PC Mods Power Down Protector (cont.)

Installation:

After decompressing the packages contents I found the simple one page manual and gave it a once-over. Installation is rather basic; you install the device by fastening it in your case. Then attach the WOL cable. Finally, relay your two fans through the device. I found an open spot in my PCI device area and screwed the power down protector in between my sound and video cards.

I found my WOL header and weaved the cord in such a manner that the wires were mostly hidden, and then I found a motherboard fan header and in the same way as the WOL cord, I blended it into the motherboard wilderness. Once the fan header was securely in the “input 1” spot I hooked up another, so that I had two power inputs.

I selected the two fans that I wanted to use, and snaked their wires over to the PC Mod device output jacks. These were the jacks located on top (if you are mounting the device in the same manner as I). At this point I had used up my two 3-to-3 included input lines and my 3-to-4 female adapter. What remained were the Velcro-sticky pads, the 3-to-4 male adapter, and the supplied LED adapter line. I chose not to hook up my power LED since it was hooked up to a 5V line via a custom wiring job.

Testing

I set the jumper to 10 minutes, if you are going to be cooling you may as well set it this long. I had my rear exhaust fan not hooked up for the first test. The fan I chose to hook up was the one sucking air through my radiator. I also tested my HDD Activity LED to make sure that it blinked like the manual said it would. I turned on my computer, and then turned it off; it seemed to me that the device was not working. The LED was blinking; however, I couldn’t hear anything. Upon closer inspection I heard tiny pulses of electricity and a cool breeze. It seemed as if the device worked so silently that at first I didn’t even realize it was on!

I unplugged the HDD LED and replaced it to its usual home and proceeded to add on my exhaust fan, which has LED’s embedded in it. I figured the dimming of the LED’s would visually depict how much electricity these fans were running on. When I powered up and shutdown again I could see that the fans went from very bright to barely on, they operated just about silently except for their little electric pulse sound that could be heard if you put your ear right next to the fan.

WARNING: if you are not using a quality fan grill do not try this at home, you could lose your outer ear, and subsequently your ability to locate things that spatially lie in the vertical plane.

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