AeroCool GateWatch Review - Display

The unique style of the display is the only reason I would pick this unit over any other one. It sports a large round screen located dead center and surrounded by oversized controls. This gives it a truly futuristic look and is very attractive. Unfortunately, my predictions were true and as good as the unit looks, nothing made up for the awful contrast in colors. It does look like a silver brick in the middle of a color-matched blue case with blue LEDs. [Editor's note: I still think that looks pretty cool, but I've never claimed to have any taste-TW].

The unit does allow you to switch the display color between blue, purple and red, but regardless of backlighting, it still looked out of place in our case. I found purple to be most pleasant, and it looked like the LCD was a little sharper when it was set to that color.

At any given time there are multiple readouts on the screen. The temperature of the selected sensor and RPMs are the largest, which is very nice, since these are the most important. Time and volume are also displayed on the bottom and in my opinion should have been a bit larger.

I really like the concept of having a clock in the middle of my PC, so I wouldn’t have to recall my hidden taskbar. Two thumbs up from me for that feature for lazy overclockers. The screen also shows a few details in small print: sensor/fan location; alarm temperature; manual/auto operation and an indicator that the computer is working (I am still trying to figure that one out).

To top it all off there are three equalizer-style bars that move to sound and an Aerosaurus animal moving its tail up and down. "Aerosaurus" sounds a lot  more exciting than it looks - I would describe it as a distant breed between Snoopy and Barney wearing Sylvester Stallone shades from the movie “Cobra.” The thing does nothing but move its tail up and down. The tail moves slow at normal operation and ultra-fast when alarm goes off.

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