Review on 🌈 Corsair iCUE Commander PRO Smart RGB Lighting and Fan Speed Controller: Enhance Performance with Advanced RGB Lighting and Fan Speed Control by Danny Robertson

Newer PC builds tend to have more internal components that require a USB port from the motherboard and this can quickly get out of control. I just combined a Corsair H80i AIO water circuit for my CPU and an EKWB system for my GPUs. Everyone needs a USB port, in my case the controller needs a USB port, and then - oh yeah - I have to use those USB ports for real USB. The Corsair iCue Commander Pro Controller helped me a lot. It was also a huge pain to figure out, but once I got everything assembled and working, it was all I needed. I also use it to control RGB on three iCue fans and even a Corsair RGB light strip daisy chain, just for fun. There's no easy-to-understand PDF with all of these parts, so let me walk you through one: Commander Pro itself plugs into your motherboard's USB port, giving you two more USB ports to connect other devices. It uses the iCUE software to control the behavior of all devices connected to it. While Corsair coolers (like the H80i v2) use a USB connection *and* are iCUE compatible, they will NOT work when connected to Commander Pro. You still need to connect them directly to the USB port on the motherboard (according to Corsair Tech Support). When attempting to use Commander Pro to control this Corsair product it broke and I had to obtain an RMA and replace the H80i v2. The Commander Pro also has four sensors that you can pass through the case and monitor temperatures in different places. Corsair does not recommend placing them in hot spots - for example, you can place one near the CPU or GPU, but not on a cooled surface, as other sensors can be used. The intent is for you to check case temperatures at specific locations. If all you want is fans and sensors, you can stop here. However, if you have RGB lighting. Lighting control does not work directly with Corsair iCUE RGB fans. I had to connect the Lighting Node Pro to the Commander (according to Corsair Tech Support) so that my fans' RGB lighting could be viewed and configured. I could use the light control for the light bars but not for the fans. Luckily they are usually sold with fans, it's just that the need for this redundancy is confusing. - The terminology is confusing - in a conversation with tech support we had to say "Lighting Node", "Commander Pro" and "The Lighting Node Pro" directly to talk about which part goes with which should be connected. Finally, if you use Commander Pro, RGB fans and lighting strips, you have to buy three separate packages and you end up with additional controllers that you don't need. I'm glad the system is working as well as it has and I'm really impressed at how finely tuned I can fine-tune every little aspect of each fan and cooler in my case with the iCue software. I can profile resource-intensive programs or games and run them in "quiet" mode when I'm just doing my daily computing work. This is the best software I've used and far better than Speedfan or ASUS GPUTweak. However, Corsair needs to properly combine these elements so customers can buy the specific solution they need. They should provide documentation - there is no PDF and the website is just a page for connecting the fans to the controller. For any other task, you have to keep looking for that particular page. Finally, I'm disappointed that Commander Pro broke my H80i v2. The documentation should state which Corsair products WORK with Commander Pro and which do NOT. That's why I give 3 stars for "easy to install" and "easy to use".