Maximus VIII Formula Lighting Control Guide

[Nate152]

Here I would like to show you how easy it is to use the RGB lighting feature on the Maximus VIII Formula. It's a cool feature and a nice touch from ROG, it allows you to customize the color theme of your build instead of the traditional red and black.

First you will need to install the AURA software program from the motherboard disk or you can get it from the Asus driver downloads page in the utilities. http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG...Desk_Download/

Once installed open the program with the AURA desktop icon.



On the left you see Logo and Header1, Logo controls the motherboard LED's and Header1 controls an LED strip. You have six effects to play with, each effect can be used with both with each having their own effect.

Choose any color by rotating the little red ball on the color dial with your mouse.

Static - choose your color, the lights stay on constantly.
Breathing - choose your color, the lights slowly fade off and on.
Strobing - choose your color, the lights flash off and on.
Color Cycle - slowly changes through all colors of the color dial.
Music Effect - lights pulse to the beat of your music, music must be played on your pc to get the effect, color is random.
CPU Temperature - changes to three colors according to your cpu temperature.
Green- cpu is cool (20c - 40c)
Yellow - cpu is warm (40c - 60c)
Red - cpu is warmer (60c+)

Click apply after choosing your effect.

The first vertical bar to the right of the color dial is for light intensity, light intensity is shown with the big red ball in the center of the color dial, use your mouse to dim the lights down low or crank them to their brightest. The second bar to the far right is to change to the color white. You can turn off the lights for the Logo and/or Header1 by selecting OFF at the top.

Check the "Sync LED effects" box to control the Logo and Header1 simultaneously, both will have the same effect, color and light intensity.

Note: The RGB header is rated at 2 amps (24 watts) and supports 5050 LED strips up to two meters long with a 4-pin RGB connector, the LED strip is optional and is not included. A 4-pin RGB extension is supplied with the motherboard accessories.

[wolfy]

Hope they do a BIOS update so they turn off when the pc is not turned on

[Bahz]

Great guide Nate! Thanks for sharing it with everyone!

[Nate152]

You're welcome Bahz

Please feel free to post it wherever you like.

[seanbarkley]

Hope they do a BIOS update so they turn off when the pc is not turned on

You already have it:

In the BIOS search for Advanced > APM > and enable ErP. Every mobo light will turn off with the rest of the PC.

BUT: take into account that if you do this you'll have to reconfigure your leds setup everytime you turn your PC on.

[chrsplmr]

Nate ... empty your inbox brother .. the President may be trying to PM you .. it may be a matter of National Security ...
or he just wants to know where to get some good Gator Tail ... idk.

You never will if .... YOU DON'T EMPTY YOUR INBOX ... outbox too, maybe. lol. .c.

ps. .. this post will self destruct from this thread once I know you read it. hahaha

[SinisterDev85]

I haven't had any issue with the lights staying on when the pc is off, however the Aura software doesn't seem to keep the settings and so I end up needing to change them every time I turn my pc on. Is there anything I can to do have the software retain the settings I apply?
Im using the Hero Alpha mobo. Newest firmware.

[Nate152]

I just tested this SinisterDev85 I set the color to blue and the Breathing effect, shut down my pc and booted up and it kept the settings for me.

[seanbarkley]

I haven't had any issue with the lights staying on when the pc is off, however the Aura software doesn't seem to keep the settings and so I end up needing to change them every time I turn my pc on. Is there anything I can to do have the software retain the settings I apply?
Im using the Hero Alpha mobo. Newest firmware.

Nope, sadly there's no way atm if you completely cut power from your PC. Let's see if this cheap Aura software is updated and let us save profiles as many other software does.

[SinisterDev85]

I think it was just because I was doing a lot of tweaking for several days. Come to think of it, I was cutting the power often.
Currently I only have 1 small 4pin LED strip and its not a 5050 RGB LED strip. It only displays Red. I want to make a custom strip setup inside my case. Ive been looking around on Amazon, there are many options.

I was thinking I could pick up a strip like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DTO...+rgb+led+strip and cutting it into custom lengths to fit in my case. I have pretty decent soldering skills, but there are also solderless 4pin connector clips
Like these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B014P...A353AQG9I0DZD6.

Ive also considered something like this ring. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0105V...0+RGB+LED+ring

I wanted to see if anyone had experience with custom LED setups on the Alpha/Formula yet. Like how many LEDs can each header handle powering? What accessories do you recommended for setting it up? Stuff like that. I wanna do this right and make it look sexy.