User Experience

I am very pleased with the UC-A8FATR4 fan controller. It does exactly what it is supposed to do. It allows you to control four of your case fans as well as monitoring the speed of them. The thermal diodes appear to be as accurate as you positioning of them allows.

I found that my CPU temperature for example was reported on the UC-A8FATR4 to be five degrees cooler than what MBM5 reported. The reason behind this is not the fault of the UC-A8FATR4 though. As I said it all depends on positioning of the diode. My heat sink does not allow me to install the diode as close to the CPU core as I would like. I actually had to install it on the lowest fin, which explains the temperature difference.

The lights on the UC-A8FATR4 are very bright and easy to see in the dark. They do their job, and look good doing it. The LCD is bright and easy to read. I would have liked to see the temperatures/fan speeds update more often. There seems to be almost of second or two of lag before the device changes the reported fan speed. The fan speed knobs are an instantaneous adjustment though.

One of the few things I actually did not like on this product are the actual fan speed knobs. The position stickers more than anything else. The problem with them is that they are just sticker, and don’t seem to stick to the knob all that well. You can easily remove them and re-stick them in another position thus throwing off your adjustments. I would have preferred to see a better designed solution, possible something molded into the knob itself.

Conclusions

As you can probably tell already I am quite happy to have the UC-A8FATR4. It seems to be a really nice product. The ability to control my case fans is a much needed improvement. That would have been enough, I would have been happy with being able to shut my computer up. Enermax had a better idea though. They not only gave me the ability to adjust fan speed but easily monitor it as well. Once again I would have been happy with that.

Enermax had one more improvement though, temperature monitoring. Now I was happy with just the first feature, but with all of them in one package I am ecstatic. The fan speed/temperature alarm is also a very nice feature, causing the device to beep at you if any get too slow/hot. The UC-A8FATR4 also matches beautifully with my Enermax CS-5107 case. The silver face will go with any aluminum case, and the black face plate will match with any black aluminum case.

All in all I think this product is worth its weight in gold and is a welcome addition to my regular computer.

Pros: Controls 4 fan, monitors 4 temperature points, brightly lit/easy to read LCD, overheat alarm, ability to monitor temps in C/F, looks damn good with an aluminum case

Cons: Slow updates of temperatures/fan speeds, stickers on knobs, only 2 temperatures and 2 fan speeds at a time

Bottom Line: The does the job and then some. It controls, monitors, lights, and probably chops and dices; it’s an all in one machine. I would recommend this product to anyone looking for a fan controller and it has found a permanent position in my computer. You can grab the Enermax product at Crazy PC.