 |
| Manufacturer: |
Zalman |
| Products: |
ZM-MFC1 Controller |
| Availability: |
Now |
| Author: |
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| Date: |
4-25-2003 |
| Price: |
$39.95 |
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There
are 2 parts to this review, please use the pulldown below to browse
sections or simply hit "Next" at the bottom of each section to continue
I remember the good old days, when we would rummage around Radio
Shack looking for rheostats to control fans in the beige PC boxes.
Those days weren't as much fun as they may sound. Truth is it was
easier to find the "right" fan than to rig up a speed controller
for the wrong one.
Thankfully, times have changed. It started when PCMods came out with
a "rheobus" and other companies made baybus mods available.
If we had an extra drive bay to give up and were able to drill holes
in the drive covers, we were quickly off to the races with fairly
slick looking fan speed controllers.
Today we'll look at a fan speed controller that mixes baybus and
rheobus features into a single controller and has six separate control
channels. The folks at Zalman have packed quite a few goodies in this
slick little package. We'll take a close look at how well it all works
and then show you how to personalize it for a LianLi case, using nothing
more than simple tools.
The unit comes in a colorful blister package with clear instructions
printed right on the back.
Fits easily in any 5.25 inch bay
Illustrated transparent blue acrylic face plate
Four Channels: Speed adjustment for 3-pin DC fans (up to 7W each)
Variable intensity blue LEDs brighten according to fan speed
Two Channels: Two speed adjustment (+5V and +12V) for 2-wire DC fans
(up to 7W each)
Multi-color LED shines blue for 5V and red for 12V
2 each: 3-pin extension cables
2 each: 3 pin extension cables with CPU fan connectors to check fan
speed.
If you can strip a few wires and plug in a molex connector, you can
install this controller. This is a copy of the Zalman installation
guide:
It would be nice if all products would be so easy to test as the
new Zalman fan controller. I simply plugged it into a four pin molex
and hooked up four 80mm fans. This is really too simple.
These close-up shots will show the close attention to detail much
better than I can explain it.
The transparent blue plastic bezel may or may not be to your liking.
If you don't like it, read on. We'll show you how easy it is to match
this perfectly to your case.
From above, you can see how compact the inner workings are. From
the face of the bezel to the back of the heatsinks is only 1-1/2 inches.
It's a very concise package indeed.
The fans controlled with toggle switches are connected to a pair
of clearly labeled screw clamping headers. Out of curiosity, I hooked
up a pair of 12" cathode lights to these and it powered them
up just fine. When switched to the 5V rail, however, the lights only
lit partially.
The dial controlled fans are connected with standard 3-pin fan headers.
Below them are four nicely fitted aluminum heatsinks.
The dials are nicely detailed aluminum, each centered below diffused
LED's that brighten as the speed is increased.
The toggle switches are also below diffused LED's, these shine blue
at 5V and red at 12V.
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