Aerocool Strike-X X-1000 Fan Controller Review

Edit: After conducting further tests on this product for 3 weeks after the review was published, problems started to arise. These mainly concern the fan fail alarm, which should beep in a rhythmic pattern when a connected fan stops spinning. However, this fan fail alarm would beep constantly when all fans were plugged in and spinning fine. This could only be stopped by resetting the device which required opening up the case, pulling out the power and then putting it back in again. In our eyes, this just isn’t acceptable. There should at least be an option to turn off the fan fail alarm if Aerocool know it has a tendency to malfunction. In my eyes this problem is easily fixable and should be fixed. However, unfixed in its current state it makes this product a no-go. Other parts of the product remained fully function and the build quality held up remarkably well, the only issue is the fan fail alarm and we think this makes the product no longer worthy of our award. Our original conclusion can be seen below but please now take into account the following issue before reading it. For those who suggest that the product may have broken and needs to be RMA’d i’d suggest you go and read some of the feedback given by consumers about this product on Newegg, they all have similar problems and it is not just a one off occurence. It is a prevalent problem that occurs on the majority of these units.

Aerocool’s Strike-X X-1000 fan controller costs £30 in the UK. Considering most fan controllers at this price point consist of only a fan control function of 4 to 6 fans, having the USB 3.0 ports and front audio ports is a nice bit of extra connectivity if you are in the market for that.

Now, I can appreciate that the aesthetics will not be to everyone’s taste, although Aerocool have done their best to ensure a clean design on the black PCB, which was for me impressive to see on a low cost product. Even if you didn’t like the looks of the product you can’t argue with the fact it offers a lot of features for your money. You have full control of five fans from 0 RPM all the way up to their maximum RPMs. You get two USB 3.0 ports and two audio ports, particularly useful if you’ve got front panel connections in an awkward location.

I feel that the quality isn’t going to blow anyone’s mind but in a relation to the price, the quality is still good. The materials used are all plastic, except on the PCB and electrical components, but they are solidly put together from my time spent with it and there are no loose bits, rattling parts or anything falling off so I don’t have any complaints here.

If the design of Aerocool’s Strike-X X-1000 fan controller appeals to you, and you are looking for a low cost but still decent quality entry into the fan controller market then I would definitely consider this product. It does have a fairly significant flaw in not offering enough support for 4 pin fans, but considering 4 pin fans can be controlled by the motherboard and the majority of case fans are actually 3 pins not 4 pins, this flaw is “overlook-able” to some extent.

With all that said I think this product is deserving of our Bang for Buck Award because it offers that although if you aren’t really interested in the extra connectivity options (i.e. you don’t need USB 3.0 ports and audio ports) then there are better options to consider for the same price.

We would like to thank AONE for providing us with these review samples.