Universal RGB Standard For Desktops

I was looking into getting some RGB-lighted fans for my desktop, but then I saw how they were installed and decided to pass. While RGB stuff looks great, they add a bunch of wires and need dedicated software to customize their appearance, which can be a pain if you buy stuff from a variety of brands (Razer, Corsair, MSI, etc.).

I’d like to see a new universal RGB standard baked into motherboards that would control all the RGB lights for both on-board hardware and external peripherals, regardless of the manufacturer.

This would require two major changes:

• Dedicated RGB Ports. These are placed next to fan power ports on the motherboard. The RGB ports provide power to the LEDs in the fans or cooling system, and would control their appearance. These need to be separate from vanilla fan ports, in case people want to use regular fans.
• Universal Software. One program to rule all the lights. This can be in the BIOS, or better yet in the OS (Windows/Mac). This utility should be as easy to use as adjusting monitor resolution. You could make all lights uniform or make selected devices a different color. All RGB-equipped hardware plugged into the motherboard is governed by this one program, even monitors plugged into the graphics card.

This RGB standard would be akin to what we have with USB, PCI-E, SATA, and so on. All of the major companies would have to get together and agree on such a standard.

I can see other devices getting in on the RGB bandwagon, if a plug-and-play standard were in place. Printers, speakers, and webcams, just off the top of my head.