When the people from mCubed Information Technology Ltd. send over their version of PC fan controller, we were in for a surprise. This Austrian company decided to create a high tech revision of a popular fan controller and add a truckload of extra’s to it.

The T-Balancer (T-Ban) is a stand alone, temperature controlled, fan control system which can be configured through its onboard USB connection. The idea is simple, different temperature sensors placed in your system send data to the T-Ban, depending its configuration it will then speed up or slow down up to 4 fans which can be connected. Sure we’ve seen products do these things before, but none of them are stand alone, they need user interaction to work correctly and how you want it. Once the T-Ban is configured however you won’t need to touch it again, it will regulate the temperature of your system’s critical components.

The T-Ban regulates the speed of the fans not by adjusting the voltage like most controllers do, it uses Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM for short. What this does it give the fan full power (12v) every other millisecond; this makes it possible to let a fan turn at very low speed without it stalling. Most fans don’t work with less then 5v, by using PWM you can make them spin slower without problem.

When looking into the theory of PWM I came across this very informative site which explains the differences, PRO’s and CON’s of both methods. Although using PWM will reduce the fan’s lifetime, it will only be a matter of days.

A more noticeable downside of using PWM is the inability to read out the correct RPM of each fan, the T-Ban overcomes this problem “guessing” the fan’s speed:



This is taken from the Help dialog of the T-Ban configuration wizard, but more on that later! So now that you know what it does let’s take a look at the hardware side of things ->

The T-Balancer comes in 2 formats, either as a PCI add-on card, or as a stand alone unit. We’ve received the XL or external version for review, apart from the mounting method; you won’t find any differences between the 2 versions.


A simple cardboard box contains the following goodies:



You get:

T-Ban XL unit

4 temperature sensors

sensor and signal cables

cable extension pieces

mounting stickers and cable binders

internal and external USB cables

a very descriptive user manual & driver/application CD

Each temperature sensor is numbered to avoid confusion during installation. The sensor chip has a range of -55°C to 125°C with an accuracy of ~2°C, they are made by Philips. With the help of the built-in calibration of the T-Ban the accuracy increases up to 0.5°C according to mCubed! That's quite impressive.



The extension strips allow you to place the temperature sensor and case fans pretty far away from the base unit



The Velcro strips go on the T-Ban, while the white stickers are used for attaching the temperature sensors

The PCI version of the T-Balancer looks like this:



Let’s take a closer look at the External version ->

Specifications of the T-Balancer XL:

Fan Channels: 4 x 15 Watts/1,25 A

Current consumption: 5 V/50 mA

Efficiency: approx. 95 %

Interface: USB internally/externally

Size: approx. 105 x 83 x 25 mm

Weight: approx. 100 gram

Priced between €50-60



Up to 4 fans can be connected to the unit, each of them needs to be hooked to one of 4 white connectors on the right side as seen on the above photo. The connectors on the left are those who lead back to mainboard to provide RPM readout.

In order to configure the T-Balancer you need to connect it either using the internal USB cable (check the manual of your motherboard) or the external USB cable. A 12v connector on the opposite side of the USB connector provides power to the unit.



The FT232Bm chip provides USB connectivity between your PC and the T-Ban



The ATmel chip stores all the configuration info, in the right corner you see the small speaker which emits a moderately high pitched noise when one of the sensor surpasses a predefined limit.

The whole unit is sandwiched between two transparent plastic covers; it’s relatively small and can be stored almost anywhere inside your case




Time to get it installed ->

With the USB cable plugged in you will notice new hardware is being installed on your next boot-up. If you are using Windows 9x you will need to install the drivers included on the CD, XP users can skip this step.



After installation of the T-Balancer control panel you start it up like any other application. It connects to the unit and reads out the current configuration. By default all fans are set to "manual" mode and running at 100%. The first thing you need to do is disable the manual fan mode, you do this by clicking on the "panel" option and removing the check box next to "man"



Now you go back to the main control panel and hit configuration. This starts up the configuration wizard which guides you through each step. Clicking the "?" symbol pops up a separate window with tons of information on what each option does and how to use it, a lot of effort has been put into making it very easy for the end-user!

First up you select which fan that you connected have RPM readout/tacho signal:



Next you give each fan a name, you can either call them Mickey Mouse and Mini Mouse, or use some more informative names like:



Step 2 consists of calibrating each temp sensor to match the actual temperature more closely; this is done by increasing the temperature with X percentage. Using MSI's core center and the nVidia's GPU temp monitor I matched the temperature read out from the T-Ban sensors with the "real" ones. During my testing temps did not deviate more then 2-5°C with the actual temperature, not too bad considering the sensor are located pretty far away from the actual heat source. To obtain the real temp of the HDD you can try Speedfan or an another nifty tool from mCubed's website: DTemp (click=download).




In step 3 you decide the critical temps of each sensor, what you see below are the default values, I increased the CPU temp up to 70°C



Now you assign each Fan to one or more Temp sensors in Step 4, if you forgot to disable the manual mode you won't be able to change a thing. My config is pretty straight forward, CPU for CPU, forward intake to Southbridge, and "Case Back" to HDD and Vidcard.



