Manufacturer: Cyborg

Colors: Black

Release Date: 7/20/2011

MSRP: $99.99

I used these, thinking they would be an amazing collection for my PC rig and add some pizzazz. I was half right. Sure, it looks great when the lights adjust to the game’s lighting, but at what cost? massive headache that took days to cure.

I’m talking about the lights’ god-awful software. It doesn’t even work; it’s broken. Why in the hell would Cyborg release broken drivers and software? You plug in the lights (one in each USB port) and plug up the power to the wall. Install the drivers and software like normal, and then things start going haywire. Every program stopped working and crashed when I restarted. I uninstalled the software, and it went away. This happened on two computers I installed it on. Why, in God’s name, would Cyborg do this? Not only is the software buggy, but the drivers require you to restart the actual service if the lights aren’t working. Sometimes the software will detect them, sometimes not. Sometimes just one light will work. If that isn’t bad enough, the GenFX detector will cause some games to not start up or crash. Skyrim won’t work with an ENB wrapper, and a few other games wouldn’t start up at all.

How do you use these lights, then? Download the beta drivers from AmBX’s site. Not quite, though. You have to download just the drivers from Cyborg, then the software from amBX. To get the beta drivers, you have to sign up for their forum. It also doesn’t help that these lights have been abandoned. There hasn’t been an update for a few years—yes,  years. You can’t use these lights with music unless you get the third-party Aurora Synesthesia program, which is in beta and was also abandoned. Great, $100 lights that are abandoned. When the lights do work, they really immerse you in the music and games. Each light can be adjusted in intensity as well as its position in the room. Each light works separately and displays great colors. The hardware part is good, mostly. The left lens cap fell off for no reason after a few months, and one tab broke off when I tried to put it back on. They feel very cheap and are super light and flimsy.

This doesn’t sound attractive at all, but if you have the PC know-how, these lights are actually worth the trouble you go through to get them to work. I loved turning my lights off and being totally immersed in the game with the ambient lighting. What else can you do with it? The lights work with Windows popups and errors; you can also customize your own scheme; however, you can’t delete detected software from the list. Why? The engineers were idiots, that’s why. You will end up with an endless list of games that you don’t even have anymore. It will also detect dumb things like CCC, various browsers, and programs that use DirectX. The software is really buggy, and there are few games that directly support the lights in the game. Just as there are fewer official profiles for games because the lights were abandoned, recent games don’t have tailored lighting schemes. There are generic schemes, but whatever, it works fine.

Should you buy these? Unless you really want cool-looking lights, then go ahead. You will have to fiddle with the software and drivers until it works right. Two USB ports and a power port are pretty demanding. People with limited USB ports will be out of luck. I don’t recommend this to the average PC user, but enthusiasts who know what they are doing should go ahead.