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Above you see what all comes with the Enermax panel. In addition to controlling fan speed it also has tow temp probes to monitor temp for things like your cpu, hard drive, ram or video card. Here you have tape included to help attach the probes wherever you wish. And of course screws to secure the Panel to your case.
The above picture shows the inside of the Enermax panel. It's really very neat and tidy once you extend the temp probes and fan connectors. A good place for it in my opinion is just above the floppy drive.
You have two channels to controls fans and each supports 8-10 watts so you could even use each channel to control a 80mm tornado fan. The fan connectors from the panel are 3 pin as you see above so you would need an adapter to fit any fans that use a 4 pin connector.
As you can see from looking at the front of the panel it has three small buttons to the right of the blue led illuminated LCD. They are mode, set and reset. With these buttons you can set the alarm to go off at a certain temp or fan rpm and to view the temp and fan rpm from each temp probe or fan channel. If using more than one fan on each channel then you will need them to be the exact same fan to properly gauge rpm.
Since the LCA is backlit by blue led's you can see it well in the dark. Though I've found you need to get within two feet to make out the digits.
final thoughts~
The Enermax Panel is an excellent idea. Here you can control most if not all of your case fans and have them spin faster when needed and slower (and quieter) when not needed. The fan speed monitoring is rated at between 1000-5000 rpm. I am using two 80mm fans on each channel and it is controlling them very well. These are even blue led lighted fans too. I tried an 80mm tornado on one channel and it worked well, just couldn't stand that loud tornado sound for long.
The temp probes are great for monitoring your hard drives, ram, video card, chipset and perhaps your cpu. Though the probe isn't thin enough to place under the cpu, the cords are long enough to place them wherever you want.
You can even adjust how the panel shows temps to have it show in either C (centigrade) or F (fahrenheit). Add it all up and this Enermax UC-A3FATR2 3.5" Panel is one very usefull little device. And since it fits in a 3'5" bay you can leave your larger 5.25" bays for other things. Most of us do have an extra 3.5" bay so this is perfect for that. And since it's brushed aluminum it'll look great in an aluminum case, or any case for that matter!
thanks goes out to Hank at Performance-PCs for sending us this unit for evaluation. Direct Link to this Enermax 3.5" Panel.
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