Best Neon Digital RGB LED Strip

In this review, we are going over the Phankteks NEON Digital RGB LED Strip (check price) strip and ALITOVE Neon LED Strip (check price).

These neon digital RGB led rope strips are an awesome looking addition to the RGB lighting space. RGB LED strips are commonly used in gaming setups, custom gaming PCs and other accent lighting solutions.

What is LED Light Strip Diffusion?

LED strip diffusion is commonly used to spread and “even out” the light. A diffuser will soften the hot spots that LEDs will commonly create. Most RGB led strips in gaming rigs will have these hot spots. Builders eliminate this look by hiding the LED strips and use the reflective light of the strip to decorate their builds.

Diffusing LED light is diffused by using a diffusing material like cloth or plastic. But, in the case of the Phanteks NEON RGB strip and ALITOVE NEON RGB strip, they both use a silicone coating as a diffuser. These silicone diffusers allow you to make unique bends in the LED strips. The neon RGB strips give off an extremely unique glow that is unmatched by other LED strips.

What is LED Rope Lighting?

LED rope lighting is a lighting strip that has a rope-like appearance and feel. Both of the LED strips use a silicone coating to create a rope effect. In addition to diffusing light, this enables them to be easily mounted in unique ways. Because of this unique mounting ability, you can use them as wall art lighting, accent lighting, or even DIY neon letters or bar signs.

Phanteks NEON RGB LED Strip

The Phanteks NEON Digital RGB LED strips (PH-NELEDKT_CMBO), are a smooth lighting strip with full color range and flexible mounting. They are high-quality LEDs with full range digital-RGB LEDs. These LEDs create a smooth and stable illumination effect through the entire RGB strip.

The Phanteks NEON strips are compatible with motherboards via a 3-pin 5V connector or with other Phanteks Digital-RGB products. According to some users you can use them with Corsair iCue software. This requires a RGB to JST-SM addressable RGB adapter, but when connect they will work flawlessly with the software.

Features

The LED strips by Phanteks feature addressable RGB. This means that you can control each individual LED and create awesome-looking lighting effects. This kit comes with 2 strips, each with 28 LEDs that have a life expectancy of 20,000 hours of use. Each strip is 400mm (15 inches) long and are daisy-chain capable.

The Phanteks RGB strip combo kit comes with 2 400mm NEON lighting strips, 12 angled or straight mounting brackets, 12 3M mounting adhesive and 2 power cables. In addition, they are ready-to-go right out of the box. Once plugged into your motherboard, they will fire right out without any software configuration. You can eventually customize them with your motherboard’s RGB control software (Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB fusion, Corsair iQue, etc.)

Final Thoughts

Finally, the Phanteks RGB strip is bendable! This is one of the most unique features that really make this LED strip pop! Due to the unique nature of how the strip is constructed with silicone, it has the bending ability. Because of this, you can really differentiate your custom gaming computer lighting.

In conclusion, the Phanteks NEON strip is extremely bright, well built, durable, flashy and a great value. You can really elevate the appearance of your gaming setup or custom PC with these RGB strips. But, are they better than the ALITOVE Neon RGB Strip?

ALITOVE Neon LED RGB Strip

The ALITOVE Dream Color Rainbow Neon RGB strip (WS2812B), is a massive silicone addressable RGB light strip. These are the biggest competitor I could find to match the Phanteks light strip. They boast a more “neon rope” look and are marketed to be used as wall art, DIY neon signs or bar lighting.

Features

ALITOVE neon RGB strips feature a flexible chunk of translucent silicone used as a diffuser. They feature 4020 LEDs that are individually controllable (addressable RGB). Not only can you control individual colors, but brightness levels as well. These lights are compatible with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Teensy, Fadecandy and other programmable controllers.

The biggest difference between the ALITOVE strips and the Phanteks strips is the ALITOVE strips do not include the hardware to control them. This means that in order to make them work you do have to purchase or already have a few items. Before this scares you away, this allows you to have more customization over the RGB strip and it can give your more features than the Phanteks kit.

• 5V 10A Power Supply Adapter
• LED Controller (Music Sync and Bluetooth App)
• LED Controller (Bluetooth App)
• Addressable LED RF Controller

However, you do not need all of these items listed above. You will only need the power supply and one of the controllers. I would go with the music sync and bluetooth app controller because it will give you the best customizability. You might also need adhesive tape backing if you aren’t going to mount them in an enclosure of some sort.

I found this “project” aspect to the ALITOVE lights to be a very fun and interesting feature. If you’re interested in learning basic coding, you can use a Raspberry Pi or Arduino to program your own lighting effects!

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, what is the best neon digital RGB LED strip? The ALITOVE addressable neon RGB strip is very bright (although you do need power at both ends for full brightness), provides extremely beautiful diffuse light and extended flexibility for unlimited possibilities. I think that for some projects this neon strip will be perfect. But, for lighting your gaming rig, stick with the Phanteks NEON RGB strips!