There aren’t many 3.5″ fan controllers on the market and even fewer that feature red LEDs. In fact only one that I could find – the Xilence one reviewed here!

I decided to build myself a small form factor (SFF) PC to use as both a test rig and a portable PC for LAN gaming. I also wanted it to be a little bit more showy and intended on modifying it as I fancied. I decided on red as my colour scheme. I modded the the PSU to include a red LED fan, fitted two additional red LED case fans, installed an Abit F-I90HD motherboard which is a red PCB and fitted ATI certified RAM with red heatspreaders. Unfortunately I needed to add a fan controller to calm down the noise from the fans and being a SFF case there weren’t too many bays available for one. This left me on the search for a red fan controller that could control 3 or more fans, preferably by manual knobs and would fit into a 3.5″ external bay.

As far as I know the Xilence red LED 3.5″ fan controller is the only product that fits the bill so when I eventually found it I dived right in and bought it. As mentioned several times already this Xilence controller fits into a 3.5″ external drive bay and it features red LEDs. The fascia is black with white text and details and there are four knobs to provide control, each of these knobs is surrounded by a ring that lights up red when turned on. Cosmetically this is a very nice product, it looks clean & crisp, the knobs chosen are well finished and the white detailing adds to the overall effect.

Box Contents and Installation
The Xilence fan controller comes in a small attractive looking cardboard box with a foam interior designed to protect the product from harm during shipping. Along with the controller itself you’ll find a selection of cables – a molex extender and 3 x 3pin to molex adapter cables. You also get a brief instruction leaflet and a bag of fitting screws. The cables are nice to have after all you can never have too many cables available to you in your collection and the leaflet instructions is plenty enough for a product that screws in place and has just four knobs!

To install the fan controller, you need to insert it in a suitable bay as per your case’s instructions using the screws supplied. All that’s left then is to connect up the cables. The unit is powered by a standard 4pin molex connection so you’ll need to connect one of these. The fan control is for fans connecting via the standard motherboard 3pin fan cables, so connect these up appropriately. If you have fans with a 4pin molex connector then feel free to use the supplied adapter cables. These adapter cables have a dual function and can be used as 3 pin fan extender cables too.

The rear of the unit is well labelled so you’ll know which connection is which and it also warns you to connect your CPU fan to fan1 on the controller. This is because the fan1 channel has different circuitry which does not allow the supplied voltage to go below 7 volts, as such you can’t completely turn off the fan on this channel. Potentially a useful safety feature that prevents you turning the wrong knob and frying your CPU. If your case is a little tight you may find it easier to make the connections before installing the unit and the supplied cables can act as extensions for such a purpose.

Function and Design
At first I mentioned the 4 knobs on the unit and then I mentioned the three fan connections, ‘what’s the fourth knob for?’ I hear you cry. The fourth knob on the panel is for controlling the red lighting. If the knob is turned all the way clockwise the red lighting is on full constantly. If the knob is turned fully anti-clockwise then the red lighting is off. Anywhere in between and the lighting goes into sound responsive mode and the knob position adjusts sensitivity, clockwise for more sensitive, anti-clockwise for less sensitive. This feature works well, those who just want a fan controller and don’t want red lighting can use it with the lights off, others can choose between always on and sound reactive.

Just to help avoid possible confusion, in my pictures the red LCD screen showing temperature is not part of the fan controller it’s just been fitted flush against the left side of the controller.

The fan controller does it’s job as advertised. If you adjust the knobs you should be able to find a setting that allows for adequate cooling with reduced noise. I found one of the knobs to be quite stiff part way through it’s motion making it quite difficult to turn, these are after all quite small knobs with no grip to aid adjustment. I have mixed thoughts about the fan1 (CPU fan) safety feature, it’s good that you can’t turn off the fan completely in some ways as you probably don’t want to run you CPU passively. However having this feature reduces the product’s flexibility, for instance some people may want to have the motherboard control the CPU fan through 4pin PWM control and have this unit control 3 case fans. There may also be scenarios where you might want to turn off your CPU fan completely for a moment or have the extra control afforded by dropping the voltage to below 7V.

Cosmetically on the other hand I cannot fault the product as I think it really does look the part. Some might prefer to swap the sound sensitivity feature for a simple light intensity control and maybe a simple rear side jumper could be provided to switch the light control knob between both modes. It is nice to have the ability to turn the lighting off completely for installing in a non-red themed case but it would also be nice to have the product made available in different colours.

Conclusion
Overall I like this fan controller, I’m certainly glad for it because there isn’t an alternative and I wanted one. There are things that could be better but nothing that makes this less than a very good product. It retails on-line at around £15 which is an excellent price and I’ve had mine well over a year now and so far it’s done it’s job well.

Overall Score: 8/10

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