Evercool SCP-A Fan Controller

Provided by: Evercool
Estimated Retail: $15.00
Review Date: December 28th, 2003

Fan controllers are a nice way to add noise control to your box. They allow you to add cooling when you need it and a quiet case the rest of the time. There are many fan controllers from expensive units with temperature displays to simple solid fan controllers. If you are wanting a basic fan controller without the expensive thrills, take a look at Evercool's SCP-A fan controller.

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Packaging:

The SCP-A comes packaged in a blister pack. A plastic shell surrounds the fan controller so there is little worry of breaking during shipping.

No instructions are included inside the package. Six 3 pin ATX power cables are included, . Three of these cables are female to female and the other three are male to female. Along with the cables, a plastic bag of screws is included.

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Looking at the specifications on the back of the package, there are a couple of errors. The big error is "Waring light..." which I imagine is should be "Warning light..." I have never heard of a waring light, but I could be wrong.

Specifications:

Specifications can be found on Evercool's web site.

Note: Waring has been changed to Warning.

• Three sets of fans with knobs which allow you to adjust the fan speed.
• Color indicator changes as speed of the fan changes.
• Warning light and signal will sound when the fan faces technical problems.
• Output voltage control 3.75V - 11.337V
• Fits standard 5.25" drive bay.

Features:

The front of the fan controller has 3 knobs to control three different fans. Each knob has an LED display around it.

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The back of the controller has 3 sets of inputs and outputs. They are each labeled "in" and "out." There are no instructions that explain what "in" and "out" are. Some fan controllers use in as the fan in and out to your motherboard for RPM sensing. Do not do this for it will lock up your computer and could cause harm to the motherboard.

In for the Evercool is the power input from the motherboard. The SCP-A uses the motherboard's power to power your fan; therefore, do not use high powered fans like the Vantec Tornado for they pull too much power and will overload the ATX power on some motherboards. The "out" line is out to the fan.

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Remember the first Vantec Nexus controllers. They failed all the time because all four fan lines used the same electronic components and would eventually become overloaded with heavy use. Evercool's SCP-A uses a separate line for each fan. Look inside and you will see that each fan has its own capacitor, resistor, and diode. Flip the board over and you see that a separate IC is used for each line as well.

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What does a separate line mean? First of all it means better quality. If one line fails it will not affect the other lines. It also means that the SCP-A will take a stronger power draw because the three fans are not funneled through one circuit. Again, I would not use high wattage fans with this controller because the power will be pulled from your motherboard power.

Next (Installation & Conclusion)