How Much RGB Lighting Is Too Much for My Gaming Desk?

I privation to judge determination is simply a deity of RGB, immoderate chartless deity yet to beryllium named. Like each gods, this 1 needs an altar—a spot to commune and question deliverance. I tried my champion to make 1 utilizing Razer’s postulation of Aether lighting successful my bureau setup. Despite that, I don’t deliberation immoderate RGB deity would admit my attempt.

We’ve each seen those promotional pictures from the makers of RGB lighting, the acheronian gamer rooms awash successful the diffused glow of brushed magentas and teals. There are lights everywhere, feeling secretive and exclusive. I don’t cognize astir you, but I’ve ne'er seen an illustration of these gamer dens successful existent life. At least, I haven’t seen in-person examples that didn’t see discarded bins piled precocious with spot bags and discarded pizza boxes. 

Razer offered Gizmodo the afloat suite of lighting tech for review. That’s alongside the brand’s wide, costly slate of gaming gear, specified arsenic the BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% keyboard and the Kraken V4 Pro headset and power hub. Some of these products volition get their ain afloat reviews. Ignoring however each merchandise really performs, I was intrigued much by axenic aesthetics. There’s the Aether Light Strip, Aether Monitor Light Bar, the Aether Lamp Pro, and—my idiosyncratic favorite—the Firefly V2 Pro mousepad. 

My fewer non-Razer products included a Gigabyte G34WQC monitor, a HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 mouse, and, of course, the Asus ROG Strix PC with the Intel Core i7-13700KF and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080. The extremity was to maximize RGB with the products connected hand, and—as you tin archer by the pictures—it astir apt won’t fulfill immoderate deity of RGB, fto unsocial marque maine the envy of immoderate PC gamer.

I shouldn’t consciousness excessively bad. Those gamer country promo pictures ever carnivore small semblance to reality. There’s ne'er a cablegram successful sight. The shelves are immaculate. In that way, it’s dull and devoid of the nerd trappings that amusement the property of the idiosyncratic who lives there. Not to mention, mounting up each these astute airy products involves downloading the Razer Gamer Room mobile app and past connecting everything done the achromatic spread that is Razer Synapse. The WiFi successful my bureau was truthful mediocre I couldn’t adjacent get everything synced up however I wanted it to aft respective hours of effort.

Other than that, each of Razer’s lights are casual to operate. Most tin run with elemental controls on-board, and each are matter-compatible if you person nary tendency to run with respective layers of Razer’s lighting software.

If you’re looking astatine that greenish RGB lamp with envy, archetypal see the expense. Combine 1 of everything successful Razer’s Aether line, including the Razer Aether Lamp Pro, Aether Light Strip positive extender, Aether Bulb, Aether Monitor LED Light Bar, and Firefly V2 you’re already spending $570. That’s not adjacent counting for the RGB goodness of the $300 Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro. That big, glowy headset with the power hub is $400, though you could besides opt for conscionable the Kraken V4 for $180. 

Even if you wanted to beryllium cost-conscious, immoderate specified ultra-lit setup volition outgo hundreds of dollars for the bare minimum, adjacent earlier you see the outgo of the PC (the Strix G16CH starts astatine $2,100), show ($400 MSRP), and indispensable peripherals. 

It was amusive to play interior decorator, adjacent if it was for arsenic tiny a table abstraction arsenic I person astatine my office. Then again, it’s not overmuch bigger than my idiosyncratic abstraction successful my Brooklyn two-bedroom apartment. It takes a batch of enactment getting your abstraction to glow. As evidenced by my efforts, the altar of RGB demands sacrifice.