NZXT Sentry LX

Testing

To test this product I am going to see how it is to live with and see how responsive it is. I shall also see how good the temperature alarm is.

First of all how is the product to live with? After installing the LX I turned on my PC and it worked straight away and started getting temperature readings. I switched it to auto with one push of the mode button and it started controlling the fans for me as well. Fantastic, you don’t have to worry about anything it just does it or you. In fact the whole system is fairly intuitive or is really obvious after a quick look at the manual – apart from the Celsius to Fahrenheit I still haven’t found it.

However, remember I said the picture on the front of the box was slightly misleading

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As soon as I put my case, with NZXTs new baby in, back into my desk by my feet I couldn’t see the screen anymore. In fact it’s fairly hard to see from lots of angles, wherever you look at it from you always have the ghosts of the unlit parts of the display in the background. These ghosts become clearer the further away from about 30º you look at the product from.

This is a real problem if you’re using manual mode because it means you can’t really see what you’re changing, even in auto you probably want to see the information the LX has to offer some of the time; otherwise, what’s the point in a display?

However away from the bad bits we move onto the response of the temperature sensor and the temperature alarm. To test this I left the halogen lamp on my desk on for a little while so it could heat up. I then took the fan and temperature sensor outside of my case and touched the sensor onto the bulb.

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I was pleasantly surprised at the result because the alarm went off immediately at the same time the temperature was displayed and the fan jumped from about 800RPM to 1700RPM, as opposed to some programs which step the speed up gradually. The alarm itself was a bit quiet, not enough to wake me up if I left my computer doing some strenuous tasks overnight, but loud enough to draw your attention if you are in the room.

Cost

The NZXT Sentry will set you back £30 at most e-tailers, which isn’t horrendous, but it’s quite expensive for an automated fan controller. There are many cheaper models available from other manufacturers, but few look as good as the Sentry.

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