Introduction

Today the weather forecast is saying sizziling days ahead, over 30° C. A disaster for those who have neat and pride overclocked systems running. Every degree increment can make the difference between blue screens and prime stability.

A fan controller can help dialing in the desire fan speed, but the Silverstone SST-FP52S is not your every day fan controller. With sensors for measuring the hot zones, automatic fan speed adjustment and the stylish look it might be a winning combination. Let's take a closer look...

Let's open the -good looking- box and explore the contents. The controller itself, a short to the point manual, and four screws. All are well packaged and secured against possible damage...





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Silverstone SST-FP52S Fancontroller - Specifications

Material: Aluminum front panel, steel sides

Color: Silver

Application: 5.25” drive bay

LCD Display: Temperature, fan speed, alarm clock, time, system status

Fan Output: 0V, 6 ~ 12V

Temp. Range: 0 ~100°C

Cooling System: Dual air intake mesh

Cable Length: 800mm

Net Weight: 220g

Dimension: 158 mm (W) x 42 mm (H) x 85 mm (D)

Maximum output for one channel – 0.8amp (9.6W)

Maximum combined output for all three channels – 1.5amp (18W)

Special Features:

Sophisticated fan control logic
Wide temperature range
Beautiful sapphire neon LCD
Aluminum bezels and polished buttons

More information can be found from the site of Silverstonetek.


The basic functionalities of the display and the fan controller can be found on this drawing:


Click to see full size

To keep all the settings in the event you must disconnect the PSU such as time and alarm, it runs on battery power with 3.3 volt battery installed. Below you can also se the PCB, the heart of the fan controller, and the place where ale the cables come together.



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And finally some more pictures. As you can see the finish is really perfect.

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Installation

Installation of this fan controller is a piece of cake. Place the device in an empty 5,25" bay and tighten the four screws. You now can place the three temperature sensors and finally plug into the fans you want to control.
Perhaps, the most difficult part is the settings of the clock and the alarm, nothing that a clear manual will stop you in less then five minutes.

To detect hard disk activity you can also plug in a cable to the main board header. A little pass through makes it possible to keep using your case leds. The same goes for the power connection. A molex pass through prevents you from losing a free molex connection.



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I installed the SST-FP52S and played with it for some time. My findings can be read on the following page.

Testing

Well, how can you test a fan controller ? Either it works or it doesn't. But how user friendly is it ?
I've been working with this fan controller for sometime now, so I know where the hot and the cold spots are ....

The first thing I noticed was the screen. Besides the blue backlight (blue always looks cool), you have to look at it when sitting in front of it. Installed in a case, you can't always look straight at your 5,52" bays, but most of the time your view comes from a different angle. When looking for example from above at the Silverstone fan controllers' screen, you see "everything" coming through.

It was hard to make decent pictures of this, but you can see this phenomenon with the fan speed indicator. it's full, instead of only a few fanblades.



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When the provided connectors and sensors are not in use, one would like to hide the unused cables. Putting them somewhere between the hard disk or where ever out of sight, the bare connectors could possibly cause a short-circuit and ruin your day. This is luckily not possible with the Silverstone SST-FP52S. The fan connectors and sensors have special covers you can use to protect from short circuit.



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As you might have seen on the previous pictures, there are only two buttons. A "Mode" button, with which you can toggle between the three sensors. And the "Set" button; guess what it's for... Right on ! Setting the time, ...

I borrowed the table from Silverstone installation guide below. You can see the fan voltage that is being used at a certain temperature range. Unfortunately this is not adjustable. The only thing you can do is to make the sensor reacts faster or slower to the temperature by positioning it closer to or farther from the heat source.




Conclusion

I can't deny the fact that not only the Silverstone fan controller looks great, but also a dream for every computer user. Unfortunately it could be too simple to some. For example, you can't adjust any settings such as temperature range or fan speed. Then, it's definitely fool proof this way.

There are only three sensors and three possible fan connections. Enough for the average computer user, not quite enough for the enthusiasts. You decide for yourself to what group you belong.

PRO
Stylish looks
Easy to use
Everything is preset


CON
Lower quality screen
Only three fans


And last but not least, I would like to thank Jurek from SilverStone for the fancontroller and his patience.

/piotke out

Questions/Comments: forum thread