In case you have constructed PCs for a very long time, some issues are so ingrained, you assume they’re simply the way in which issues are. You all the time need to fuss with tiny cables to hook up front-panel lights, switches, and ports. Hooking up cables for an armada of cooling followers? Fancy finger work is required to make your PC construct look neat. And any liquid cooler you hook up? Assured, it’ll be a bundle of bits, screws, and snaky cables that will make Medusa blush.
Corsair didn’t clear up these issues in a day, however this week, we noticed promising options to a few of that. We first bought wind of Corsair’s iCUE Hyperlink at CES 2023 behind closed doorways. We then visited with the corporate at Computex 2023, the place iCUE Hyperlink made a splashy debut, successful a Better of Computex award from us. It’s an intensive, proprietary ecosystem of cooling and illumination gear designed to simplify placing collectively high-visibility PC builds. It reduces most connections to only one cable, and it helps you to plug in cooling parts in sequence.
Does it alleviate all the little cable quibbles that we have come to know and detest? No. For now, iCUE Hyperlink solely touches the components of a PC construct that Corsair can exert full management over: cooling and lighting. (Corsair isn’t a motherboard maker, in spite of everything.) However what iCUE Hyperlink does, it does nicely—in case you’re prepared to pay the premium for it.
Corsair despatched over a “VIP Package” comprising a complete host of its iCUE Hyperlink components for a hands-on session with its new product line. We used it to construct out a fairly high-end gaming PC. Here is the way it went.
Wait, Again Up…What’s iCUE Hyperlink Once more?
iCUE, for these conversant in Corsair’s product line, comprehend it as the corporate’s software program for management of lighting and enter units. It is of the identical species as Razer’s Synapse, Logitech’s G Hub, and different vendor-specific entrance ends for his or her ecosystems of desktop-PC gear.
What iCUE Hyperlink does, nonetheless, is add a layer to the software program’s performance: Now, this system acknowledges and controls a subset of your desktop PC’s {hardware} which you can join in sequence—particularly, Corsair’s new iCUE Hyperlink-compatible cooling parts. As a substitute of, for instance, every of your PC followers connecting to separate headers on a motherboard, and your AIO CPU cooler sprouting cables for its radiator followers, a CPU pump-control header, pump and fan RGB headers, and so forth, these units’ connections are unified below a single proprietary cable and a management normal that may join all of them in line. This permits for super-clean cable routing, a discount in cables general, and single-software-panel management over units, which may now be programmed to gentle up or in any other case behave in good sync. Plus, in iCUE Hyperlink, RGB lighting movement management sees some cool enhancements and simplification, permitting for some hanging results.
What new {hardware} is compliant with the usual? Nicely, for now at the very least, it is all Corsair cooling stuff. (We may see others supplying iCUE Hyperlink-compliant gear sooner or later if it takes off, however it’s early days for this.) The iCUE Hyperlink launch line contains PC followers and AIO CPU coolers, together with quite a lot of cable and connector kits. At Computex (and on Corsair’s iCUE Hyperlink gross sales web page) we noticed some samples of upcoming iCUE Hyperlink gear: coolant reservoirs for customized liquid cooling, a few GPU cooling modules, and CPU waterblocks. A given iCUE Hyperlink PC setup requires at the very least one iCUE Hyperlink Hub, a small sq. module which you can place wherever in your sequence of iCUE Hyperlink units. The iCUE Hyperlink Hub attaches to a USB header on the motherboard, and iCUE Hyperlink Hub-compliant units chain off of it in both course.
The System Hub might be on the finish of a tool chain, or in the course of one. (You determine, relying on how you’ve got your PC construct arrange, the iCUE Hyperlink components you employ and the place you need the cable runs to go.) Some iCUE Hyperlink merchandise include a System Hub within the field, or you should buy one individually. One iCUE Hyperlink Hub helps as much as 14 iCUE Hyperlink objects on a series; you’ll be able to add a number of Hubs when you have a actually severe iCUE Hyperlink dependancy, or a wildly difficult construct.
Let’s Get Linking: Constructing Out the System
Corsair despatched us an assortment of iCUE Hyperlink-compatible {hardware} related to the launch. We did not use all of it in our check construct, however we did deploy most.
The corporate additionally offered a Corsair Airflow 5000D ATX tower case to construct a pattern system into. We began with an ASRock Taichi B550 motherboard, an AMD Ryzen 7 5700G chip, some HyperX DDR4 reminiscence, and an AMD Radeon RX 6800 graphics card, together with a WD Blue SSD put in in one of many board’s M.2 slots. We complemented that with a Corsair Shift RM750x energy provide unit (PSU), a modular mannequin with nifty side-mounted connectors.
