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.
Controller + USB 3.0 + Audio jack is another awesome combination, Unique!
If Aerocool can add a little bit of aluminum finish with the “x” and a little bit of LED… ^^
The rotation of the fan controllers uhmmm…
Aerocool hardware is extremely plasticy, and cheaply red/pinky, roughly finished. Even worse than cheap Thermaltake hardware… just the way to cater to the children.
I’d much rather get a proper Lamptron/G-VANS (rebadged Lamptron) or a Sunbeam Rheobus controler.
Besides, most decent cases you’d buy nowadays are already going to have an audio an a USB 3 jack, so why bother? This is just a half-assed solution for some old and ugly cheap case. I’ve seen an Aerocool Strike-X PSU in person and man, it has the worst finish I’ve ever seen on a component in my life. It’s pinky and redish and very rough. Was absolutely terrible looking…
There is a reason why it is plastic, its all about the price. If you want to pay nearly three times the price for a Lamptron fan controller (of which we have a review coming soon!) then you get much more quality like you say. You can’t really fault Aerocool as this costs £25-£30 and still offers a lot of functionality. If you don’t like the aesthetics then again that is down to your own opinion, I have the fan controller here still in my case and yes while it won’t match all cases there are still a lot it will match plus even though you suggest USB 3.0 and front Audio isn’t important many cases are increasingly skimping out on front panel connectors or putting them in inaccessible places so it can still be useful. If you don’t like the extra ports then obviously you can get a fan controller without them, maybe they might make their series of fan controllers better by offering models without the extra ports.
Uhm…
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999244
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811995017
There’s no point in buying this controller. It really looks awful, is poorly built and is extremely overpriced.
I don’t get how a Lamptron is “three times” the price, as neither of my FC8, Fan-Atic nor my Lamptron HUMMER cost me anywhere near 3 times the price of this controller. They all cost about $50.
Okay well we are a UK review site. In the UK this costs £25 and the Lamptron FC8 costs about £50, yes 3 times was an exaggeration. From my experience it didn’t beep for no reason and nothing fell off. I was also informed by my supplier that the one I had been sent was a revised version because previous versions had issues, which I am assuming fixed previous wrongs with the product. I’m not one to hold back and if it sucked then I wouldn’t recommend it. Yes most people won’t find it suitable for the cases (because of the looks), but for people that do like how it looks I see no reason why you shouldn’t get it. I do update my reviews, should I find that anything deteriorates with this product over time I will come back to this review and edit it.
I agree with some of your feedback and I have made some edits. Thanks for your feedback I appreciate it when readers dig into reviews and delve deeper, without criticism and discussion review sites can’t interact effectively so it is appreciated.
I think for the price its a good buy! Looks decent with the addition of USB 3.0 it woud b a niceti to my case! I had already been looking it over but I glad o s review on! Thanks
that’s a shame.
It’s not even worth entering that TPU contest for.
Besides, you should NOT get free crap to play period.
Don’t be a cheap ass, buy your own. One of these I spoke of in here. They’re all great controllers.
Sorry I don’t get you and the context of your comment.
Please explain more.
There is a TechPowerUp contest giving away free Aerocool stuff including this fan controller. I think he is suggesting buying lamptron fan controllers instead of these.
Absolutely.
http://www.frozencpu.com/search.html?mv_profile=keyword_search&mv_session_id=KZht5tXU&searchspec=G-Vans&go.x=10&go.y=16
ok. Then your post would have had better effect if you have posted in techpowerup forums, specially in the contest thread.
Well, here is the thing.
1) I can’t post in that forum because I changed my account to a GUEST account, NEVER to log back in again, because it is FULL of AMD fanboys.
2) It was, from the way your genius post sounded like, obvious that you were going for the contest.
And three, this site caters to the ENTIRE World, not just the UK.
Oh and, four, you need to use your brain a little bit more.
Should I go on?
You seem pretty in the know. What are your thoughts on the G-Vans vs Lamptron issue from last year, what was the outcome of it in the end? Since you linked to G-Vans while talking about Lamptron I am assuming you know more than me about it.
I don’t TBH.
I barely even use fan controllers anymore.
Y-adapters just do it much easier for me. I only run extreme speed fans like Nidec’s at full blast so you can guess… lol.
Actually what confused me is the word ‘TPU’. It means several things, and the most famous being Asus TPU feature. And while reading you post, I didn’t think about techpowerup . I said it’s a shame because the buyers will suffer most.
And how am I supposed to know that you didn’t use their site/forum anymore, specially after you, yourself have mentioned them at the first place? 😉
I suppose anyone with a gram of brain can Google TPU and come up with thermoplastic polyurethane…
that is, if it has ANY relation to anything that’s being spoken in here…