No PCIe RGB controllers 🤔

[nightmarevoid]

I mean I can't be the only one who thinks it's weird that this doesn't exist. I've seen PCI/PCIe controller cards for just about everything under the sun, but I haven't found one for RGB controllers, 12V or 5V. The closest thing I've found to a generic RGB controller is these two devices:

https://www.amazon.com/LEDdess-Rainbow-Controller-Remote-Control/dp/B07KY6RR88/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=PCIe+rgb+controller&qid=1598726341&sr=8-5

https://www.amazon.com/Lamptron-LAMP-CFP30B-Fan-RGB-LED-Controller-PCI-Slot/dp/B07HT953CL/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=PCIe+rgb+controller&qid=1598726341&sr=8-8

Every other controller is either a proprietary USB hub or a physical switch that you need to seal inside your PC. 
 

So what's the deal with this? I would think that a small add-in card, even one that just uses a USB header, would be fairly desirable. Is it perhaps that none of the motherboard manufacturers want to license their managing software, and there's some legal wall stopping a manufacturer from making a product that would rely on free RGB software? It all just seems like a wasted opportunity to me. 

[minibois]

I can't imagine it's a good form factor for an RGB controller.

 

Someone with enough RGB, that they need a controller for it, probably also has a build they want to show off, thus has a glass window.

Now imagine having a PCIE card, right about in the middle of your PC, with a bunch of cables running from/to it.

[emosun]

Just now, nightmarevoid said:

I would think that a small add-in card, even one that just uses a USB header, would be fairly desirable.

that would actually be very undesirable and extremely wasteful of a pci-e lane.

An rgb controller is a very basic completely softwareless tiny little 50 cent component that doesn't even need a computer to function.

Forcing one into a pci-e format would just waste a slot and a pci-e lane for something that doesn't need it.

Just now, nightmarevoid said:

Every other controller is either a proprietary USB hub or a physical switch that you need to seal inside your PC.

Thats because rgb is not a universal standard , proprietary is the norm for rgb. There is no consensus between manufacturers for how rgb should work so naturally there will be no consensus for any type of controller for it.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

13 minutes ago, nightmarevoid said:

I mean I can't be the only one who thinks it's weird that this doesn't exist. I've seen PCI/PCIe controller cards for just about everything under the sun, but I haven't found one for RGB controllers, 12V or 5V. The closest thing I've found to a generic RGB controller is these two devices:

https://www.amazon.com/LEDdess-Rainbow-Controller-Remote-Control/dp/B07KY6RR88/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=PCIe+rgb+controller&qid=1598726341&sr=8-5

https://www.amazon.com/Lamptron-LAMP-CFP30B-Fan-RGB-LED-Controller-PCI-Slot/dp/B07HT953CL/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=PCIe+rgb+controller&qid=1598726341&sr=8-8

Every other controller is either a proprietary USB hub or a physical switch that you need to seal inside your PC. 
 

So what's the deal with this? I would think that a small add-in card, even one that just uses a USB header, would be fairly desirable. Is it perhaps that none of the motherboard manufacturers want to license their managing software, and there's some legal wall stopping a manufacturer from making a product that would rely on free RGB software? It all just seems like a wasted opportunity to me. 

From a cable management perspective, doing so would be an absolute nightmare. These are cables you would want to hide and making the RGB controller as a PCI/PCI-e card would put these cables on the forefront. Not ideal for a clean aesthetic. 

[nightmarevoid]

I'm seeing the points being made here but I have a few counter points of my to make. And in case it wasn't clear, I'm talking about the standard 4pin and 3pin motherboard RGB connectors on a card, not a mish-mash of different manufacturer specific connectors that are used with hubs.

For starters, there is not reason to think this would be unsightly or a cable management nightmare, no more so than any other motherboard RBG header or expansion card. Most of the time you'll be routing cables over the motherboard for front panel audio, the CPU fan, or case fans, and you could hide the thin RGB cable the same way. Secondly you could always put the card in the bottom slot as it will no doubt be 1x. This is what I do with Wi-Fi+BT cards as they always have a USB header cable. This means you could take advantage of the cases cable management holes, and you would at most have three cables coming from it anyways; a 12V rgb cable, a 5V rgb cable, and a USB cable, and only the USB would be visible for any appreciable extent (something that proprietary hubs also do). No matter what I see this as a cable management win, because the alternatives are the versions of products that use proprietary hubs for each manufacturer, and trust me those are god awful for cable management and sometimes rely on molex power. Motherboard RGB devices at least have the benefit of almost always coming with daisy-chain cables so only one cable for all devices would make its way from the back of the case to the front. As far as wasting a PCIe lane, well I can't imagine what else people are using them for these days. Almost everything except for maybe Wi-Fi is onboard now, and with multi-gpu setups being unviable these days almost all of the lanes are empty except for older machines, which is exactly what this device is for and would easily fit right in. on an mATX motherboard you could easily have a WiFi card in the top slot, a gpu in the second, and an RGB card on the bottom slot where the few cables going to it would be easily hidden. 

[thrasher_565]

On 8/30/2020 at 12:44 PM, nightmarevoid said:

I'm seeing the points being made here but I have a few counter points of my to make. And in case it wasn't clear, I'm talking about the standard 4pin and 3pin motherboard RGB connectors on a card, not a mish-mash of different manufacturer specific connectors that are used with hubs.

For starters, there is not reason to think this would be unsightly or a cable management nightmare, no more so than any other motherboard RBG header or expansion card. Most of the time you'll be routing cables over the motherboard for front panel audio, the CPU fan, or case fans, and you could hide the thin RGB cable the same way. Secondly you could always put the card in the bottom slot as it will no doubt be 1x. This is what I do with Wi-Fi+BT cards as they always have a USB header cable. This means you could take advantage of the cases cable management holes, and you would at most have three cables coming from it anyways; a 12V rgb cable, a 5V rgb cable, and a USB cable, and only the USB would be visible for any appreciable extent (something that proprietary hubs also do). No matter what I see this as a cable management win, because the alternatives are the versions of products that use proprietary hubs for each manufacturer, and trust me those are god awful for cable management and sometimes rely on molex power. Motherboard RGB devices at least have the benefit of almost always coming with daisy-chain cables so only one cable for all devices would make its way from the back of the case to the front. As far as wasting a PCIe lane, well I can't imagine what else people are using them for these days. Almost everything except for maybe Wi-Fi is onboard now, and with multi-gpu setups being unviable these days almost all of the lanes are empty except for older machines, which is exactly what this device is for and would easily fit right in. on an mATX motherboard you could easily have a WiFi card in the top slot, a gpu in the second, and an RGB card on the bottom slot where the few cables going to it would be easily hidden. 

lian li uses one but its only haves buttons on the back and not software thow.