We put in simply the ability cables onto the PSU physique that we would wish: the 24-pin mainboard connector, 8-pin CPU energy, one string of SATA energy connectors, and each GPU PCI Categorical energy connector strings. (We confess: The latter is a little bit of a cheat, as we solely actually wanted one set for our GPU. However just a little scouting-ahead within the iCUE Hyperlink gear made us plug within the second string preemptively; extra about that later.)
After that, we suffered the standard slings and arrows of the PC builder; tracing out and plugging within the front-panel port connectors, deciphering the header-pin layouts for the switches and LEDs, and hooking up that case wiring to the mainboard. The 2 foremost 8-pin and 24-pin PSU cables went into the board, as nicely. With the core parts put in, it was onward to the iCUE Hyperlink stuff. Our plan was to put in three iCUE Hyperlink RGB followers up entrance, an iCUE Hyperlink AIO RGB CPU cooler up prime, and a fourth iCUE Hyperlink RGB fan within the rear exhaust.
The Corsair 5000D case can accommodate three 120mm followers up entrance, two extra up prime, and one within the again exhaust place. We eliminated the case’s current entrance and rear followers, that are non-RGB spinners, and solid them apart in favor of the three iCUE Hyperlink RGB followers from the corporate’s $159.99 iCUE Hyperlink QX120 RGB Starter Package up entrance. (The Starter Package additionally consists of an iCUE Hyperlink System Hub within the field.) Corsair additionally offered a single-fan iCUE Hyperlink QX120 RGB Growth Package ($49.99) to complement that trio of consumption followers for the rear exhaust.
iCUE Hyperlink followers make use of a particular connector on the sting that connects them in blocks butted up in opposition to one another, snapping collectively like Legos. This sort of factor, in fact, just isn’t new or unique to Corsair. Another fan makers, corresponding to Lian Li, promote premium-design snap-together followers that connect with your PC through one wire set. (A few of them join to at least one one other through magnetic edge connectors.)
Within the case of the iCUE Hyperlink followers, every fan has two rectangular ports on two of the alternative edges; they give the impression of being vaguely like USB Kind-A connectors. (They’re not.) In every case, one port is electrically lively, and the opposite is only a spacer for a plastic bit that helps lock the followers collectively. You utilize offered “clean” and “electrical” connectors to lock the followers collectively in sequence; the joiner items resemble little USB dongles such as you’d get with a wi-fi mouse or keyboard. (You may get extra of those connectors as non-obligatory equipment in a field alone.)
The three entrance followers within the three-fan Starter Package we used got here pre-locked collectively, however right here’s how they give the impression of being going collectively in case you separate them…
Utilizing equipped odd fan screws, we screwed these three followers, as a unit, into the entrance of the case after eradicating the entrance panel, the entrance case filter, and an current fan.
We checked to verify they had been in consumption orientation, with the body facet of the followers going through the within of the case, guaranteeing air influx.
On the highest fringe of the top-most fan, we then plugged an L-bend iCUE Hyperlink cable into the electrically lively USB-like port within the fan edge. (Once more: Not truly USB!)
This may be the primary cable in our iCUE Hyperlink part sequence.
Onward to the CPU Cooler: So A lot Simpler, Even With no Guide
Subsequent up: We put in the CPU cooler. The mannequin in our check package was Corsair’s 240mm iCUE Hyperlink H100i RGB.
We hunted for a paper handbook or a quick-start sheet within the field however as an alternative discovered a QR code inside the highest field flap. Following the code took us to a common iCUE Hyperlink web page, however it wasn’t one particularly for the handbook for our cooler, which we nonetheless couldn’t simply discover. So, we determined to go it alone. (Postscript: You may truly discover it right here.)
The meeting got here with the followers (fortunately!) pre-installed on the radiator…
…together with the standard assortment of brackets for various AMD and Intel CPU sockets. We did have to alter out the mounting bracket on the pump unit from an put in Intel to an AMD bracket set for the AM4 socket on the Taichi B550.
We additionally needed to take away the Taichi motherboard’s current AMD CPU cooler mounts (with 4 screws) and set up the CPU cooler bracket supplied with the cooler by means of the underside of the motherboard. We then screwed the offered 4 posts into the bracket to prepared it for mounting the warmth pump unit.
Thus far, so typical for an AIO cooler. We then positioned the radiator and warmth pump meeting within the case. It might make extra sense to mount the latter portion over the CPU socket first.
With that in thoughts, we mounted the pump unit and its chilly plate (it has a pre-applied sample of thermal paste, as you’ll be able to see a couple of footage up) atop the CPU and screwed it down within the typical cross-wise sample, utilizing the 4 nuts offered within the cooler’s accent pack.
You will observe zero cables coming off the warmth pump unit. What’s nifty right here is that the iCUE Hyperlink management and energy cabling truly runs by means of the weaved sheath over the coolant hose. Whole camouflage: No energy or RGB cables to wrangle from the pump head to the motherboard! That’s tremendous clear and tremendous slick.
We then put in the 240mm radiator into the highest of the case. First, we eliminated the 5000D’s prime fan filter, and screwed the radiator into place with the eight screws and washers supplied with the package. (We first made certain the hoses confronted ahead, and that the arc of the hoses wasn’t too tight.)
The followers for our AIO cooler’s radiator will blow air by means of the radiator, and the air will exit the highest of the chassis.
Now, ordinarily, on an AIO cooler like this, you’d be wiring up the pump header for energy, and probably RGB, together with the followers on the radiator. As a substitute, right here, we merely plugged the iCUE Hyperlink cable from the entrance panel’s fan group right into a port on the forefront of the fan pair on the radiator. (Word! This was a mistake, we discovered later. See these ports within the background, within the two pictures beneath? These wanted to return into play. Extra about that in a bit.)
(As we talked about earlier, on the followers’ finish, we used an L-bend cable from certainly one of Corsair’s offered iCUE Hyperlink cable kits; the corporate sells a number of varieties and lengths.)
Here is the factor: a brief iCUE Hyperlink cable that got here within the cooler’s field is meant to hyperlink the radiator portion of the cooler with the dual followers mounted on it. This loop is just a little kludgy, and just a little tougher to cover than we’d have hoped. (And full disclosure: We failed to attach it till the very finish of this check construct. It wasn’t apparent that it was wanted from the outset, working with no handbook!) However nonetheless, this little connection is far more elegant than the outdated approach, with commonest RGB followers every that includes their very own RGB and energy cable. (Cabling was decreased by 75% proper there!) We then fished out another iCUE Hyperlink cable from the equipment, and plugged it into the iCUE Hyperlink cable port within the rear-facing fringe of the followers to proceed the system sequence.
Here is the place we needed to do a little bit of strategizing. We may have run this wire straight to the rear exhaust fan, which might be our final iCUE Hyperlink system in line. The iCUE Hyperlink Hub that will management all these items, nonetheless, must go someplace. Quite than working this cable to the rear fan, after which having to feed one other cable again out from the rear fan to the System Hub, we routed the cable from the radiator behind the motherboard. And right here we deployed the iCUE Hyperlink Hub that got here with the QX120 Starter Package. (We additionally bought one within the CPU cooler package, in addition to one offered individually. Hub-a-palooza.)
Hubba Hubba: Hooking Up the System Hub
The again of the iCUE Hyperlink System Hub has a magnetic floor that adheres, if not too firmly, to a lot of the clean metallic surfaces within the case. We dropped it within the higher proper on an open floor close to the CPU cooler cutaway. (As soon as we ended up cabling all of it up, we could not get it to fairly keep straight, however nobody can be the wiser as soon as we put the facet of the case on.)
The System Hub, about 2 inches sq., has 4 edge connectors. Two are for plugging within the Hub inline with our iCUE Hyperlink units. However the Hub additionally wants energy, and a approach of speaking to the remainder of the system to regulate the entire chained-together shebang.
The facility a part of that equation might be essentially the most problematic, when you have a high-end GPU however an absence of additional PSU PCI Categorical connectors. Why? For energy, the System Hub would not want what you’d anticipate a tool prefer it to wish (a Serial ATA energy connector), however requires a full-on PSU 6-pin PCI Categorical connector. This, in fact, assumes that you’ve got a spare one unused in your energy provide. It goes right into a pigtail on the System Hub (like proven beneath).
In case you have a higher-end provide, that is possible no downside. However when you have a needy video card that eats up three energy connectors, or an influence provide that has simply two for a two-port video card, you have bought a hurdle right here. You would possibly be capable of get by with third-party converters, splitting off current PCI Categorical connectors or changing SATA energy to PCI Categorical energy, however it won’t be fairly, and you will be by yourself to determine it out. As a result of the System Hub is a vital a part of any iCUE Hyperlink set up, this connector just isn’t negotiable. So, scout out your energy provide’s spare connectors earlier than you spend money on iCUE Hyperlink gear.
