Do I Need CORSAIR Memory for the Light Enhancement Kits?

Light Enhancement Kits (LEK) are faux memory sticks made by CORSAIR to complement existing RGB memory modules for enhanced RGB lighting. In other words, they look exactly like CORSAIR memory sticks with fully-functioning RGB lighting, but there is no memory inside of them, so they are purely aesthetic devices.

Most people use only two sticks of memory in their PC even though there are four slots simply because you need two sticks for dual-channel memory, and that satisfies peoples’ requirements for 16GB or 32GB of memory, which are the most common configurations.

However, it can be disturbing for some to have a large gap between RGB memory modules, so the Light Enhancement Kit fills those two empty slots with RGB lighting.

To answer the question posed in the headline, NO, you do not need to use these kits with CORSAIR memory, though it will certainly look much better if you're an RGB aficionado. We say that simply because you will be able to sync the lighting between all four sticks, so it will look like one big block of solidified lighting as opposed to there being a gap in the middle, which is subjectively cooler looking, especially if there are waves of light passing back and forth.

Additionally, if you add a CORSAIR Light Enhancement Kit to a build using another brand's memory, even outside of lighting, it won't match because the LEKs will have a different shape and overall design compared with the existing RAM.

There have been reports online that they have to be paired with matching CORSAIR memory kits to function—so VENGEANCE memory with VENGEANCE LEK or DOMINATOR memory with DOMINATOR LEK—but that is not the case. The Light Enhancement Kits function independently of whatever RAM you have installed, so they do not need to be paired with similar kits from CORSAIR.

They will appear in iCUE as if they had memory attached to them, allowing you to control their RGB lighting and synchronize it with your existing sticks if they are also from CORSAIR.

If you end up pairing them with non-CORSAIR memory you will not be able to synchronize the lighting between the LEKs and your current memory, but you will need to install iCUE software to control the RGB lighting. You could always just choose a solid color or something that is easy to coordinate between two different applications, however, we find out hard to believe anyone would mix-and-match RGB like this.