Hardware Fractal Adjust 108 review

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2012/10/10/fractal-adjust-108-review/1

 

ooo i like the look of these very tempted. The fan controller with the R3 is pretty rubbish although it was free.

 

How is the ability to turn off a channel not standard yet? :|

 

I like the concept: simple with lots of head room. It looks like a graphic equalizer from an 80's stereo though.

 

Looks good, was planning on putting a couple of extra fans in my case and this could be just what I need. Now if only I could adjust the brightness of the led on my r3 when it's sleeping. Keep thinking the police have pulled up outside...

 

I couldn't stand it and just unplugged it, I never saw the point in it anyway.

 

36w per channel - does this mean it could power a WC pump? The EK DCP 4.0 uses 12 watts max IIRC. I already run it dropped to 5v from original 12v so this controller sounds ideal. Might even match the Lian Li front panel by the looks of things... If not I'll have another look at Lamptron ones again.

 

or you can do as I did and hook the power led on the case to the HDD activity pin header on the motherboard instead.

 

Lol - you're totally right. It seemed vaguely familiar.

Looks nice, but I'd prefer rotary pots, myself. Which would leave plenty of room for on/off switches for each channel, too.

 

there are so many fan controllers with rotary pots out there already, why add another?

a controller with sliders like this one are great for those of us with cases that have a door covering the front bays. as it is, my aquapc controller sits there with the knobs taken off, or i cant close my case door.

 

If I needed more precise adjustability on my fans, I'd be all over this. I've got a Define R3 and a Define XL, so rotary knob fan controllers just don't work - the door can't close. For awhile, I used one and had it mounted a few holes further back, which let the door closed but looked pretty ugly with it open, as the faceplate was 0.5" or so back from the front bezel so that the knobs would be flush with the bezel.

I've got a fairly inexpensive Scythe 3.5" knob controller inside of the R3, which works pretty good since I really don't need to kick up the speed on the fans that much. I'm just running the two Fractal 120mm fans in the front and a NZXT 140mm in the bottom off of it, with a 120mm Coolermaster PWM running off the mobo in the back. My XL, I'm using the two Fractal PCI slot controllers and some splitters to run all the case fans (2x140mm front Fractal, 140mm rear NZXT, 180mm top Fractal) from, which works fine as I'm not making a lot of adjustments.

If this had been available when I had first gotten those cases, or if I was running multiple GPUs or something where I'd really want to crank up the fan speeds, I would have been first in line.

 

To be fair, having no 'off' point is a good safety feature, especially if like me you're in the habit of taking your case to LANs, sliders are easy to knock (on a doorless case) so I welcome this addition.
Besides, why have a fan that youre going to turn off?