Corsair is a household name in the gaming PC scene, offering affordable, but powerful components and peripherals throughout. It has some of the most popular high-speed memory, the prettiest of RGB fans, and gorgeous cases to put it all in. They create some of the best mechanical keyboards, the best-sounding headsets, and the most versatile of gaming mice. And much of it is supported by the long-beloved Corsair Utility Engine, more recently known as iCUE.
What is Corsair iCUE?
iCUE is the latest iteration of Corsair’s backend software that manages the customization of its various supported components and peripherals. It lets you adjust RGB lighting for everything from your gaming mouse to your RAM, and AIO CPU cooler, remap buttons and switches, and create macros and custom profiles.
It’s also useful for performance monitoring, letting you look at clock speeds and RAM timings, temperature and fan speeds, with some controls for adjusting these figures automatically and dynamically, or manually as you see fit.
Corsair’s iCUE is a fully featured backend software suite for just about every component and peripheral Corsair makes. It provides a solid backbone for the features and capabilities of all Corsair’s supporting products and is head and shoulders above most of the competition.
What can you do with Corsair iCUE?
What you can do with iCUE very much depends on what hardware you have. If you have some iCUE supported memory, like the Vengeance RGB sticks we have in our example below, you can customise its RGB lighting with an array of options. Alongside picking from millions of colours, you can adjust the brightness, or use a range of lighting effects, from pulsing, to shifting, to rainbow wave effects.
Performance Monitoring
You can also use the iCUE’s reporting feature to look at the memory’s timings and frequency, as well as the temperature of individual sticks on a graph, which lets you keep an eye on how hot they get during idle and load environments over time. Perfect for those looking to maximise their system performance, without sacrificing temperatures and component longevity.
You can even implement custom notifications with their own responses. Or you can even have a warning trigger when the memory modules reach higher than 70 degrees Celsius, and then have the fans spin up to 100 percent. iCUE also lets you change LED colours to warn you of the problem, run a certain file, or even shut down your PC entirely. That could be especially useful if you were away from the system for a lengthy period of time and are concerned about how its temperatures might progress without your oversight.
You’re in control
These same sorts of controls and monitors extend to other important system components like your CPU cooler. If you run a Corsair all-in-one water cooler, you can control fan curves and pump speed, as well as any lighting that’s present. You can choose preset cooling modes, or set in place triggers for automated fan speed control to keep temperatures and noise levels within predefined ranges.
If you have an iCUE compatible Corsair power supply, you can even switch from multi-rail to single rail setups, depending on your needs for certain GPU intensive tasks. There is also monitoring in place for temperature, fan speed, and power draw at any one time.
Even if you don’t have any Corsair iCUE compatible components in your system, you can still enjoy iCUE’s performance monitoring system. On the Dashboard tab you can have it monitor your CPU and GPU temperatures and usage, as well as key temperatures and statistics about system fans, motherboard components, and memory clocks and temperatures.
RGB Control
If you’re a big fan of RGB or dynamic lighting, then iCUE is one of the best software clients in the business for keeping control of how your PC looks and behaves under certain circumstances. iCUE-supporting components and peripherals, like mice, headsets, and keyboards, can all have their lighting adjusted dynamically depending on what you’re doing.
You can create your own lighting profiles, link your devices together so their lighting is coordinated, or even have your lighting change depending on what you’re playing. Some compatible games will show your health in your keyboard’s lighting, or flash at you when you’re being shot. You can even have your peripherals and components adjust their lighting to reflect in-game colour palettes to improve immersion.
Some compatible games include:
- Wallpaper Engine
- Far Cry 5: New Dawn
- Metro Exodus
- The Division 2
What peripherals are iCUE compatible?
Most of Corsair’s gaming hardware lineup supports iCUE in one way or another, whether it’s a mechanical keyboard with RGB lighting or an all-in-one CPU cooler with custom pump and fan speed controls. All of it can be controlled by iCUE and tweaked to your specification.
All of Corsair’s keyboards support it, from the fantastically capable K95 RGB Platinum, right down to the affordable K55 gaming keyboard. Mouse mats complete with RGB lighting, like the M800 RGB Polaris, whether you opt for the cloth or pad version, all support iCUE software in the backend. Then there’s all of Corsair’s gaming mice, including popular options like the Scimitar Pro, the Glaive RGB Pro, and the Harpoon wireless mouse. Headsets too support iCUE software, with the Void RGB Elite and wireless versions offering RGB lighting control.
Even the ST100 headset stand gives you some iCUE control thanks to its RGB lighting integration.
What about the internal components?
But that’s just on the outside. Inside your PC there’s even more iCUE support with various Corsair components. Most of its memory and cooling solutions (both fans and AIO watercooling) support iCUE integration in some form, with RGB lighting control, speeds, and even raw performance on the table for iCUE to have a hand in altering.
Power supplies too offer some control, although the i-series Corsair PSUs offer the greatest depth of control, giving you the ability to adjust their rails on the fly for in-depth GPU management during heavy loads.
If you plan to control much of your system using iCUE however, you’ll also want to consider Corsairs Lightning Node Pro, or Commander Pro modules. These act like fan controllers, giving you comprehensive control over your system’s cooling and lighting modules. That includes any RGB lighting strips you’ve implemented as part of your chassis’ lighting design.
Chillblast: A certified Corsair iCUE partner
The best part about Corsair’s iCUE software and supporting hardware isn’t just that they offer in-depth customization, but that there are certified partners who can set it all up for you. Chillblast is one such partner, selling certified Corsair iCUE gaming PCs as one of just a handful of awarded system builders in the UK.
Don’t be intimidated by all the options for RGB lighting, custom profiles, and performance control. Chillblast can build you a gaming PC that is customised exactly how you like it, so the first time you turn it on it looks, and plays, just how you want. Just give us a call and our dedicated team of expert system builders will be able to craft something that’s exactly to your needs and tastes, complete with any synchronised lighting you desire.
More resources:
Check out this article for a more in-depth guide on creating your RGB PC dream!
Why not check out this review of yet another iCUE-compatible component, the Corsair A500 CPU Cooler!
