Opinions on Lian Li "L-Connect"?

[1sascha]

I'll be swapping AiOs soon (Galahad Trinity 360 is in the mail and supposed to arrive today) and I'm thinking about how I'll set this thing up WRT RGB-control.

 

It doesn't come with a Lian Li control-unit, but I *think* if I connect it to a USB 2.0 header on the board, I could use L-Connect to control the lighting. At least that's what the, slightly confusing, installation guide seems to suggest.

 

Alternatively, I guess I could use the, primitive but functional, RGB-controller on my Fractal Design Pop Air XL case. It's very bare-bones but it seems to work fine and when I started using it I was able to get rid of all the crappy and buggy RGB software suites I had installed before. My old 240 Mk I Galahad's fans don't seem to respond to its input for some reason, but that's probably an issue with the AiO, because that also happened when I was still controlling the AiO through the motherboard. The pump-block's LEDs can be controlled just fine though.

 

And I really, really don't want to let Mystic Light back onto my system...

 

So ... does anyone here have any experience with that L-Connect thing? And/or an alternative suggestion how I should go about setting this thing up?

 

I do have a few more (non Lian-Li) RGB-devices (3 fans and a strip) and I assume I won't be able to control these through the L-Connect software, correct?

 

S.

 

 

[thrasher_565]

you need the controller to control the things or it wont work.

[1sascha]

18 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

you need the controller to control the things or it wont work.

Nope.

 

Behold my sinkhole!!

 

 

 

Since both the "Performance" and "INF" versions of the AIO are unavailable over here ATM (Performance isn't even listed any longer by any vendors ... factory recall, IIRC), I went with the basic Trinity 360.  That one doesn't come with an RGB controller/black-box, instead you can run its RGB through your motherboard or run everything via L-Connect.

 

Fans are daisy-chained out of the box with only a single PWM- and RGB-plug coming from them. Those go into a 2 into 1 adapter cable that then connects to the waterblock housing. Additionally, there are three fixed cables coming from the block. SATA for power, USB 2.0 for control (I suppose) and a PWM plug for polling and/or pump speed control.

 

The problems for me are:

1. I'm kinda reluctant to let an app control my CPU cooler's fan RPM

2. There doesn't seem to be a way to monitor fan-RPM outside of L-Connect. Since I plugged the fixed PWM connector from the block into my CPU FAN header, the board (and all monitoring apps) will report the actual pump RPM as "CPU". Easily fixed by plugging it into the CPU PUMP header, but that probably still won't let me monitor the fans' RPM anywhere outside of L-Connect.

3. The manual is quite vague and confusing when it comes to the wiring. For instance: It doesn't specify what fan header you should plug that PWM connection from the pump-housing into, just says "4-Pin PWM" ... so I went with "CPU FAN", which probably isn't ideal. Also: I'm not sure I could run just the fans through the board and use my BIOS to control RPM (which I would prefer) and still use L-Connect for RGB control. Not even sure the AiO would still need the SATA connection if I went and wired everything (pump, fans, RGB) to the board.

 

Don't get me wrong: L-Connect does what it should. RGB control works as do pump- and fan-RPM. It's just that I don't know if I'm comfortable with not having my BIOS control my CPU-fans and pump. Plus the RPM control seems a bit too hectic with any of the default curves and will ramp up/down the fans too often for my taste under light to medium loads whenever the CPU get a few degrees warmer/colder. I'm now using a custom curve that's basically a horizontal line between 25 and 55°C which has made things a lot more "stable".

 

The AIO itself works great BTW, no contest between it and the 240mm MK I Galahad I was using before. Even without fiddling around with my CPU power-limits too much, the cooler copes easily with 260 to 280W in 10 minute Cinebench R23 runs. The 240 "only" managed between 215 and 225W.

 

And while I'm at it: The mounting solution for the block is a bit ... nerve-wrecking. The one on the older was a nightmare to disassemble because 3 of the 4 stand-off screws were stuck and couldn't be unscrewed by hand (had to take a pair of pliers to them... yikes!). This won't be an issue with the new one, but it was a royal pain to align the block's mounting bracket to get all four holes to line up properly and then insert the spring-loaded locking screws and get their threads to catch. I think the problem is that they're now using much shorter stand-off screws that don't act as "guides" for you to slot the block onto before you ever tighten things down. Instead you have to press down on the block and align those holes, then hold everything in place while you try to put the spring-screw on there.

I had to press down on the block with quite a bit of force to be able to pull it off - it felt like one of those situations where you would need a third hand to properly do the job.

 

S.

 

 

 

[thrasher_565]

On 12/7/2023 at 1:44 AM, 1sascha said:

It doesn't come with a Lian Li control-unit, but I *think* if I connect it to a USB 2.0 header on the board, I could use L-Connect to control the lighting. At least that's what the, slightly confusing, installation guide seems to suggest.

this is what i was talking about didn't say you cant buy adapters to plug it in to an argb header and use the crap mb software to control it.

