Intro:
Noise noise noise. I do hate noise. Especially when it is fan noise in my
PC. While some fans are geared for 'quiet computing' I'd rather have control
over the speed of my fans personally. Wanting your fans whirring away while
browsing the net, or emailing Uncle Fester is beyond my understanding. Turn them
down while doing medial tasks, and turn them up when you are going to get into
some gaming, is what I do personally. Vantec come back into action with a
smaller brother of the NXP-201. This one fits in one of those undoubtedly extra,
3.5" bays that you have just sitting there.
What you really need to know:
Many months ago I took a break from the site. Stuff got
sidetracked and pushed from completion. 90% of this review was done in July of 2003.
After regaining some of my sanity later on, now in March of 2004, I will put any
additions to the article in gray text...
We'll skip the rating this time. My results are conclusive, and inconclusive
still... Think of this as more of a documentary?!
The package:
My review samples came via UPS well packed in a small box. Vantec
has always taken great care in safely packing even review samples. That shows me
that they are probably just as careful when shipping to their distributors as well.
Chances are, wherever you get your Vantec product from, it'll be in good shape.
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| (1) The box |
(2) Front shot |
Above, in picture 2, you can see the front of the packaging.
I wouldn't have minded having a window on the front of it to show the internal
contents, but I guess the side 'what's included' (not pictured), do almost as
well as just showing it thru a window. Below, in picture 3, you can see the back
of the box. It has the specifications, which I will put into text form for you
below. Lastly, before moving on to that, I'll show you the initial shot of
sliding out the plastic internal packaging.
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| (3) Back shot |
(4) Packaged |
Specifications:
| Housing material: |
Aluminum |
| Max Power per Channel: |
18 Watts |
| Input: |
12 Volt |
| Output: |
7 - 12 Volts |
| Output current: |
Up to 1.5 Amps |
| Colors: |
Silver or Black |
The cables and stuff:
Tightly wrapped in plastic, are your cables for your unit. I
actually had to cut mine open because I couldn't find the end of the tape...
Included also are 4 mounting screws. You can never have enough screws around,
especially if you work on PC's a lot, so to me, the added value of the screws in
a small zip lock bag, adds a somewhat finishing touch to the package. What isn't
included, is zip ties. You will probably have your own already, but hooking up
fans to this rheobus with the long fan cables, will add to your wire mess in
your PC chassis.
One of the most interesting things I have seen in a while. It
looks to be some real thought into the power cables for your fans. But... You
plug the female 3 pin into the back of your rheobus, and then a generous, 23"
from end to end to the male 3 pin that hooks to your fan. But wait! Your fan is
a 4 pin fan, no problem. You have about another 3" to your 4 pin connector. One
fault that comes to mind is, ok, so my fan is 3 pin, what the heck do I do with
this extra 4 pin connector that will undoubtedly be laying next to your fan. Not
a good thing for neatness, nor fans in windows. Putting them in one cable, and
having a good length is great for the most part. I would also like to note that
according to Vantec, you should use either fan connector, and not both on the
cable, and only use one fan per channel. Personally, I could see putting on a few LED fans to
one channel easy, but I wouldn't push more than one Vantec Tornado on it. And
I'm not recommending you do so either.
Before I forget completely though, what came to mind initially, is the power to the rheobus itself.
It is NOT a Y splitter, but merely an extension cable. Some of you may lose
an important Molex connector perhaps...
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| (5) The fan cables |
(6) 4 pin Molex for power |
A closer look:
Moving around to the back of the rheobus, we can see the
Molex power input for the rheobus, and the 4 channels for your fans. Not taking
any measurements, you maybe able to deduct form the picture that this rheobus is
pretty long. It isn't as long as a floppy drive or anything, but still should
give enough room in your 3.5" bay to keep your wires neat coming out of the
rheobus.
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| (7) Back shot |
(8) Side shot |
(9) A bit of a close up |
The LED's which you can see a bit better now, are in picture
9. They are very small, and are soldered into the board. Replacing them with
another color should be fairly easy if you had some soldering skills. And
thinking of that, why doesn't Vantec offer any other color in their rheobuses
but blue?
The units:
Now you can see the fronts of the units on the bench. Notice
in the top right hand corner of the silver one, a little ding in the top corner.
That had to have happened at the manufacturing plant, because the units were in
flawless condition in the packaging. It's not really noticeable mounted, but
this is one that someone dropped or something? Oopsy daisy.
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| (10) The rheobuses |
Also notice, as we saw in the NXP-201's, the round dots around
the black version is all white. However, on the silver, towards the end of
rotation clockwise, they are red. And boy, they don't really line up to well.
Hmm... Unless you are starting at them, you may not even notice. But, I
had to point that out to you...
