At first we would like to thank Corsair for offering us their Lighting Node PRO for testing and reviewing.

 

About Corsair:

"Founded in 1994, Corsair has grown from pioneering the high-performance DRAM market to one of the world’s leading providers of enthusiast-grade PC components and peripherals. Our groundbreaking technology and innovation can be found in our high-performance memory, ultra-efficient power supplies, PC cases, PC and CPU cooling solutions, and solid-state storage devices. Under the Corsair Gaming brand, launched in 2014, we provide gaming keyboards, mice, headsets and mouse mats to eSports professionals and anybody who is passionate about competitive PC gaming.

 

Corsair hardware is regularly featured in showcase “dream systems,” and we have earned the adulation and respect of the press, professional gamers and overclockers, high-end system integrators, and PC enthusiasts worldwide by delivering leading-edge technology backed by renowned service and support.

 

Corsair has developed a global operations infrastructure with extensive marketing and distribution channel relationships, and our products are available through leading distributors and retailers in over sixty countries worldwide."

Product Features:

 

Dual Channel Lighting

 

Control four individually addressable RGB LED strips and up to six HD RGB or SP RGB fans (sold separately, fan RGB LED hub required) simultaneously.

 

Individually Addressable RGB LED Strips

 

Each RGB LED strip is independently controlled - display different lighting effects and animations on each strip separately.

 

Multiple Mounting Options

 

The RGB LED strips have both mounting tape backings and magnets built into the strips to mount, making installation simple.

 

USB 2.0 Interface

 

No special interface or additional hardware is required to use the Lighting Node PRO to its full potential; plug it into an available USB 2.0 header on your motherboard.

 

TOTAL CONTROL

 

Combining the CORSAIR Lighting Node PRO and LINK software give you full control over your case lighting right from your desktop.

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

In this article, we will concentrate our attention upon another interesting product from Corsair, and to be more exact, the Lighting Node PRO. This is basically a kit, not a single product which does contain a main box controller, but also no less than four individual RGB LED strips in order to light up your system in many different ways! The product is shipped inside a compact cardboard enclosure, which does show a photo of the setup in operation, along with some of the main highlights:

 

 

 

Even more product details are revealed by the manufacturer on the back side of the box!

 

 

 

After removing the two transparent plastic seals on the bottom, we can take a look at the contents:

 

 

 

The top layer of the box does include the main Lighting Node PRO controller, along with the four LED RGB strips:

 

 

 

Documentation is also provided for the user and this is composed of the Installation Guide, one Warranty Guide, a Warranty against defects leaflet but also some words on protecting the environment:

 

 

 

The manual does instruct the user on how to perform the hardware installation, but also on how to connect to a HD RGB LED hub (sold separately):

 

 

 

As connectivity cables, we are getting one USB 2.0 for linking the controller to a spare USB header on our motherboard, 4x RGB LED extension cables but also two HD RGB LED fan hub adapter cables:

 

 

 

The controller is very tiny, comes with an all-black chassis and picks up power from an extra SATA port of the power supply:

 

 

 

 

In the frontal area of the unit, we do have two headers, which do represent the separate channels; on a single channel, we can plug one, two, three or even four strips that can be controlled independently via software:

 

 

 

 

On the back side of the controller, we do have a sticker with the product serial number:

 

 

 

Two extra adhesive pads are also provided in the package, for securing the controller onto the chassis:

 

 

 

The supplied RGB LED strips are of very good quality and each does house 10 large individual LEDs; these strips are also magnetic, which helps a lot when the glue does not adhere well with the surface of our current computer case:

 

 

 

On each side of the strip, we can find a different type of connector:

 

 

 

 

In the middle strip area, the manufacturer has included a logo:

 

 

 

Here is also a close-up of the individual LEDs:

 

 

 

By using the connectors, we can easily join one LED strip to another:

 

 

 

On the opposite area of the controller, we can see a regular USB 2.0 port. This is great in our books for one simple reason: if you do not have another spare USB 2.0 header on your motherboard, you can easily purchase a regular USB 2.0 cable and connect it to the I/O area (with a small case modification, if applicable):

 

 

 

We will test the controller in two ways: first by using two strips per channel and secondly by using all four strips connected to a single channel and see how it performs:

 

 

 

After installing the latest version of Corsair LINK, the controller will be detected right away, and a small widget will be displayed on the interface with the current configuration:

 

 

 

Further configuration options are available after pressing on the “Configure” button; we can enable/disable the channels, choose from one of the available LED lighting effects (including the brightness levels), but also choose how many strips should be active per channel. Further down we do have the area for customizing the chosen LED lighting effect:

 

 

 

 

The channels can be also configured for controlling a RGB HD Fan or RGB SP Fan setup:

 

 

 

Here is the list of pre-defined LED lighting effects we can work with:

 

 

 

Each of the available effects comes with different setup options:

 

Rainbow

Color Shift

Color Pulse

 

Color Wave

Static

Temperature

 

The temperature LED lighting effect can be configured for different sensors, which is awesome:

 

 

Visor

Marquee

Strobing

Sequential

 

Two Channels

 

 

 

Single Channel

 

 

Paired with the Corsair LINK software, the Lighting Node PRO is an easy way to equip your computer case with configurable LED lighting strips. The strips do feature mounting tape backings and are also magnetic in order to be kept secure onto the chassis. The “brains” is composed of a small box which does feature two separate channels for connecting not only the supplied strips, but is also compatible with the HD RGB LED hubs, for even more flexibility.

 

Initially, you would think that when you do connect multiple strips on the same channel, you would get the same effect for all strips…Corsair made it possible to control each strip independently and additionally we can choose how many strips we want to have active on a specific channel, via the LINK software. In order to function correctly, the controller does need an unused PSU SATA Power port, but also an USB 2.0 connection. The USB 2.0 interface can be supplied by either a motherboard header, but if we do not have any left, we can use a regular USB 2.0 cable and connect it to the back of the motherboard (I/O area), with a small case modification.

 

The LED lighting effects do also include the “Temperature” setting, so we can basically set the strips to represent the temperature values of live readings inside the system.

 

Pros:

 

-easy installation

-flexibility for controlling other Corsair RGB fans

-the controller uses standard USB 2.0 port which allows connection to the mobo I/O if needed

-strips are adhesive but also magnetic

-strips come with large LEDs and adjustable brightness

-temperature monitoring can be linked to the strip colors

 

Cons:

 

-none

 

The Lighting Node PRO kit can be found online for about 55 Euros.

 

Corsair Lighting Node PRO is Recommended for:

 

We would like to thank again to Corsair for making this review possible!