[NorKris]

32 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

this is what i was talking about didn't say you cant buy adapters to plug it in to an argb header and use the crap mb software to control it.

Motherboard is a controller, u were still right  

[1sascha]

3 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

and use the crap mb software to control it.

That's the problem... I haven't tried Signal RGB yet, but pretty much everything else out there ... and they all sucked - some more, some less.

 

At least L-Connect doesn't seem to be a resource-hog - according to task-manager it takes up 0.1% of CPU resources and less than 100MB of RAM. Plus it doesn't have to be open for the fan- and RGB-control to work. The AiO will still function normally even when I close the app for good (not just minimize it to the tray).

 

Oh well... guess I'll keep using it for now, otherwise I'd have to go through another session of cable-routing - and probably let Mystic Light or some $hit like it back on my system...

 

S.

[thrasher_565]

10 hours ago, NorKris said:

Motherboard is a controller, u were still right  

ya i guess haha but lian li controller would be better then the mb software...

[thrasher_565]

7 hours ago, 1sascha said:

That's the problem... I haven't tried Signal RGB yet, but pretty much everything else out there ... and they all sucked - some more, some less.

 

At least L-Connect doesn't seem to be a resource-hog - according to task-manager it takes up 0.1% of CPU resources and less than 100MB of RAM. Plus it doesn't have to be open for the fan- and RGB-control to work. The AiO will still function normally even when I close the app for good (not just minimize it to the tray).

 

Oh well... guess I'll keep using it for now, otherwise I'd have to go through another session of cable-routing - and probably let Mystic Light or some $hit like it back on my system...

 

S.

ya argb software is crap. all of them. just what is the less crap one...

[1sascha]

On 12/9/2023 at 3:00 AM, thrasher_565 said:

ya argb software is crap. all of them. just what is the less crap one...

Well, after having used L-Connect for a few weeks now - which does include RGB-control - it doesn't suck quite as hard. To be fair: It's been (mostly) trouble-free for me thus far but I should probably add that I'm only controlling the AIO's LEDs (waterblock + fans) since I don't have any other Lian Li RGB products in my system. The 2x140s/1x120 and the RGB-strip are simply plugged into one 5V header on the mainboard and running "uncontrolled" (no more Mystic Light for me, thank you).

One thing that's definitely broken on it (and I never would've expected *that* bit to be hosed) is the update-function. Not only will it tell me that I'm not connected to the internet but it will also produce critical errors in Windows Reliability Report. Manually updating both firmware and the app itself works just fine - and is what Lian Li recommend (lol!).

 

As stated above, the app seems pretty frugal WRT system resources and being able to set fan speeds/curves without having to go into the BIOS is convenient. I'm basically using two custom curves, one for normal operation and one for higher loads like gaming. Both curves are totally flat from 15 to 55°C, so I'm avoiding the fans ramping up/down all the time - which is much more noticeable than the fans running at a medium to high constant speed. Only difference is the RPM I use on those flat bits of the curve (35% normal, 50% gaming).

 

Still freaks me out a little every time I glance at my board and see the empty CPU_FAN header, but .. oh well...

 

S.

[thrasher_565]

5 hours ago, 1sascha said:

Well, after having used L-Connect for a few weeks now - which does include RGB-control - it doesn't suck quite as hard. To be fair: It's been (mostly) trouble-free for me thus far but I should probably add that I'm only controlling the AIO's LEDs (waterblock + fans) since I don't have any other Lian Li RGB products in my system. The 2x140s/1x120 and the RGB-strip are simply plugged into one 5V header on the mainboard and running "uncontrolled" (no more Mystic Light for me, thank you).

One thing that's definitely broken on it (and I never would've expected *that* bit to be hosed) is the update-function. Not only will it tell me that I'm not connected to the internet but it will also produce critical errors in Windows Reliability Report. Manually updating both firmware and the app itself works just fine - and is what Lian Li recommend (lol!).

 

As stated above, the app seems pretty frugal WRT system resources and being able to set fan speeds/curves without having to go into the BIOS is convenient. I'm basically using two custom curves, one for normal operation and one for higher loads like gaming. Both curves are totally flat from 15 to 55°C, so I'm avoiding the fans ramping up/down all the time - which is much more noticeable than the fans running at a medium to high constant speed. Only difference is the RPM I use on those flat bits of the curve (35% normal, 50% gaming).

 

Still freaks me out a little every time I glance at my board and see the empty CPU_FAN header, but .. oh well...

 

S.

ya when it first came out it was broken. and there still is alot of stuff that dose not work and mixing them also can be problematic. that and it basically bloatware... and the options are limited. considering we should be albe to do anything with it but they just give the bare minimum.