Mounting them was as easy as could be. I could only put in a
screw on each side in my Lian Li 6010, but all my devices except for my hard
drives I put in with a screw on each side. It takes less time of course to put
them in, and pull them out... I'm sure in other cases this won't be a problem to
mount, and I wouldn't use two screws on each side anyway. That's probably
overkill.
Also, for the below shots, I only have a screw on the left
side, not on the right as well. So there won't be that extra space you can
detect in pictures 12 and 13. Sorry, call me lazy... These will be both put to
use, and permanently mounted later. Yes indeed!
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| (11) Flash |
(12) No flash |
(13) Dark |
You can notice a little bit of brightness difference in the
units as well. No one LED was dimmer than any of the four that are on each unit,
but, the black NXP-205 is not as bright as the silver in this instance. But who cares. You probably won't have a silver and a black one mounted in
your case anyway. Right?
Testing the first units:
Initial testing came about two months ago. With the first
units there were major, major problems in my eyes. For one, the voltages did not
go down to 7 volts as advertised. It hit more along the lines of 9 volts. Ok, 9
volts does take the edge off, but it doesn't go down to 7 volts now does it?
Also, during testing I noticed a couple things that raise a red flag to me
immediately. When you have any fan, on any channel, on high, and turn one of the
channels down to low, LED fans flicker, and the NXP-205 makes a clicking noise
coinciding with the flicker. With normal plain old black fans, the clicking
noise is still there, but of course it doesn't affect fan performance in either
case. I should add that the faint clicking noise, although I was unable to
pinpoint exactly what part of the unit it was coming from, it really shouldn't be
heard inside your case mounted. I gave one unit away to a friend that didn't
want LED fans in their case anyway, so that works, and saves just a little bit
more space in the landfill for maybe, diapers or plastic...
So, I spoke with Vantec Tech Support, and a couple other
sites when these units first became available as retail samples, and had the
problems verified. Well, with the LED fans flickering anyway. This problem WAS
supposed to be corrected before the units shipped to resellers. So here we are,
nearly two months later, (research with Vantec, and some
of my laziness at that time thrown in too) I do have a supposed updated version of it. Below
is the test paragraph...
Updated testing: (With a new unit)
This new unit hit more along the lines of the 7
volts for the fan on low speed. I also spoke with Tech Support, and it seems
that the voltage ranges do change with the fan that is hooked on the channel. It
seems that say, a Vantec Tornado fan, would hit a lower supplied voltage than
just a plain simple old low Watt draw 80mm fan. So, I have no idea what I just
said, and if that makes sense. Ok, it doesn't make sense to me, I guess, but I'm
passing on what I was told. Lastly, during testing the new NXP-201, I noticed
LED fans still flickered on it. This was with three different PSU's, two
different locations here in the house, and many different LED fans. Argh...
02-22-04:
I sent the silver unit (first batch) to
my fellow staff member, Jon. He reported back to me that LED fans did NOT
flicker on the unit. Ok, now that IS strange.
I was supposed to send the second unit
back to Vantec for testing after I reported that fans still flickered on THIS
unit. I never got around to it. (My bad!) On a whim, after I found it
collecting dust, I retested it on the above date, and several nights in a row
now. Guess what? LED fans did NOT flicker on it. Yes, the same one that Vantec
sent me in mid to late August of 2003. The difference in test scenarios? None.
Was it my AC power at the house? Was the power sagging around here? I just can't
explain it. It was during the summer, and I do have a window air conditioner,
but it was turned off for testing. No major appliances were running at either of
the aforementioned testing phases. I have even tested it now with the furnace
on. No change. No flickering LED fans. Go figure that one out!
Summary:
While not perfect aesthetically, in one
out of three, the new NXP-205's show nice
promise for not only doing what it is supposed to do, (control fan noise) but
the inclusion of all four needed cables, is something that is, and should
be very welcomed by anyone. I have seen better knobs on other rheobuses, but the knobs
even being plastic, look fine, and spin around smoothly in these
three sample
units.
Pros:
Cons:
Closing:
I'd like to thank Vantec
for sending the review samples to show you folks. Expect to see the updated
units at Vantec resellers. That list is right
here. I hope you enjoyed this
review. Questions or comments should be sent to
me, or take them up in the
forums. Until next time...
Update:
I really have no idea how to explain
what went on with the testing of these units. Here are the facts again...
The first units:
Verified by Vantec Tech Support, a
couple other review sites, and me, flickered with LED fans. I heard a clicking
noise from the first units. One of them was later sent to Jon and had no such
issues as just described.
The second unit:
Did flicker with LED fans, but does not
now, after many months. I am crazy...........
