Chroma integration. I have the Razer RGB strips around my desk, a Razer mouse and mousemat, and I had a Razer keyboard at the time, all of which were RGB-laden. That was excellent. It would also use F1 - F12 to indicate your current charge for special attacks and, providing you had told the Chroma Studio where particular strips were, you could even find where you were being attacked from as that edge would flash a brighter red.
Also, different key combinations would flash on the keyboard when they were "recharged". And if you swapped classes between games, the RGB lighting would change colours and relevant buttons on the keyboard would be illuminated in a different colour so you knew which were active (WASD, E, F, G, T etc)

All in, I loved it, and the likes of SteelSeries and CORSAIR are getting in on the action now, with great success.

[[GSV]Trig]

My PC is in a cupboard under my desk, it had no windows, my motherboard has red LEDs on it, I don’t care as I can’t see it, I just don’t get the point...

[Pob255]

I've got a great example here, I only have 1 rgb thing on my pc, I got a corsair void pro usb headset, damaged box stock so I got it cheap
the corsair logo on the side is rgb, now as I have to use the iCUE software to get the surround sound dolby on then I might as well set up the rgb, if I could use the surround without iCUE I probably would as it's got a rather steep overhead.

One of the biggest issues with rgb software is that it's near enough bloatware, 1 is ok but you want to avoid having more than 1 bit of rgb control software
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzAeAFudylI

[Output]

can you imagine a reason why it might benefit you?

Perhaps if a lightbulb had stopped working around the location of the PC and it helped to make it easier to find in darkness until the bulb can be replaced.

I did say the "somehow" for a reason, as in most cases there isn't likely to be a good enough reason to bother having it switched on in my opinion. Although Hoonigan's response above does sound like an interesting take on a gaming reason (but likely not one I'd bother with myself either).

[Zak33]

I have seen one RGB keyboard with ingame health bar directly related to the colour of the F keys on the keyboard and I can see that as useful to an extent.

Like Trig, my PC has no glass and is under a desk, so it's irrelevent... but as I work here and see a lot of RGB, some of which looks very impressive I do get that, when well done, it looks the part, if you want your PC the centre of attention.

[cheesemp]

Got to be honest it does get a bit over the top but subtle RGB is fine. My case has red highlights so I got a red LED fan, red LED strip for £2 (direct from China!) and set the GPU logo to red. It looks designed to work together and more premium than the contents actually are. If I had newer kit with some RGB sync capabilities where I could get a nice slow matching colour change then why not. Its when you have RGB on everything spewing a multitude of different colours with no pattern its really nasty - like a tacky house at Christmas with hundreds of mismatched lights and decorations - Its possible to have a nicely decorated house for Christmas - In the same vein its possible to have nice RGB. Just don't go OTT.

[kalniel]

My mechanical keyboard has RGB key lighting, I created a profile for playing Elite which highlights keys for different functions.

A recent motherboard upgrade also included RGB lighting, which I would have programmed to be functional if I could (temperature perhaps) but apparently that was removed in an update, so it's just off.