Software: iCUE

The software driver for the CORSAIR K100 RGB mechanical keyboard is iCUE and can be downloaded from their downloads page. The latest public version at the time of testing was 3.34.12, and the installer is 454 MB in size. As seen above, installation is fairly straightforward, although your mileage may vary on whether you need to actually do a system reboot (recommended) or not to get it operational. The final package takes up approximately 600 MB even though it asks for a whopping ~1.5 GB for itself, all numbers which are yet again higher from when I last checked out iCUE. It continues to be a worrying trend, one used often to complain about the program being a potential resource hog. When you do open it, it is best to have the keyboard connected, although you can still play around and get familiar with the program without any hardware connected.


Opening it for the first time with the keyboard connected, we see a homepage similar to the iCUE from the previous keyboard review, but it has been polished further, and even more devices are now supported, which is why the overall package is heavier on your storage drive. Clicking on a device thumbnail takes you to the device-specific controls, which is as before. iCUE is not the lightest driver I have used in terms of system resources, but given the extent of control and support involved, it still feels justified. The keyboard was recognized immediately, and there were no firmware updates available at the time.

The dashboard tab allows one to customize previews for devices, which is useful for a quick look at your system's current status. Instant lighting allows for unified lighting across all connected devices, and then we get to the global settings tab that is laid out better than before, especially on a high DPI display. Given this is a review of the keyboard and not the driver, we will focus on the settings available for the K100 RGB, which include the polling rate, LED brightness, and language layout to match your actual version, in addition to the ability to check for and update the firmware if an update is available. Instant Lighting is at the top, allowing for all compatible, connected devices to be on the same color of your choosing in one go. For once, the polling rate section is worth checking out. The default for the K100 is 1000 Hz, and you have to manually choose 2000 or 4000 Hz, which can take a few seconds to activate.

One thing the K100 RGB has over less expensive keyboards from CORSAIR is the inclusion of hardware playback, and even that has been bumped up massively with up to 200 profiles that can be saved to the device for the profile switch button, as compared to the 3–5 for other CORSAIR keyboards supporting this feature. Limitations to these have also been reduced drastically, with a lot of function layers that can be stored onboard. This minimizes the need for iCUE to be up and running and makes it a keyboard you can carry around should you be so inclined despite the large form factor. The Performance tab is very self-explanatory and also has a small set of options, so I added it here for a common discussion.

Actions is the first device-specific menu for customizing the functionality of the keyboard past its global settings, and note the useful pop-ups for most menu items to tell you what each item does. Given these dedicated hardware profiles, CORSAIR included a separate tab for actions that can be stored onboard, which ends up being a smaller subset of the larger general actions menu for the software profiles. By default, the keyboard does what the keycap legends denote, but do not let that stop you. As the video illustrates, you can record a macro, edit it completely, and assign it to a key; make a key stroke input a pre-configured text, re-assign keys in case QWERTY is not your cup of tea, etc. All these software controls make this a fully programmable keyboard within the limits of what is allowed for the device, and changing the language in the settings page opens up more options, too.

As with actions, we have a separate lighting menu for hardware playback compared to the more general menu that has more options. This clearly shows which lighting effects you can bundle together (up to 20 layers even) for the hardware profiles saved to the keyboard. The lighting effects are bundled together in an organized multi-column approach. The driver shows a preview of the active lighting scheme, which can include a single layer or multiples as one. The options here are rich, going from preset static and dynamic effects to custom versions taking full advantage of the 16.8 M RGB per-key backlighting and the light bar up top with more zones to individually control.

Then there is the iCUE Control Wheel. The name signifies more is to be had with iCUE, with the default out of box experience being brightness control. Press the button in the middle and the function changes depending on whether you are in hardware or software mode, and you can toggle between different options and associated indicator lights in iCUE. In software mode, for example, you can set macros to either turn of the dial, but the more sensible approach is to use it with functions, including switching applications or tracks, or vertical/horizontal scrolling paired with key-mapped mouse-button actions. This makes the keyboard a single HID potentially, especially if you take the time to configure the typing layout for ergonomics and efficiency.

As it stands, this is one of the better user experiences to be had, and iCUE—at least in its current version and pertaining to this keyboard—is easier to use than most of the competition despite being one of the most powerful in terms of customization options. Also, it is a unified driver for the CORSAIR ecosystem, which is mostly why it takes up so much room on your storage drive.