Sunbeam Fan Controller (Rheobus Kit#3)
Review by: Steve
Provided by: Purchased

Introduction:
If those loud fans are starting to drown out the noise of your favorite MP3's, then it's time you invest in a fan controller. Sunbeam makes a really affordable fan controller which does it's job and is well worth the money.

In The Box:
(1) Fan Controller
(2) three to four pin fan adapters
(1) Instruction paper
(1) Power Y connector
(1) Cathode power cable (to control cathode via fan controller unit)

Specs:
4 channel outputs; 20 Watts per channel; 12V+/-10% DC input

Installation:
Installation wasn't any harder than it had to be. I simply had to mount my drive rails on the side of the controller, then slide it into place. Once it was in I then had to plug in all my case fans. Lastly I had to plug in one power supply molex connector to provide the power for the four fans.

Features:
4 channel fan controller
On/Off switch on each channel
Adjustable knob to control fan speed/noise level/LED brightness
Applicable to a standard 5'25" drive bay
Bi-coloured LED switches at 7 volts
More effective heat sinks

Testing:
To test this product I hooked up 3 fans and one cathode. Since Sunbeam includes an adapter cable, you are able to plug your cathode inverter into the fan controller to dim the cathode. When I tested this with my cathode there was a noticeable change in brightness as I started to dim it, as expected.
I also plugged three fans into the device to look for noticeable decrease/increase in speed as I turned the knobs. As I accelerated and decellerated the fans there was for sure a very noticeable difference in speed and noise coming from the fan.

Conclusion:
Overall I was very pleased with this product. You are able to tell for sure that it is noticeably controlling the speed of the fan. As an added bonus you can also dim your cathode on with it.
One thing that stood out to me with this fan controller was, unlike many other fan controllers out there, the switches also when turned all the way down click into an off posisition which allows for a total disconnect of power from whatever it is controlling.
If you are looking for a fan controller I will highly recommend this one to you, it costs a bit less than most, but does just as much, if not more than the more expensive ones.

Pros:
Controls cathode
Switch has "off" posisition
LED's give visual indication when fan is running under half speed (7V)

Cons:
Should include a 3 to 4 pin fan adapter for every channel, not just 2

Rating: 9/10

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