We had been okay, in our case; Corsair presciently included in its demo package that 750-watt Shift energy provide with ample connectors. We finally plugged in our Radeon RX 6800 graphics card, which wanted two 8-pin connectors, however the Corsair Shift PSU had an additional string of GPU energy connectors that might feed the necessity of the System Hub.
So, that complication apart, the System Hub’s “speaking to the PC” half is straightforward, against this. You simply plug in a USB 2.0 header cable that is supplied with the Hub, one finish into the underside fringe of the Hub, and the opposite right into a USB 2.0 header socket on the motherboard. Within the case of our B550 Taichi motherboard, we had two such headers, so no downside there.
With these two plugs in place, we had been able to wrap up our Hub connections.
As for the iCUE Hyperlink cable from the CPU cooler, we ran it to the System Hub and plugged into certainly one of its USB-A-like ports.
We then plugged another iCUE Hyperlink L-bend cable into the System Hub (with the identical sort of USB-like port on the alternative facet), and snaked that wire again by means of the case to the exhaust fan’s place in the back of the chassis.
We related that cable’s L-bend finish to the QX120 Growth fan that will go at the back of the chassis, utilizing one of many fan’s electrical connectors…
…and positioned the fan in place.
We then screwed on this rear exhaust fan into place (4 of the standard coarse-thread case fan screws), routing the cable the perfect we may to cover it.
That was it for the iCUE Hyperlink gear. We positioned the hub and smoothed out the (a lot decreased!) cabling behind the motherboard, and put the correct case panel on. After putting in our graphics card, and fixing it to PCI Categorical energy, we buttoned up the opposite facet of the case with its glass panel, reapplied the case prime’s filter, and related as much as monitor and peripherals. It was time to fireside up the system.
That Inevitable First-Boot Stumble
We’ve to admit: As we alluded to earlier, at our first boot, one thing wasn’t fairly proper. The CPU cooler’s pump unit did not gentle up, as you’ll be able to see beneath, however the AIO liquid cooler’s on-radiator followers did…
That is as a result of (as we talked about earlier) we hadn’t put in the loop cable between the AIO cooler’s pair of radiator followers and the radiator unit correct, thus not offering the iCUE Hyperlink sign and energy for the warmth pump on the CPU. Passively cooling a Ryzen 7 desktop chip? Yikes, that is by no means smart, so we shut down immediately, and with just a little looking rectified the issue (i.e., we plugged within the lacking cable).
After that every one was sorted, it was time to play within the iCUE Hyperlink software. We bought right down to putting in Home windows 11, adopted by the endurance spherical of Home windows updates and driver installs. An hour or so later, we had been prepared to put in Corsair’s iCUE software program on the Home windows 11 desktop. We snagged its newest model from Corsair’s web site.
iCUE Hyperlink Software program Configuration: Time Warp and Extra
A wizard contained in the iCUE software program can stroll you thru the preliminary iCUE Hyperlink setup, in case you let it. Assuming all is working as supposed, the appliance acknowledges all the iCUE Hyperlink units within the chain you arrange and maps them out.
If the objects are followers, the software program cleverly lights up a portion of every fan in a unique quadrant, and in a unique coloration, so you’ll be able to establish which fan is which within the precise “actual world” chassis versus its depiction within the software program. You may then drag them across the interface to match the sequence wherein they’re put in within the case.
You may monitor fan speeds and toy with parameters, and arrange customized monitoring dashboards for many of your system’s parts, made up of info-blocks that you simply select, assemble, and drag round. Additionally, you get intelligence into temperatures, with a sensor in every fan detecting the temperature of airflow by means of every.
The true attraction, although, is the granular management over lighting. You may arrange common lighting schemes for all the units within the iCUE Hyperlink Hub chain, with a single coloration flowing by means of all, glowing steadily, or executing elaborate results. A number of the results, known as Murals, apply throughout the chain and cannot be individually tweaked. However you too can design your personal patterns and lighting sequences.
One of the crucial hanging patterns that we noticed demoed at Computex 2023 is the so-called Time Warp fan impact, which creates the phantasm {that a} quickly forward-spinning fan is definitely spinning slowly ahead or backward, or standing nonetheless. The iCUE Hyperlink system pulls off this optical phantasm through some intelligent synchronized strobing of the RGB lighting.
