Hobbyist combines 192 case fans into a screen with 3,840 LEDs and “plays” Tetris and Doom on it

Modern case fans can do more than just cool gaming PCs. A hobbyist connects almost 200 ARGB fans into a screen to show classic games and Internet memes.

Colorful LED lighting in gaming PCs these days is more than just a simple color that shines permanently from the PC case. Thanks to fans and other components with RGB technology, elaborately staged color changes and light plays have been available there for a long time.

A hobbyist has now taken this trend to the extreme. With the further development of ARGB (addressed RGB), he combined almost 200 fans to create a screen. He shows impressive animated effects and color games that have never been seen before.

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1 month of work to be able to “play” Tetris and Doom on 192 fans

What kind of screen is this? The presented screen was composed of a total of 192 ARGB fans. Each individual fan has 20 LEDs. That makes a total of 3,840 LEDs, which together can create different color effects.

In a video, Reddit user DaKrazyKid shows various animations displayed on the screen. Game scenes from Tetris and Doom can be seen. But fans of internet memes also get something to offer.

What technology is behind it? Using ARGB, a further development of RGB technology, each LED is controlled individually. This means that significantly more color combinations are possible than with standard RGB. Moving images can also be displayed in this way.

In order to combine several ARGB fans and coordinate their colors, you also need suitable software for the configuration. In this case, SignalRGB was used. The mainboard in the computer must also support ARGB technology.

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The video with the 192 fans in DaKrazyKid’s Reddit post

How much work was involved? DaKrazyKid is talking about a full month of non-stop work. The effort required is divided into different activities. The 192 ARGB fans were manually combined and connected to each other in 12 rows with 16 fans per row.

In addition, there is the programming effort to make the 6 game and meme animations in the video real. Matching the color effects, the corresponding sounds and songs were also played synchronously.

What does the community say about this project? There are many words of praise in the comments under his post. However, his statement that this screen construction has a power requirement of around 1000 watts remains uncommented.

  • JohnnyB_0438 comments via Reddit: I’m blown away.
  • Rreizero writes, alluding to the fact that something similar has already been done on illuminated keyboards: Last year there were keyboards. This year fan. What will it be next year?
  • The only criticism is the poor resolution of the screen. Some people have trouble recognizing the animations at first glance. The synchronized sound effects and songs make it a little easier to recognize the content of the pixelated images.

  • Juusthetip explains: If you squint and then watch the video, it becomes clearer.
  • And Zinc thinks: It also works, if you need glasses, just take them off.
  • The result is impressive in the truest sense of the word. Of course, not everyone has the support of a manufacturer to carry out such ambitious projects. But similar animations can also be created with smaller equipment. In this case, the entire RGB lighting of a computer is used as an image surface: Gamers put a lot of time and patience into their RGB lighting, create an animated image, and thus honor a piece of video game history

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