Vantec Nexus Fan Controllers - Installation
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Manufacturers: | Vantec |
| Product: | Nexus Fan Controllers |
Price: | $29 MSRP |
Availability: | Now |
Reviewed By: | Visionism |
Edited By: | Mack (SPeeD) |
Installation
Drive rails. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're a fact of life nowadays. Personally I find them very convenient. Well, usually. Attaching the rails onto the controller I came across a wee design flaw in the prototypes I received from Vantec. The screw holding the PCB brackets to the face plate interfered with the positioning of the drive rails to such an extent that you couldn't actually install the thing in the case. Ok so maybe it was a big design flaw.
Now listen carefully OCAddicts, because this is where the impressive bit starts. I emailed Vantec about the problem, detailing the difficulty I was having installing the drive rails. After a couple of emails back and forth to an enormously polite and helpful representative, Vantec had changed the design to solve the problem within 24 hours and mailed me pictures of the revised design - see below. Read that again. 24 hours after my initial query and they change the design (You're welcome). Now I don't know about you but every time I've emailed anyone about what I think is a flaw in their product I get replies that say things like "Thank you for your suggestion, we'll bear it in mind" Not this time. Customer feedback gets results here. Vantec gets several gold stars for this one. I think it speaks volumes about their dedication to their customers when you see something like this happen. Onward.
After I'd done a minor drive rail mod to get the prototypes to fit (you wont have to with the retail units) the rest was a cinch. a minor bit of fiddling to get the faceplate perfectly flush with the drive bay covers and CD burner and I started to be really impressed with the way the controller looked in the case. Hookup was every bit as easy as I expected. Once power is applied the appearance of the Nexus Fan Controller is simply stunning. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the blue LED's that surround the knobs but what I got was a beautiful deep blue glow. And I do mean glow, these things are much brighter than I anticipated.
Performance
This is the awkward part of the review. How do you judge something like this? Sure I could have got a decibel meter on the fans and measured noise pressure levels but that's only part of the story. Noise is a subjective thing. Take my wife. (please!) She's a real stickler for PC noise levels. The whine, ok, lets be honest... howl, from my fans drove her nuts while it never really bothered me at all. Note the past tense there. I can tell you this much. Having hooked some of the noisier fans to the Vantec controller and varying the voltage from 12V down to 7V the difference in sound level is very significant. If you can't abide fan noise then you should look seriously at the Nexus controllers. Now when I have my fans all the way up for overclocking (You don't run your system overclocked all the time do you? Good. I thought not) the noise starts to get to me. Running down at 7V the wind tunnel shriek becomes a much less obtrusive background hum. Playing graphics intensive games the fans go to about halfway. Still a very significant drop in noise level from having them running at full voltage.
Power shouldn't be a problem here either. The most power hungry fan in my case is the huge Vantec Tornado on my heatsink and the controller handles it perfectly. With 18 watts per channel to play with you should never be short of power. One little word of caution. Large, high speed fans might not spin up with the voltage set all the way down at 7V. This isn't a problem for most as this kind of product really is aimed at the overclocker and nothing in overclocking is idiot-proof. Don't blame me, or Vantec for that matter, if the Tornado or Delta on your heatsink doesn't start up when you switch on your system with it set at 7V and you toast your CPU. If you think its going to be a problem then I wouldn't recommend controlling your CPU fan in this way, just let it run off its own supply.
I was pleasantly surprised at the effect, or lack of it, that varying the voltage had on my case temperatures. My case temperatures will be pretty much meaningless to you, since your system configuration probably isn't the same as mine but I only noticed a three degree rise in temperature from running the fans at low voltage. Perhaps I simply have superfluous fans in my case but I was mightily impressed.
Conclusions
Looking back, its hard to say what impressed me more. The splendid visual appeal of the Nexus Fan Controllers, the solid performance, or Vantec's approach to the design problem in the prototypes. Installation is foolproof, they look stunning and they do their job perfectly. The price might seem a little steep at first glance but for a product of this quality from a company who treat you as well as Vantec, I'd say that they're cheap at the price.
I have no hesitation in awarding the Vantec Nexus Fan Controllers our highest recommendation.
Pros
- Stunning appearance
- Superb build quality
- Plenty of power
- Simple installation
- Solid performance
- Great customer service
Cons
- If I'm going to nitpick, a choice of LED colors might have been nice
OCAddiction.com would like to thank Vantec for sending us these review samples and I'd like to add my personal thanks to Clare and to Vantec's R&D department for the efficient, friendly and professional way in which they dealt with the design problems.
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