NZXT Sentry 2 LXE Fan Controller Review
Introduction
Published: 3rd August 2010 | Source: NZXT | Price: £55 |
Introduction
If there is one thing we can pretty much all agree on, it's that we like gadgets. Things that do something cool, or perhaps do something very normal but in a really cool way.
We can also agree that excessive noise from your system is a real pain. Anyone who was in the PC business back in the days of 40mm and 60mm fans endlessly whining away will know exactly what I mean, as will those of you with actively cooled motherboards. Perhaps those of you with Deltas or similar 12v monsters are willing to wear ear defenders in the name of cfm, but for the rest of us this noise is bothersome.
The move to 120mm fans was a huge help in reducing the amount of noise we have to tolerate, but as the fan sizes got larger, components got hotter, and cases became ever larger in an attempt to hold sufficient fans to get some good airflow over these hot parts.
Instead of having one or two tiny fans producing lots of noise, we now have 5 or 6 large fans shifting air to keep the latest hardware cool. Really we're back at square one, just with much faster hardware and a much greater quantity of air being moved.
This is all very well if you are one of the Delta brigade above, or have your system in a spare room and use headphones. But what if, like your faithful reviewer, you are someone with their PC in the lounge. Or perhaps your system is used as a total entertainment/office system rather than just gaming. You certainly don't want a bunch of fans going ten to the dozen when you're trying to balance your chequebook.
Enter the NZXT Sentry 2 LXE fan controller. It absolutely covers the noise element as it enables 'on the fly' adjustment of fan speeds allowing you to turn it all down when you're browsing the internet and push them all back up for your gaming session. Perhaps more importantly it also covers the gadget aspect. A far cry from the "dial" based controllers we're used to, this is entirely touch-screen and external too. But before I get ahead of myself.
Technical Specifications
Fan controllers being fairly simplistic beasts the technical specifications aren't overly complicated. Nonetheless as always we bring them straight from the horses mouth.
| Intuitive Touch Screen LCD – Advanced, touch screen LCD displays temperatures in C/F, RPMs, along with the date, time, and day of the week. Users have the ability to switch the display off for complete darkness for more immersive gaming sessions |
| Complete Control – 5 Temperature Probes keep tabs on thermals throughout the case while the 5 Fan controllers adjust the fans’ RPM speed for at least 10W per channel. Allows users to automatically adjust the fan speeds to correspond to a specific temperature, manually customize for extreme overclocking capabilities, or set to absolute silence |
| Temperature Alarm – Instant notification if temperatures rise above a designated point |
| Sleek Design – Brushed aluminum frame provides sleek aesthetics for any desktop. |
| Rechargeable Battery – The Sentry LXE features a rechargeable battery for up to 500 times, keeping the LXE life time longer without the hassle of replacing batteries constantly. |
| Unique Mounting - Using a NZXT developed PCI board and external touch display, the LXE allows for more 5.25" bays freed up for other peripherals.environment. Simply set the fan controller atop your PC or desktop and connect through PCI card interface. |
The Sentry 2 LXE fan controller though isn't designed just to do a job discretely. Oh no. This is definitely something to be displayed.
Most Recent Comments
It screams Star Trek and completely solves the problem of not being able to see the fan controller now my PC is on the floor. Perfect Quote|
Originally Posted by silenthill
Ill buy the NZXT Sentry 2 LXE Fan Controller with it but my only concern is will it fit |
|
Originally Posted by silenthill
worried about the installation is it easy or will I be straggling with the Molex cables because the Coolermaster HAF X case has a lot of fans to be honest what I really mean will it do my head in. |
Really, you can't go wrong.Quote
QuoteI've no idea why it's showing as orange to people. It's black here
Quote
|
Originally Posted by VonBlade
As I said, it's all really obvious and as user-friendly as jelly
|
Nice review but I've really gone off of fan controllers. It's bad enough with modern PCs having so much to tinker with and adjust, but this thing would kick my OCD off terribly. I did use an NZXT controller a while back and it was terrible. This one does look more solid though.Quote
CSS Valid
Continue ReadingQuote