Fan controllers are one of those things
that are often overlooked by many people, they’re just not one of those
exciting products really, I mean they control the speed of your fans,
what fun is that right? Well they have a use really, especially if
you like a quiet system as I do, I like to be able to have my system
as quiet as possible, and yet keep it cool. Quiet is nice when I’m
watching a movie or working, but if I’m playing a game the sound
doesn’t bother me as much as there’s noise from the game to drown it
out. So with a fan controller I can turn the fans down low when need
be, and when I’m gaming I can turn the fans up higher to provide
additional cooling for the components in my system.
So, Xilence sent me over their new
Internal Fan Control Panel that fits into a 3.5” bay, it features
the ability to control the speed of up to three fans, and has lighted
accents around the dials which are also reactive to sound. You can of
course turn the lighting off, or all the way on, or even adjust the
sensitivity of the lighting reactions to sounds.
I’m sure most of you don’t use the 3.5”
bay anyway so why not throw a good fan controller in there?
XILENCE
internal fan control panel 3.5″
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
XILENCE
internal fan control panel 3.5″
Are your fans too loud? Do they
run on a high rotation speed even though it is not necessary? You can
change this! Just install the Xilence Fan Control Panel which can
regulate up to three fans and decrease the noise level. All knobs are
red illuminated and react to sound activity. Sensitivity and
illumination are adjustable. The illumination can also be turned off.
Technical Data
Dimensions: 26 x 102 x 119 mm
Controls: 3x fan speed, 1x
light intensity
Net weight: 121 g
Voltage fan 1: 7 – 12 V
Voltage fans 2,3: 0 – 12 V
LED color: red
Features:
* Regulates the rotation speed
of up to three fans
* Knobs are red illuminated
* Reacts to sound activity
* Sensitivity and illumination
adjustable
* Illumination can also be
turned off
A
Better Look at Things:
The Xilence Fan Controller comes
in a small cardboard box that’s is stuffed with a spongy material to
protect the contents inside. The box is nicely done, with specs and
features listed on front and on back in several languages.
Opening the box up we find the
controller itself, user manual, screws, molex power extension cable,
and three 3-pin molex power adapters.
The controller itself is obviously
3.5 inches wide, and a little more than that long, it’s essentially a
solid box that feel very solidly made. On the front are four knobs,
three to control three fans and one to control the lighting
effects/sound sensitivity.
On the back are three 3-pin fan
connections and a moles power connector.
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
Installation is easy, you just
need a free 3.5” bay and that I had in my Ultra m998 case, right
below my card reader. It installs just like any other 3.5” device,
no problems at all with the installation. Then of course you just
need to hook up the fans and the power and you’re ready to go.
I should not that the three knobs
are a bit different in their functions, the first knob actually
cannot turn a fan off, it only lowers it to the minimum speed, if
you’re hooking a CPU cooler fan up to the Xilence fan controller
you’d use this one. The reason of course being that so you can’t
accidentally turn your CPU cooling fan all the way off and possibly
damage your CPU. The other two knobs do allow you to turn the fans
all the way off if you wish.
The red LEDs in the controller are
very bright which is nice, and they can be turned off if the user
wants to. They’re also reactive to sound, they’ll blink, or kind of
stutter depending on the sound levels in the room, when it’s quiet
and just the fans are running they’ll blink dimly depending on the
setting of course. The sound activation part is neat at first, my 3yr
old thought it was really cool, he could clap and make the lights get
brighter, but after a few minutes the fun was over, and honestly
while it’s a neat features it’s rather pointless to me.
Summary
and Comments:
The Xilence Internal Fan Control
Panel works exactly as it should, it installs easily and looks good
as well, what more could you ask for in a product such as this?
Seriously though, I really
couldn’t find anything wrong with this, yes the sound activated LEDs
are kind of pointless and can get annoying but that’s not a real
fault of the product, they can easily be turned on or off if you
wish.
DragonSteelMods gives the XILENCE
internal fan control panel 3.5″ a 5 out of 5 score and our
Recommended Award as well.
Pros:
-Well made
-Easy to use
-Easy to install
-Works perfectly
-Looks good
Cons:
-Sound reaction is kind of
pointless really
I
would like to thank Xilence for the chance to review the 3.5”
Internal Fan Controller and for their support of DSM.
review# 513