NZXT Sentry Mix Fan Controller Review - PAGE 2

The NZXT Sentry Mix will be installed into a brand new Corsair 600T Graphite that now has the honor of being Neoseeker's baseline case. There are two large 200mm and three 120mm fans packed inside our test rig, including the CPU heatsink fans. This case is already fairly quiet to begin with, but there is still some audible fan noise when the built in fan controller is set to max. One of the great things about installing the Sentry Mix is that the user can independently control each fan instead of only being able to vary the speed of all fans at once, which was the only level of control the Graphite's built-in fan controller offered.

The Sentry Mix came wrapped in a pink velostat bag along with a brief instruction manual that covers the basics of installation and setup. Once unwrapped, the full glory of the fan controller is revealed.

This fan controller comes with six independent power cables, one for each slider, and two power cables. Each of the fan cables is clearly numbered to correspond to the slider that connects to it on the face plate. It is impossible to see from the image above, but underneath each slider there is a number that corresponds to the channel that it controls. These numbers are backlit when the Mix is powered, and you can choose to give them blue, red, orange, white, or green color using the recessed selector button to the left of the sliders.

Power is supplied to the Sentry Mix through two independent power lines. These lines end in standard 4-pin molex connectors, with one supplying the +12V line and the other providing the +5V line. These plugs are terminators and they will fully occupy the molex junction that they are connected to. With most modern power supplies moving toward the newer SATA power plugs, more and more power supply manufacturers are no longer offering units with a lot of the older style power plugs. Initially we were quite annoyed that there were two different plugs required for this module, until we realized that no one would want a full 300W potential draw coming from a single line that was powering other devices. It is still lame that the engineers at NZXT didn't design the power plugs as pass-throughs, but I guess that they do not think that many people interested in something like the Sentry Mix will be using older equipment

Looking closely at the rear of the Sentry Mix, you can see that all the cables are detachable from the back plate. This is a nice feature because it allows you to cut down on cable clutter if you don't need to use the maximum number of channels. Also noticeable is the fact that this fan controller takes up just about the entire drive bay. This is desirable because it adds extra durability to the module, and prevents it from wobbling around during operation and feeling cheap. This also ensures the cables are anchored securely, preventing any damage if a cable should get yanked or pulled accidentally when adding or removing new hardware to your system. It is worth noting that this controller only has the capability to support fans that use 3-pin connetions. So unless you have a molex to 3-pin connector you will be out of luck here.

The fan cables are really long, measuring 24 inches (61 cm) in length which should be more than enough to reach clear across any small or mid-tower. Since most fans come with a decently long power cable as it is, the combination of both should be more than enough to accommodate even a full-tower case. The shade of black that NZXT chose for the Sentry Mix face plate is a little different than that of the Graphite case used for testing, but they are close enough that it is entirely unnoticeable unless you study the front panel really hard in person. The silver of the buttons are nicely done and they really add some character to this module. Time to button everything back up, turn on the power, and see how this fan controller performs!