Lamptron FC8 Fan Controller Review

[Rob Williams]

A couple of months ago, we took Lamptron's FC Touch fan controller for a spin, and were left extremely impressed with its ease-of-use and aesthetics. But what about those who don't care for touch capabilities, and are fine with knobs? Enter the FC8, a clean-looking and high-performing option; offering eight channels at 30W each.

Read through Ryan's look at Lamptron's FC8 fan controller and then discuss it here!

 

[On_Wisconsin]

"These capacitors are just as mysterious as the group on the other side in that there are no numbers to link them back to the manufacturer"

Probably since they were simply purchased from an OEM and the company didn't assign a part number? Those caps looked familiar - very similar to the ones I had on my 7900GS vid car

 

[Optix]

Solid aluminum caps rarely (if ever) have a manufacturer stamped on them like old school caps used to. Gone are the days of the wrapping having Rubycon, Chemi-con or what have you stamped on the side. Now it's just specs, but very minor ones at that.

The ones on my motherboard, just as I'm sure any of the caps used on any of my video cards look pretty much the same with only a difference in color or specs.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

My eyes! They burn with the power of LEDs!! Ironic really, it gives you a choice of colours except for the most important one... OFF! I'm going to run out of black electrical tape at this rate with all these LEDs I have to cover up.

I nearly bought a Nesteq FanMax 8, until i realised it had 10 brilliant blue LEDs on the front panel. Gone are the glory days of strip lights and mini-discos going on out of the corner of my eye - I have enough ADHD problems with the Internet as is, without the lure of blue lasers dancing over the wall, turning me into a cat that's been at the 'nip a little too much...

 

[Greg King]

Good review Ryan. I love the idea of controlling the speeds of your fans but controllers like the Lamptron have never done anything for me. I love how you can customize the LEDs but don't care for the colors. Maybe it's all the data center time but I prefer green and blue to pretty much anything else

I would love to be able to accurately control all my system fans from within Windows, assuming they are all connected to headers and not directly into the power supply.

Regardless of my personal opinions, I enjoyed the review. Good read.

 

[Optix]

Good point, Jamie. When the channel is all the way down, the LED does shut off but you're right. It would be nice if there was an option to shut off the LEDs and still use that channel.

The last time I tried to control a fan in the OS, I wasn't impressed because it required the application to load and apply the preset before it actually throttles back the fans. In the meantime, I'm stuck to the back wall of the office and my computer is hovering a foot off the ground.

 

[Greg King]

The last time I tried to control a fan in the OS, I wasn't impressed because it required the application to load and apply the preset before it actually throttles back the fans. In the meantime, I'm stuck to the back wall of the office and my computer is hovering a foot off the ground.

That made me laugh. It's so true though.

In my first PC build I used a Soyo KT333 Dragon mother board and you could use their baked in app to control fan speeds from Windows. It worked very well. I wish I could find that board again. I would build a machine for fun.

 

[Mergatroid]

Capacitors? Solid caps?

I just did a google search for the Lamptron FC8 Fan Controller and came across your review.

I admit I read about half of it.

Those "capacitors" on the back of the board? The black ones? They're freaking COILS guys. Who's the pro who decided they were capacitors? Even the location label on the board says "L" not "C".

Man, if people want to review electronic products, perhaps they should learn the difference between a coil and a capacitor (that's grade 10 high school electronics, and I bet it's first week too).

I couldn't get a good close up look at the aluminum capacitors (even though I looked around the web trying to get a good look at them).

I did notice in one picture on another site that they seem to have a black bottom. They also have a polarity stripe down one side. I can't call anyone an idiot over this because I haven't seen them with my own eyes, but they sure look like regular electrolytic capacitors in an aluminum case.

I have been working in electronics for over 20 years and I have seen tons of capacitors. Those cap packages look just like surface-mount electrolytic caps except they are not surface mount.

In order to be 100% sure I would have to cut or crush one to see what's inside.

I have seen caps just like those blow and when I took them apart there was electrolyte inside on both smt and radial capacitors. However, the packaging for "Japanese Solid" capacitors looks almost identical, so there's really no way to tell what type they are without taking them apart.

If the documentation does not say "solid capacitors" don't just assume that because you see a package like this they must be solid. Especially if you cannot tell a capacitor from a coil.

If you want to call me an idiot, feel free. You can find me on ocn. Same name. (that's overclock.net).

 

[Optix]

I won't call you an idiot but the way in which you deliver feedback leaves much to be desired. Education trumps flaming, but I'm happy to admit a goof when one happens.

The retail box for this controller as well as the press release issued prior to its release has solid caps plastered all over (http://lamptron.com/products/view/Fan_Controller_FC8) as a selling point and with no way to 100% identify them the claims are taken at face value.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Rob Williams]

Man, if people want to review electronic products, perhaps they should learn the difference between a coil and a capacitor (that's grade 10 high school electronics, and I bet it's first week too).

Not all of us share the same level of enthusiasm with regards to electrical components as you do. Our goal is to provide a good review of the product as a whole, not break things down into their components. This is a reason we don't review power supplies... I couldn't tell the difference between a coil or a capacitor either. After your feedback, I will be looking into it, however.

Thanks for the note and criticism.