Corsair iCUE LINK Smart Component Ecosystem Review & LCD Screen Upgrade Guide
What is Corsair iCUE LINK?
What is iCUE LINK?
Corsair revealed iCUE LINK back in May, and it changes the way we think about PC cable management. iCUE LINK is a Smart Components Ecosystem, and it is designed to eliminate most of the cable clutter that is associated with PCs with lots of fans, lots of ARGB lights, and other accessories. How? Though custom power/data connectors, and a neat daisy-chain feature.
Let’s look at one example. Most RGB illuminated fans have two cables. These cables are their power cable and their RGB control cable. iCUE LINK condenses this down to one custom cable, and then adds a neat daisy-chain feature. This allows up to seven fans to be connected though a single cable chain. Yes, a situation that once required 14 separate cables can no use a single cable chain. That’s a lot fewer cables to manage, and a lot less cable mess to work through when it’s time to upgrade.
iCUE LINK – The Build
We wanted to give Corsair’s iCUE LINK ecosystem a proper review, and that meant that we needed to build a full system to showcase its capabilities. We also needed to do this to get a feel for how it changes the PC building process. At OC3D, we are well used to building PCs with a mess or RGB cable clutter to manage, so anything that makes that process easier would be welcome.
Beyond this. We wanted to see what the iCUE LINK upgrade process is like. That’s why we waited for Corsair’s iCUE LINK H150i LCD upgrade kit. This upgrade required us to re-manage some of our iCUE LINK cables. We wanted to know if this would be an easy or tedious process. Thankfully it was the former.
System Specifications
For this system, we decided to mostly utilise white components form Corsair and Gigabyte. This included Corsair’s white 5000T chassis, Gigabyte’s white AORUS Z790 PRO X motherboard, and a white RTX 4080 Vision graphics card. Overall, I think we have created a great looking system here. Below is our components list, and some purchasing links if you want to see how much they cost, or want to build a similar system yourself.
CPU – Intel i7-14700K
CPU Cooler – Corsair H150i iCUE LINK
CPU Cooler LCD Upgrade – Corsair iCUE LINK LCD Screen
Case – Corsair 5000T RGB
Motherboard – Gigabyte AORUS Z790 PRO X
Memory – Corsair DOMINATOR TITANIUM DDR5-6600
Fans – Corsair iCue Link QX120 Starter Pack + Single Pack
Power Supply – Corsair RM1200x Shift PSU
PSU Cable Upgrade Kit – Corsair Pro PSU Cable Kit Type 5Â
Graphics Card – Gigabyte RTX 4080 VisionÂ
iCUE LINK Cable Management
For this system, we utilise Corsiar’s RM1200X SHIFT power supply. This PSU is unusual, as it has its cables coming out of the side of the unit. This design makes changing your cables an easier process. It also gives us some space where PSU cables typically come out. This is where we decided to place Corsair’s iCUE LINK controller.
From this controller, we have two cables that come out to power our entire system’s fan and RGB setup. One cable controls three fans, and the other controls four fans and the upgraded LCD screen on our H150i CPU liquid cooler.
