Are you up for increasing your gaming lighting? RGB SSD might be the right option for you to increase your gaming PC lightening.
The gaming aesthetic of our PC case can always be improved, and a component like the RGB SSD offers us yet another possibility. The most enthusiasts opt for them, although what if I told you that it is possible to light up any M.2 SSD?
RGB SSDs are not abundant on the market, but we can find them same like heatsinks that can illuminate the M.2 SSD at a very interesting price.
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A priori, many users prefer to save money on an SSD that already implements this lighting, but the truth is that (if you want it) it is possible to get it by other means and still take advantage of dizzying transfer speeds.
Table of Contents
Characteristics of RGB SSDs
In order to learn more about the characteristics of RGB SSDs, keep reading the article. You will have much better idea about RGB SSDs.
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Expensive
This is a no-brainer and is an important topic to address because SSDs aren’t cheap, at least when you go up to 512GB or 1TB. It does not matter if it is a 2.5-inch SATA SSD or an M.2 SSD: they are more expensive.
It is true that they are more “pretty”, but what is not debatable is that they are more colorful. We have noticed that there is not a wide range of SSDs with integrated RGB lighting on the market, but why?
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The price is one of the reasons, while the other is the possibility of buying a heatsink for our M.2 SSD that incorporates such lighting. This accessory costs around $15 and looks pretty good, plus it has a passive cooling function.
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Can Cause Overheating
Take that “can” as a possibility and this is something that happened to the famous JayzTwoCents, a well-known Youtuber in the gaming community. In one of his videos, he used an RGB SSD that got so hot it wouldn’t boot up the PC, funny!
And it is that there are certain units that have been poorly designed in this aspect, as the controversy splashed on Kingston SSDs.
The same brand reviewed their RGB SSDs and saw that the LEDs were on the same PCB as the memory chips, causing overheating.
Are all RGB SSDs inadvisable? Not at all, it’s just that there are times when mistakes like the one already mentioned are made in the product design tables.
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There are 3 brands that have successfully executed the RGB SSD concept: ADATA, Team Group, and GIGABYTE.
It is easy to find some XPG SSD with RGB lighting and they work fabulously, keep an eye on this brand because they doing things very well lately!
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Might be You Can’t see It
It is another obvious thing that the « ornamental » function that RGB lighting has loses, means when our box is not showy or the PC components cannot be seen from the outside.
This can occur on some older PC cases that have the SATA SSDs installed in one of the 2.5 ” bays on the right side of the case.
Also, there are motherboards where the M.2 slot is often too close to the main PCI-Express slot, causing the GPU to cover the M.2 SSD by sitting on top of it.
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Synchronization with the rest of the Box Lighting
Another feature of these units is that the lighting should be synchronized with the rest of the box.
Think that there are users who have motherboards, GPUs, RAM modules, fans, and even heatsinks, or AIO kits synchronized to go in unison when it comes to RGB lighting.
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Therefore, it “looks ugly” that the RGB SSD goes differently than the rest of the components, causing an aesthetic irregularity that can matter to us if we are “exquisite”.
It must also be said that there are heatsinks with ARGB lighting, not RGB, in case it is important to any of you.
Getting RGB lighting on an SSD without it
It’s possible? It is, via a passive heatsink for an M.2 SSD. However, several points must be addressed:
- SSD compatibility: The M.2 SSDs that have the best compatibility in these accessories are the Samsung EVO.
- 2 SSD form factor: This is another important point to cover because not all M.2s come with the same dimensions.
- Do not focus only on the lighting because it is a passive heatsink, so its purpose is to cool the SSD.
- This possibility exists for 2.5-inch drives, but the possibilities are few and far between and not very attractive.
- Before buying this accessory, compare prices to check that an SSD without RGB vs an SSD with RGB is worth it.
M.2 SSD vs. SATA SSD: Which One is Better
Unless you have an old computer without an M.2 slot or you don’t want to buy adapters to connect an M.2 SSD to the PCI-Express slot… my choice goes for M.2 SSDs. They are superior units in every way:
- May be cheaper in equivalent capacities.
- The “Pro” versions of the SATA lose all meaning.
Therefore, the master move could be to buy an M.2 SSD and put RGB lighting on it later through a heatsink (if aesthetics are important to you).
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Conclusion
For mere economic reasons, I would opt for an SSD without factory RGB for several reasons:
- Much more offer and lower price.
- Ability to get drives with higher transfer speed compared to stock RGB SSD.
- We can equip this lighting through a heatsink.
We hope this information has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, you can comment below and we will respond shortly.
Zahid Khan Jadoon is an Interior Decorator, Designer and a specialized Chef and loves to write about home appliances and food. Right now he is running his interior designing business along with a managing a restaurant. Also in his spare time he loves to write about home and kitchen appliances.