5 Ways to Make Your Computer Glow with Programmable LEDs

LED strips are a great way to decorate your computer and customize it to suit your style. But if you want to use LED strips to light up your PC, then you will need a dedicated control software.

Different manufacturers have their own software options for driving LEDs, so here we’ll walk you through five of the most popular so you can choose the components that best suit your needs.

1. ASUS Aura Sync

LED strips can be used for everything from outdoor lighting to lighting collars for dogs. illuminate illuminate and many PC components these days also support RGB.

Asus Aura Sync software works with a wide range of Asus products as well as ROG addressable LED strips. This includes motherboards with RGB features, peripherals like keyboards, mice and headphones, ROG all-in-one coolers, and pre-built laptops and desktops.

The software is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. In terms of LED control, you can choose static colors for your LED strips, as well as try out a number of other color options:

A breath where the colors fade away
Color cycle where colors fade from one to the next
Rainbow mode if you want something brighter, as colorful as it sounds
Comet, flash and wave modes cause each LED to glow in turn, giving the impression of moving along the LED strips.
Starry Night Mode is a unique feature where the LED twinkles like stars at night

For more powerful modes, Smart Mode changes color based on your CPU or GPU temperature, while Music Mode pulses to the beat of the music you’re playing on your system.

2. NZXT CAM

If you are using NZXT RGB LED products such as Hue, Hue+ or Hue 2, you can control your LEDs with CAM software. CAM is a PC monitoring kit as well as an LED controller that works with other NZXT products such as the Kraken all-in-one cooler or Aer RBG fans.

The CAM software has many features, but unfortunately it has a reputation for being buggy. Sometimes you need to restart the software for it to work properly. But once you get it working, you can use it for all sorts of functions.

It has the main modes you would expect:

static color
breathing
Disappear / Disappear

It also allows you to individually address each LED, which means you can customize it to your exact specifications.

The smart modes are fun too, with a mode that changes color based on your CPU or GPU temperature. The nice thing about this mode is that you can choose the color scheme yourself, for example you can have cool temperatures represented by pink and warm temperatures represented by purple instead of the usual blue to red.

A music mode is also included to change lighting based on volume or boost system sounds, but it’s a little buggy.

3. CORSAIR Link

Corsair’s Link software is a way to control your Corsair Link Lighting Node or Corsair Link RGB Lighting Kit LEDs. In addition, it can drive LEDs on other devices such as Vengeance RAM or Corsair RBG series fans. And just like CAM, it is also designed to monitor and control your PC.

The software has many options, so it may take some time to get familiar with it. To control your RGB hardware you can refer to the » Setting «. Here you will find the option configure LED, to program the colors and modes of your LEDs.

Color options are more limited than other programs presented here. You can choose from:

one color
Rotation from two to four colors
Constant or pulsing lights
Color change based on the temperature of your CPU or GPU

Alternatively, if you want to individually address each LED in your strips, the software makes this easy and immediately visible on the dashboard.

4. Cooler Master RBG LED Controller

This software is designed to work with the RGB LED Cooler Master controller that you insert your RGB strips into. It also supports Cooler Master LED fans.

On the main panels management you can set the color of the LEDs using the color picker, and change the speed and brightness of the effects.

Available effects include:

Static mode, customization mode where you can have different colors for each strip or fan
Star mode, which makes your LEDs flicker between the base color and the star color
Color cycle mode that changes between colors
Breathing mode in which the color fades smoothly
Layered mode which allows you to have different modes for different components
Mirage mode where you can choose the colors of the individual LEDs.

That’s all. The software is fairly minimal and only controls the RGB components, and it doesn’t offer an overview of the hardware or PC control like some other programs.

5. Aqua Computer Aquasuite

More advanced users looking for more customization options can try the Aqua Computer Farbwerk RGB Controller. This is controlled by the Aquasuite software, which has the most options among the programs presented in this article. It’s a bit more technical than the others, but gives you a better selection of settings.

Aquasuite is also a PC monitoring software that allows you to view data on CPU core usage, CPU core temperature, and fans. To control your RGB components you need to go to the menu rgbpx . Here you can choose the color of your LEDs from the color wheel or choose one of the preset colors. You can also adjust the brightness of the LEDs and address each strip individually.