We tried it, and it labored fairly convincingly, although we had been extra enamored with the spinning and flow-through lighting results with the followers spinning in regular orientation. The power to simply synchronize or movement, say, from chassis fan to chassis fan to radiator cooler followers to cooler pump, entrance to again, was fairly hanging. That’s not fully new, in fact, with the arrival of motherboard-based software program management over RGB through the likes of Asus Aura, MSI Mystic Gentle, or ASRock Polychrome. Regardless, this makes setup and management a cinch, with out fighting ARGB versus RGB distinctions, fragile RGB connectors, and a rat’s nest of cables.
Now, in fact, you’ll be able to take this to extremes: a number of radiators with a number of fan units; a number of fan units in blocks located round a big case; the CPU cooler pump unit lit up, in fact, like right here; a GPU liquid cooling block within the sequence; or iCUE Hyperlink-controlled reservoirs in your customized liquid loop. Corsair confirmed off greater than a dozen discrete iCUE Hyperlink Hub merchandise in its first launch wave, and we suspect extra will observe in brief order. Even for constructing a comparatively “fundamental” and conventional high-end gaming PC, like we did, it simplified among the tedious facets of the construct to a noticeable diploma. Plus, the cable routing required to make our construct satisfyingly clear was minimal. You now not have any excuses!
The Verdict: Fairly Trying, and Fairly Easy…at a Value
What’s to not like about iCUE Hyperlink as an idea? On paper, it is nice: Fewer cables; easy cable routing; higher airflow, given that you simply now have much less muddle within the case; no extra urgent on the facet of your case to smush it closed in opposition to the cable mess you made with RGB and energy cables to a half-dozen followers, pumps, and extra.
The most important concern is pricing. As Corsair explains it, every iCUE Hyperlink system requires a microcontroller to manipulate its unbiased operation and set its place within the iCUE Hyperlink chain. That provides expense. So do the System Hubs, and never a nominal one; they run a whopping $59.99 apiece in case you purchase them singly. You could get a System Hub in a package with a cooler or a fan set like we did, however they’re definitely not free; they’re baked into the price of the kits. Rely on that.
To wit: Our 120mm triple fan Starter Package (with a Hub) prices $159.99, and the single-fan Growth Package we used for the rear-panel exhaust is $49.99. The iCUE Hyperlink H100i CPU cooler package is available in at a hefty $199.99. Examine that, say, with the vanilla iCUE H100x RGB Elite, with out iCUE Hyperlink (additionally a 240mm cooler), at $99.99. You are positively paying a premium for the straightforward iCUE Hyperlink performance.
You will get useful cables, in fact, within the bins with the varied iCUE Hyperlink parts you purchase. However if you wish to do something customized or intelligent, corresponding to use an elbow-bend cable to route one thing cleanly out of sight, or get a protracted or quick cable to make a cable run simpler or cleaner, that is additional money. A pair of cables with an elbow-bend connector at one finish (200mm size), or a single extra-long (600mm) elbow-bend cable will price you $19.99. Brief 100mm cables are $9.99 every, and a Y-splitter for complicated installs is $19.99 as nicely. The cables add up!
The opposite facet, in fact, to all it is a little bit of basic razor-and-razor-blade advertising and marketing on Corsair’s half. When you’re in a couple of hundred bucks deep with iCUE Hyperlink gear, you are extra prone to keep contained in the ecosystem, given the sunk price. It isn’t a foul factor, to make certain, if you realize you will not be upgrading a lot, otherwise you’re pleased with what Corsair has within the line. However in case you’re a compulsive tweaker and system (re)builder, you will be restricted to what iCUE Hyperlink-compliant gear there’s, if you wish to preserve every part in sync (the entire level with this!) with additions or modifications sooner or later. If one other vendor comes out with a slick AIO cooler or a nifty fan design that you simply need to undertake later, that will imply abandoning a part of your construct for brand new gear that is exterior of the iCUE Hyperlink chain.
Nonetheless, in case you’re prepared to be brand-loyal to Corsair, and you want the overall construct high quality and look of the corporate’s gear, iCUE Hyperlink has a complete lot of road attraction. And much extra compliant gear is deliberate, together with an AIO cooler package with a programmable LCD display on the pump head, and quite a lot of reservoirs and waterblocks. In a typical PC construct, by the point you get right down to putting in the cooling gear, you are within the tiring house stretch of the job. iCUE Hyperlink is, certainly, the lacking hyperlink between most informal builders’ abilities and placing collectively a boutique-quality, cleanly cabled showoff PC.
Contemplating the “boutique tax” on many PC customized builds from elite desktop makers, the iCUE Hyperlink system may truly be one thing of a cut price, gaining you most of that take a look at a fraction of the price. Both approach, although, you are in spendy territory, so make sure you realize your PC-build goals earlier than you decide to getting all iCUE Linked-up.
