Gadgetory

welcome back guys to another hardware connects product showcase with the LAN Tron fan controller touch now fan controllers have been around for a long time and up until very recently their general design and functionality hasn't changed all that much but more recently the touch screen trend has been catching on and fan controller makers like lamp Tron have seen this as an opportunity to be able to update and expand a very stagnant market so here it is the lamp Tron FCT as you notice on the front of the box there are six channels and each is able to handle up to 30 watts which means you're gonna be able to hook up just about everything in your case some of its other key features are the CNC milled aluminum faceplate so it's not an ugly eyesore on your case and obviously the touch screen capabilities now this device retails for $69.99 which makes it a little bit of an expensive way to control and monitor your fans and temperatures so let's open things up and see if it's worth it lamp tron has included a product catalog and you can see they're not new to computer accessories or fan controllers for that matter there's a lot of other options if this one you know doesn't suit your tastes they've included everything you'll need to get the controller setup including screws a molex power adapter a half dozen fan extension cables six temperature probes and of course the head unit now the unit fits right into a single five and a quarter inch drive Bay you can see the solid aluminum front plate very classy looking the fan screen itself has a bit of a matte tone and this helps to reduce noticeable fingerprint marks and it's also partially due to the durable material used at the back you can see this will be a pretty easy setup on the right side we have all of the temperature probe connections as well as an alarm function jumper and the power connection you can also see the six fan connections all have very serious capacitors tied to each individual channel moving on to the actual setup of the controller it is actually very simple obviously users will be doing this inside of the case but this is just for demonstration you'll need a molex power connection which you can attach to the extension cable if needed also make sure you install the temperature probes into the corresponding channel of the fan you want to control there's a good foot and a half of length to these so you should be able to fit them anywhere and if you need there are fan extension cables otherwise you can just plug them directly into the head unit now if your fan has a molex connection just make sure to use a simple molex to three pin fan header adapter which should come with most fans or just pick up one from your favorite retailer so now that we actually have everything hooked up it's time to explore the lamp Tron FCT touch interface it's both simple looking and simple to use just a monotone color scheme and the primary screen here allows us to individually select any of these six attached fans starting off with our first one the bar adjustment at the bottom lets us set the speed in increments of 1% using the touch slider however the touch controls can be a bit difficult to master especially when attempting to set the speed within its top or bottom 10% depending on what kind of stats you're looking for the RPM display can be changed to show volts and the temperature switched from Celsius to Fahrenheit one of the highlights of the lambtron device that you won't find on a lot of more basic units is the automatic control option for each fan we can individually set profiles based on temperature when we set a fan to automatic mode we can go in and set the temperature threshold that we want detected by the corresponding probe then we adjust the fan speed which will act as the default so our fan will operate at its set default speed until the temperature goes over what we've set after that the fan ramps up to a hundred percent until the temperature drops back down in this way we can control the temperature of the PC without any interference and because it's done on a fan by fan basis we can even set different cooling zones for different areas of the case lastly a very welcome improvement is this controllers exceptional viewing angles whether it's from a vertical extreme or a complete 180 degree sideways angle in fact probably the only time you won't be able to see the screen is if you're behind it and that is the lamp Tron fan controller touch there is no getting around the fact that it's $70 it's a pretty hefty investment for a fan controller but for your money you are getting one of the more powerful and intuitive devices on the market it's constructed very well and the features like having six channels with 30 watt outputs definitely justify the price unfortunately the key aspect of the device was also where it had its one strike against it while the touch screen was amazingly quick and very responsive it could have used a little more refinement because the controller is utilizing a small screen it has relatively small function buttons found it a bit difficult to make adjustments and more often than not I would wind up having to repeat my actions a few times over trying to pull up the right fan or adjust speeds then again once you have the automatic mode set up everything becomes very hands-off and that's our look at the lap tron fan controller touch I hope you enjoyed our product showcase and make sure to subscribe we have plenty coming up the next little while that I'm sure you're really going to enjoy see you next time