Corsair Commander PRO Review - Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

Corsair delivers a nice upgrade over the previous models. The build quality has gone up and it seems to be a sturdy device. More connectors is the way to go. The new Commander Pro model offers you to connect and control 6 PWM fans. Then you can add and monitor four thermal sensors and you get two extra USB ports as the unit functions as HUB. Very handy if you want to use more Corsair RGB kit like a LED STRIP with additional controller.

Channels

We like multitudes in RGB LED channels, you can connect your compatible RGB strip and SP or HD fans. I do wish that Corsair would have increased the two channels towards three or preferably even four though. As explained in the article, our setup uses three different products: SP RGB Fans, two HD140 fans and then the Corsair Node LED strip battery. You cannot combined the SP and HD fans onto one channel, so we're short one channel. It was easily bypassed as the RGB NODE kit comes with it's own controller, and through USB you can hook it up towards the Commander PRO USB HUB. But that remains adding hardware controllers, and that defies the purpose of the Commander PRO, e.g. regulating it all from one controller device. So yes, in short, the unit we feel lacks at least one additional RGB channel. 

It is both the LED journey and the destination that is very satisfying...

 
Corsair LINK

The Commander PRO might not be cheap, but it is very handy. One box to connect pretty much all of it. The icing on top of the cake obviously is the fact that is has a controller chip that can communicate with LINK software. So everything is grouped and tied towards one piece software. From within the LINK software you can monitor your temperatures including (if supported) GPU and CPU, but also the extra thermal sensors we added. Of course the software links up with other LINK compatible hardware as well, some Corsair LCS kits and the Corsair I series power supplies (PSU model name with an I behind it). Software configuration of anything RGB is a bit of a learning curve with all the channels and arrays you need to activate. But once you get that going you'll adopt to it fast enough really. From there on-wards the sky is the limit as you can choose from many animations, colors and preferences. Each LINK compatible RGB unit inside your setup can be controlled and managed individually, and that is great. We do wish though that LINK would be ported towards Coresair's CUE software. That would be golden as then your keyboard, headset and mouse and then the RGB setup as shown today would all be managed all from within one software suite, unification would be sweet. i am however not sure that is going to happen anytime soon, if at all.

It's All About My FANs

Also lovely is that the six fans (or more if you split the channel with a y-splitter) you can connect can be RPM controlled in software. You can hit a performance preference like cool, normal or performance, but you can set it also at say 400 RPM fixed, whatever you like. This does offer advantages over a BIOS controlled PWM, as you can access your settings from within windows and thus one software suite to more easily fine-tune and monitor stuff.
 

Concluding

If you are into managing fans at a software level and get a kick out of thermal readings and then would love to be able to configure your Corsair SP and/or HD series RGB fans then the Commander Pro is an excellent help. You can re-route many of your lighting options towards this unit. It is a flexible controller with intense per fan configuration (with the LINK software). overall the software is easy enough to understand and works well, and that is a significant thing to mention as I have had way worse results in the past with this software suite. Overall at a price in the 70 bucks range we feel we can recommend the Commander Pro, it works well. Obviously you can PWM control your fans from your motherboard as well, but this unit was designed to be of further assistance of the SP and HD series RGB fans. And can I just quickly mention here that the HD140 RGB fans are just freakin' amazing! So yeah, recommended for the DiY PC RGB aficionado, fan lover and software managing enthusiast. But if you plan to pick up some Corsair HD series RGB fans, then this puppy probably is a must.

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