Hands-on with iCue Link, Corsair’s one cable to rule them all

The War on Cables is raging, aiming to make the principle chamber of your desktop PC as clear as a vegetarian’s barbecue grill. Corsair’s latest concept is on show at Computex: A system of followers, AIO coolers, and different gear that may be daisy-chained throughout a complete desktop with one string of cables. Gordon went hands-on at Corsair’s sales space on the present flooring to see what it’s all about.

The complete factor begins with the iCue Link System Hub, a little bit plastic gadget in regards to the measurement of a matchbox. This takes an ordinary PCIe energy rail out of your energy provide (most 168 watts), plus a MicroUSB cable that plugs into the headers in your motherboard. The hub can match roughly anyplace in your case thanks to a magnetic backside.

Further studying: Best of Computex 2023: The most intriguing and revolutionary PC {hardware}

With energy and information going to the hub, it may possibly energy and handle each cooling and lighting gadget in your case. There are two slots for Corsair’s proprietary single energy/information cable exiting the hub, and every one can deal with up to seven units chained collectively (for a most of fourteen on two completely different traces). That contains all-in-one liquid cooler programs, case followers which can be both on their very own or related in banks with fancy magnetic connectors, and even superior elements like coolant reservoirs and GPU water blocks. Additional cables go between every related element, offering energy and information alongside the road.

But it’s not simply fundamental energy that’s being supplied. With the iCue software program managing the elements by way of the hub, plus embedded temperature sensors in every fan, it may possibly really regulate the velocity of the followers individually to present even temperatures throughout the system. If that’s too sensible for you, Corsair has a number of new strobe lighting tips that may make it appear like your followers are standing nonetheless.

The iCue Link hub and suitable followers and AIO items are scheduled to be launched later this month, with extra superior elements following. How a lot is all this fancy tech going to value? It received’t be low-cost, definitely, however Corsair says it’ll be solely about 10 % greater than its comparable {hardware} with out the Link goodies. For extra updates on the War on Cables and reside protection of Computex, make certain to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer