BLOG

What’s the difference between iCUE and iCUE LINK?

At CORSAIR we make a lot of really cool stuff. Mice, keyboards, cases, custom cooling – the list really does go on. We’re great at creating the very best gaming hardware and peripherals out there. Unfortunately, naming conventions are not always our strong suit.

So, given that iCUE and iCUE LINK are two different, yet related concepts, it’s understandable that there might be some confusion out there. Below you’ll find the explanation, and then below that, you’ll find a brief history lesson that might help you understand how this came about.

iCUE vs iCUE LINK: What’s the difference?

iCUE: Our software that allows you to control and customize CORSAIR products

iCUE LINK: An ecosystem of certain CORSAIR products that reduce cable clutter, via a smart single-cable solution

So, to be totally clear:

iCUE is our software that allows you to control all of our compatible products.

iCUE LINK is an ecosystem of products that all connect with one type of cable, in series, back to a System hub. Eliminating things like fan splitters and RGB controllers. Anything marked with “iCUE LINK” will work with this system.

You need iCUE for iCUE LINK to work, as it’s all controlled through the software. However, you will still be using iCUE to control your CORSAIR products, even if they aren’t a part of the iCUE LINK system.

LINK and CUE: A historical footnote

Back in the day, we offered two programs to allow you to control your CORSAIR stuff.

CUE (CORSAIR Utility Engine) was used to control lighting, macros, DPI, and other such things related to gaming mice, headsets, and keyboards.
LINK was a separate program specifically for controlling fan speeds.

It was annoying and inconvenient for customers who owned CORSAIR peripherals and CORSAIR fans to need two individual programs to customize and control their stuff. So, eventually we combined the two programs into one: iCUE. This is the program you know and ~~love~~ tolerate today.

So, we used to have two programs, now we only have one. Simple enough, until we unveiled the iCUE LINK ecosystem. Which happened to have a name that essentially combined the names of those two obsolete programs. It's really about linking components that support iCUE, but sometimes the subtleties can get lost. At least now you know why.