Decades ago only a closed circle of 1337 h4x@rs was initiated into the benefits of RGB lighting by Kevin Mitnick on IRC.

Today RGB lighting has become mainstream in gaming setups. Although many hardware enthusiasts do the right thing intuitively many still are unaware of the underlying principles of RGB.

The most tangible benefits are provided by red and blue RGB: while red RGB improves system speed in general blue lights correspond with better cooling of your components.

There is still more research necessary into the properties of other RGB colors and their effects on hardware. It is conceivable green, yellow and orange may have specific effects on SMD components like capacitors, resistors or ICs on your circuit boards.

Here some testimonials from independent sources: [1], [2]

Not only your hardware can profit from RGB lighting as there are also tangible results for you:[3], [4]

Thank you for your time and attention I sincerly hope you could take away some inspiration for your gaming setup and now have a better understanding of the beneficial effects of RGB lighting.

A little gift for participating in the poll: https://www.steamgifts.com/RGB/gF1QG/bionic-commando

sources:
1
2
3

overview of hardware/gaming effects by color(thanks veebles)
4

1 year ago*

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Do you use RGB lighting and if yes which color?

View Results
RED - I'm a speed demon always trying to squeeze out every bit of performance.
BLUE - I like my components running cool even if I sacrifice some performance.
YELLOW, GREEN, ORANGE, OTHER - While not perfectly sure what the colors do I'm sure there are good for my system.
MIXED COLORS - I want the best of all possible worlds and use alternating/multiple colors simultaneously.
POTATO - I'm conservative and don't use RGB even if it might benefit my system.

Key was sent to the winner. Thank you for all the comments and the participation in the poll. What I took away form the poll: I was surprised so few members use green RGB to save energy ;)

1 year ago*
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All computer-related things I own have RGB lighting, and the only lighting I have on is the backlight on my keyboard (I have it set to one color that doesn't change) and the power indicator logo on my computer (I have it set to a dim barely visible red). I have everything else turned off, even the mouse. Too distracting. I have no idea how people can focus when their setup looks like an 80s disco. They probably possess skills I don't.

1 year ago
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pretty similar here. set my keyboard to one color, and the only other thing that even has lights besides the case power led is my headset, which of course i can't see while i'm wearing it and i also keep set to the same cool blue as my keyboard, to make sure my ears stay nice and cool. usually though the headset isn't connected at all so no lights there.

at work i haven't installed the keyboard software so it's doing it's default color cycle, but it's always bright when i'm at work so it's easy to ignore. lights matter a lot more to me when i'm in a dark room, which is how it usually is at my home computer.

1 year ago
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I wish RGB had some practical uses. That would make me use it. For example, as a hard drive activity light. If I'm transferring large files or backing up my drive I'm going to leave my desk for awhile and my monitor will go to sleep after a few minutes. Rather than turning the monitor back on and logging back into Windows to check if it's done copying I could just look at the RGB from far away to see if it's done. Yes I know most pc cases already have a hard drive activity light but it's usually tiny and depending on where it's located (like on top of the case) can be hard to see.

Or have the RGB correspond to the GPU and CPU temperatures and change color according to how hot/cool it is. If your CPU turbo is engaged have it show that with a color or pattern. If your components are getting too hot have it flash as a warning. Stuff like that.

A cool touch would be if the screen is off and Windows is locked all the lights would dim like it's in a low power state and as soon as you log back in the lights get bright again.

I don't care about RGB for aesthetics. I find bright, flashy, alternating colors annoying. If it's done subtlely it can be ok.

1 year ago
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I dont know if its standard but i actually do have my GPU and Ram set to correlate with temperature- Blue when cool and going towards pink when hot. Quite helpful to tell me if my fans for some reason haven't come on.

1 year ago
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That's cool. They should make it in sync with all your system activities so you can configure anything you want for the RGB.

1 year ago
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Inverse energy scale?

1 year ago
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I have it on my keyboard, else the letters will be totally black and impossible to see. For inside my pc or my mouse, i have it but don't care and have it off.

1 year ago
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Yep, the same reason I have my keyboard backlight on. Letters wouldn't be visible otherwise.

1 year ago
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Weird how you if you want the benefits from a more expensive keyboard they all shove the RGB down your throat really, i couldn't find one brand without.