If you select multiple sensors it will only show the highest temperature recorded, in order for the T-Ban to work optimally you better limit the amount of sensors each fan should react to. So the screenie below is a bad example:



Step 5 is vital to the temp/noise balance you will end up with, each fan can be given a predefined curve, higher temp, higher speed ->





If you are not happy with the default options, you can click the advanced option and go all out and design your own pattern,



The last step sets up fan blockage detection:



Clicking the "load/save settings" button on the main config does just that, very useful when experimenting with different setups!



mCubed also provides a custom setup for those who want to set up their kit right away, the config file is in plain text as seen here

In the introduction I've mentioned that the T-Balancer uses PWM technology to control the speed of each fan. When using LED fans you might experience flickering when the PWM frequency is too low or too high. Using the Panel and clicking the advanced box you are able to change this setting.




The effect of moving from 26 to 174 intervals can be seen here in this little movie:



The feature list of the T-Balancer is quite extensive, the software can be customised and there's a special software tool in case you have CCFL's or LED fans hooked up the to unit, more on that on the next page ->

Firmware upgrades:

As the T-Ban is using flashrom memory to store its information it can be upgraded through the USB connection with new firmware releases. I flashed the unit to the latest release at the time of writing, being v1.2. Together with this you also need to update your control panel to match the firmware.

Clicking on the “info” button of the config monitor brings up this window:



The monitor tab allows you to see the calculated RPM of each fan



The last tab launches the Firmware update process, just select the desired firmware and in less then 5 minutes the T-Ban is flashed to the latest release. Please DO save your config before flashing the unit as this will be reset.




Extra's:

The Configuration Monitor is skin-able, and there are some skins already available at the mCubed website:



In the 1.2 release of the configuration client you also find an extra compact monitor window:



And a separate tool called “Lightmagic”, it allows you to control the “PWM” like function of the T-ban completely, in my case it allowed me to make the LED fans’ light pulse slowly or in a predefined pattern.



Surely a nifty extra to play with and show off if you have a side-panel window, however, when activating this function you will put the fan in “manual” mode and it no longer be temp controlled, obviously. When running the “Lightmagic” program you can not launch the config monitor at the same time, it will fail to find the T-Ban unit if you do. Both the config panel as the Lightmagic app can be minimized to the system tray. The Lightmagic tool has a 5Mb footprint; the Config panel needs only 1.5Mb.

Onto our conclusion ->

I will break up the conclusion into different parts as to make sure everything is covered.

The T-Balancer unit

The unit has a high quality feel, the layout on the PCB is clean and professionally done, no remarks here. The choice of using either an internal or external model is a great bonus and makes sure it fits in everybody’s case! The included accessories are plentiful, although it would have been nice to see an addition Y power splitter so you don’t lose any connections from the PSU.

Installation

A clear manual helps you through the installation process; you should have it up and running in less then 10 minutes, a bit more then the average fan controller, but the T-Ban has more wires to connect and needs more attention. Daisy-chaining the temp sensor required some experimenting since the sensor cables need to be installed just right otherwise they won’t work. Removing/reattaching those cables after the sensors have been placed can prove challenging if they are placed in hard to reach corners. The stickers used for attaching the temp sensors can be hard to remove, but overall they work pretty well.

Software

Installation of the software and configuration of the unit is made straightforward with the build-in help function of the Config Tool. There are a multitude of options which can be set, but none are overwhelming, even at their default setting it will make the T-Balancer work decently. But in order to really quiet down your PC you need to change the config here and there to make it fit your system specifications.

Firmware updates are a piece of cake and can add extra functionality to the unit later on, if needed. Extra’s like skinning the Config Tool or the entertaining LightMagic are welcome additions to an already impressive line-up.

One function I could not find in the revision of the latest firmware and software is a “shutdown on surpassing critical CPU temp” option. If you are using an A64 or P4 then this won’t be much of a problem. But older systems might not react to a CPU fan failure as well. I hope they’ll add this feature in future revisions.

Does it work?

This is the most important question which needs to be answered of course. It’s no good filling up 7 pages about the T-Balancer without mentioning if it actually functions well or not.

Well I’m happy to say that it does do exactly as advertised. You won’t encounter a more advanced fan controller on the market right now which offers you completely control over the fans in your system which react to the temperature readout of up to 8 sensors. After using the T-Balancer in my once noise A64 system for over 2 weeks I’m pleased to report that it does quiet down “the beast” by an impressive amount.

Do I recommend it to everyone out there? Well, No. Why not you ask? Well there is the question of return on investment. If you decide to lay down €50+ for a fan controller you better make sure you absolutely need it. If you have a very recent motherboard which allows for fan speed control (like the MSI K8N Neo) and only one or no case fans, then you won’t notice a big difference in noise/performance when using the T-Balancer versus the build-in system. You can eliminate the speeding up and slowing down of the CPU fan in steps, but at the price of €50 you might as well go with a CPU cooling upgrade and be better of.

Luckily for mCubed, the amount of PC enthusiasts who use a standard HSF and no case fans is rather small. So most of you reading this will benefit from placing this baby inside their case.

mCubed can, without a doubt, be proud of their first child, the T-Balancer, world’s most advanced fan controller!



I would like to thank Adam from mCubed for his quick replies on our inquiries, check out their site for more add-ons which are planned to be released for the T-Balancer: LCD module for monitoring temperatures and speed, Water temperature sensors and flow meter, Small, compact analog temperature sensors, CCFL sticks and a 350W silent PSU!

Questions/Comments: Forum thread