| Product: |
Akasa AK FC-03 |
| Date: |
10/06/09 (146 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Choice of colours to match any case, choice of illumination colours.
Disadvantages: Only one teeny, tiny one.... Read on!
You can customise it to match almost any case and illumination colours. In the picture you can see the controller with the black colour plate and the acrylic front cover with white printed writing. There are also red, blue, silver and gold coloured plates and another acrylic front plate with black printed writing so depending on which colour plate you choose the printing is clearly legible.
The four fan speed control knobs have blue illumination around them and the colour can not be changed but the LCD display can be switched between red, green, yellow, blue, purple, and dark blue so whatever colour your case illumination this can be made to match. The controller will also remember the colour you have selected so you don't have to set the desired colour each time you start the PC.
Akasa have been making this fan controller for a number of years and have made no changes, that I am aware of, to the original model.
The display shows the current temperature of the selected sensor on the left and the fan speed on the right, the smaller numbers on the left had side indicate the temperature at which the alarm will sound if reached for the selected sensor.
It is easy to set the alarm points for each of the four temperature probes, which are included. When the set temperature is exceeded there is an audible alarm and a visual alarm with the LCD display flashing red.
The three silver buttons on the left are for selecting which fan or temperature probe to monitor, the third is for selecting the LCD display colour. I don't remember how but these buttons are also used to set the temperature alarm thresholds, instructions are supplied.
The whole device fits into a 5.25" drive bay and is held in place by screws, it will fit in a tool less case too, or at least it did in mine!
It was easy to install and is supplied with extension cables to help connect your fans and keep the cables tidy, the temperature probes are essentially wires and don't take up any space at all. They will easily fit between two hard drives for monitoring temperature in a confined space.
I only had one issue with this controller which involves it's appearance. My case does not have an acrylic front so to install one item that does detracts from the overall appearance of my case. To get around this I have mounted the coloured plate in front of the acrylic cover and I have had the black plate printed so it appears as though it was made that way.
It is not power hungry but is able to provide up to 17w per channel and I use mine with 120mm fans. When the speed on my fans are reduced the LEDs in the fans dim a bit but it's not noticeable. The reason I got this was so that I could leave my bedroom PC on at night and lower fan speed = less noise = a better night's sleep!
There you go, you now know all you need to know to decide if this is for you or not. I am new on this site so for those of you that have not yet read my reviews I am a qualified computer technician and I'd tell you if this was rubbish! Mine has served me for a long time and is still as good as when it was new.
Summary: Good looks and great reliability. What more do you need!?
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