NZXT Releases Sentry Mix 2 Fan Controller

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

NZXT is releasing a new fan controller, the Sentry Mix 2.

NZXT has announced a new fan controller, the Sentry Mix 2. Inspired by audio mixing equipment, the fan controller is styled to resemble it. The Sentry Mix 2 features individual controls for up to six fans. An improvement from the previous version, the unit has wider sliders, each channel has its own backlit fan label, and five colors can be chosen for the LEDs.

The most notable feature of the unit, though, is that it also features PWM control. Each of the six 4-pin outputs can support up to 30 W of power draw resulting in a maximum power draw of 180 W. Of course, to pull this off you'd need to connect both of the Molex power connectors.

The unit will fit in a single 5.25" optical drive bay.

Currently, the unit will only be released in black, with no word on pricing or availability yet.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • fat_panda
    Looks and sounds fantastic. I can't wait to get my hands on it!
    Reply
  • DRosencraft
    My brother has the current Sentry Mix. It's not a bad controller, but it's not amazing either. It's pretty straightforward. Would personally like a fan controller that provides a little more information.
    Reply
  • manofchalk
    I own an original Sentry Mix and it is a great fan controller, I wondered why it was disappearing from the market but thankfully its now being replaced.
    Though a big draw of the original was it could provide 50W per channel, now that its 30W per channel what makes it unique in any way? PWM is kind of a wasted feature considering that with manual sliders you cant get exact control anyway.
    Reply
  • WithoutWeakness
    10806849 said:
    I own an original Sentry Mix and it is a great fan controller, I wondered why it was disappearing from the market but thankfully its now being replaced.
    Though a big draw of the original was it could provide 50W per channel, now that its 30W per channel what makes it unique in any way? PWM is kind of a wasted feature considering that with manual sliders you cant get exact control anyway.
    Although I agree the drop from 50W per channel to 30W per channel is a bit disappointing I don't think the addition of PWM is a waste. The original only supported 3-pin fans out of the box and would need to be modded by cutting the plastic around the fan connectors to fit 4-pin fans. Many great fans, such as several Noctua models and Corsair's fans, are 4-pin connectors and would not work without modding the original Sentry Mix. PWM is awesome for allowing a motherboard to control fan speeds dynamically and many high-end fans use PWM because of that. I think it's great to see NZXT allow users to use a traditional fan controller with those high end fans natively.
    Reply
  • bgunner
    I like the looks and can't wait to find out the pricing on it.
    Reply
  • afrobacon
    $30 according to the website.
    http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/129-sentry-mix-2-fan-control
    I'll be getting this for my Haswell build.
    Reply