1 year ago
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Now I disabled all rgb on keyboard and mouse, but before they're all has been mixed colours, when colours are like a water

1 year ago
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Only on the mouse and keyboard, the keyboard is set to one color but the mouse is set to the rainbow-y effect because it's not too intense or distracting and I actually like how it looks.

1 year ago
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"blue RGB: while red RGB improves system speed in general blue lights correspond with better cooling of your components" - wha?

1 year ago
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yea, that doesn't make any sense

1 year ago
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I only have RGB on my keyboard and mouse - and the mousepad has RGB around the edges. The keyboard only uses one colour and mouse and mousepad have a rainbow effect. RGB wouldn't male any sense for the case as it stands on the floor under my desktop.

1 year ago
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I heard of a guy who was friends with someone who had an RGB setup and it just disappeared after the colour changed to purple.
I don't trust these systems.

1 year ago
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well, RGB enlightens your gaming life

1 year ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 10 months ago.

1 year ago
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Thanks veebles this info is invaluable :)

1 year ago
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bump

1 year ago
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"overclock your RGB" "download some RGB"

ajjajajjaja you make my day

1 year ago
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Well that sucks. Red and blue are the chocolate and vanilla of colors. Zzzzzzzz

1 year ago
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i use only GBR leds GaBenRock 🤣

1 year ago
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I have most of my stuff set to a purple colour, to get the effects of both red and blue properties, but not with the side-affects that pure red can give, such as looking like Donatella Versace.

1 year ago
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I choose the same color for my mouse watching it circling through the spectrum was to distracting.

1 year ago
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Purple combines the benefits of red and blue, so purple

1 year ago
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Purple combines the speed of red with the cooling of blue. So purple.

1 year ago
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View attached image.
1 year ago
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My gaming is enhanced by RGB:

View attached image.
1 year ago
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I thought rainbow made your PC gay, so this is news to me.

1 year ago
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Actually, rainbow represents inclusivity, so it just makes your PC "everything". For example, if blue is masculine heterosexuality and pink is feminine heterosexuality (let's just ignore that for most of recorded history, up until the mid 1900s, those associations were swapped), then those colors would both be represented by the rainbow. Moreover, it's an outright misconception that the rainbow [flag] represents homosexuality, as it actually represents, to quote: "the diversity of the LGBT+ community and the full spectrum of human sexuality and gender".

In short, rainbows don't represent gayness, they represent inclusivity. Also, more traditionally, hope and beauty. So, y'know, that.

Pink is the color you're thinking of, by the way- pink + males = homosexuality. Again, complete arbitraryness aside, that's also only by purely modern standards, following the effects of 1940s American retailing influences on swapping historical western perceptions of blue and pink.

Also, I mean, have you simply considered asking your computer what it identifies as? I mean, come on, Bubby- we're long past the point where we can just dress up those we have control over and expect our forced influences to actually affect their core identity. I mean, if that worked, judges would only ever be lawful, and forcefully dressing politicians up as judges would save our collapsing political system. But, alas.. things are as they are.

And that's the reason why my PC is allowed to dress as a weird blend of David Bowie from Labyrinth and Keanu Reeves as Johnny Mnemonic. And maybe a touch of Keith Richards? I mean, I don't get it, but I'm not going to judge it. As long as it still lets me watch youtube, amirite?

1 year ago*
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Being able to give some keys different light colors is quite useful. Also for learning finger placement when typing.

1 year ago
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Turns out my favorite color is yellow/amber, and it's hard to find any hardware with this color as accents or as lighting. So, I use RGB for my static yellow lighting, occasionally white lighting, which looks pretty slick and sober.
I honestly don't know how people can stand having a lightshow on their keyboards and case. It's so distracting and really not that elegant.

1 year ago
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Yes yellow/amber is a rare color in RGB setups and I imagine a motherboard or GPU in this color is hard to find. I saw modders spraying motherboards/components in the color wanted.

1 year ago
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I have blue RGB on my mouse to counter heat from my giga chad handling speed while playing fps games.

1 year ago
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Stay frosty as they say ;)

1 year ago
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I agree that RGB is so mainstream, that I can't even go into an electronics store anymore and find it on other hardware besides computers. Go figure.

Anyhoo, I find RGB (on my system) rather annoying. Since my mobo has it built in, I was forced to set the color to black so it looked like there weren't any lights in there. My MMO mouse and mech keyboard, however, have static white/gray backlights on the main keys with red sublighting to match my speakers. At least I am able to find the least used keys in the dark if I need to! 😛

1 year ago
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