When I first started tinkering with the computers, the only LEDs in the computer would be for the power button or the hard disk drive light. If you wanted to mod your case with light most people opted for cold cathode tubes. The ones I purchased had a failure rate of about 1 in 2. They couldn’t survive the brutality of shipping process.

I was never interested in having lights in my computer. I just wanted it to work and be fast. I was more concerned about making sure my Front Side Bus speed was set correctly than whether a nice purple hue would suit the case.

But times changes and RGB and ARGB is here to stay. And I’ve changed too! I absolutely love it, it’s a really fun and generally speaking inexpensive mod that can really make a PC stand out from the crowd. I’m not saying you have to go full Linus Tech Tips and get RGB cables but a sprinkling of fans and light strips really does the trick.

So I was quite taken recently by the CoolerMaster ??? fans at the bargain price of £40. I have an Asus motherboard and was delighted to see they were AURA RGB compatible – or so I thought. Unfortunately I didn’t do my research well enough. I had an older form of ARGB header which operated at X volts. Guess what! The CoolerMaster worked on X volts.

I wasn’t too disheartened, I put them in anyway and used the provided control to choose a rather vivid red and chose the same colour for my motherboard using Armory Crate. But this wasn’t good enough! I wanted full control of my lighting. I started to investigate whether it was possible to convert xV to xV.

Most internet searches say it’s not possible, but frequent hits appeared for a converter that cost around £12 on eBay, AliExpress etc. The device by xxx claims it can xxx. I had nothing to lose so I went for it.

Well so far so good. It does exactly what it is supposed. To date I’ve had no issues. All my LEDs on the fans and motherboard, RAM etc all sync up perfectly. The only problem I’ve had is the connection can be a little bit lose to the controller but this was soon solved with a bit of putty and better positioning.

Hand on heart I can highly recommend this project if you’re unsure whether to spend the money or not. But what I would say is make sure you buy the right fans for your motherboard in the first place. Most motherboard manufacturers offer a compatibility guide.