12V RGB?

SpodermanBR · October 9, 2020

Ok Guys, so I'm not new to PC building but I am new to RGB and fancy "last gen" components. Recently, I picked up a Ryzen 5 1600AF kit with 16Gb of 2666MHz RAM and a Gigabyte AB350M DS3H motherboard for cheapster, I was so excited to finally get brand new components (before I'd only use second hand because not enough money) that I didn't look up about this motherboards RGB capabilities, but in my defense I didn't really expect to have different types of RGB lighting.

Anywho, as I built the PC I noticed that the RGB header on the motherboard had 4 pins and I had only seen 3 pin RGB fans last time I'd looked it up.

Thus, I searched this on google and found out that there is in fact more than one RGB solution and that mine is the oldest and not so popular one. But I also found that Deepcool has a 5V to 12V adapter, that doesn't cost much and promises to help me with this. I haven't yet bought any RGB.

I'm still using my old case which is a pretty shite one from the first (prebuilt) computer I got.

I want to buy an RGB case, with a nice little design up front (Gamdias Argus E4) and a 5 fan kit from the same brand which comes with a controller, all of which are nice budget choices for where I live. My plan is to use the Gamdias controller to hook up all the fans as well as the frontal RGB panel in the Deepcool adapter and sync it via the motherboard. Is this possible or will I have to use the little remote?

I would like to have some effects like pulse or stream synced. Not a big fan of rainbow and other effects, I'd just like for it to have one color lighting with any of these two effects but in sync.

Thanks in advance for the replies and stay safe!

DeepCool Alan · October 12, 2020

Hi @SpodermanBR,

If I understand your situation correctly, you haven't bought any RGB fans or components yet right? If that is the case then I highly recommend to buy RGB parts that have 4-pins also known as 12V RGB.
Since you only want to have one color lighting effects then you don't need any of the more expensive 5V Addressable RGB parts.

Unfortunately I checked the Gamidas case fans and they only have 5V A-RGB fans or single color LED (just blue or red).

As for our 5V to 12V RGB adapter, I actually do not recommend it because of new motherboard compatibility issues. If you are able to get the right case and fan parts from the beginning with 12V RGB, you will be able to save on adapter costs. 5V RGB parts are also more expensive than regular 7 color 12V RGB parts.