Front Mounted Ports: Take a Joy Ride On The Fan Bus

Fan Master - SF-609 - Super Flower/TTGI, Continued

The SF-609 supports the connection of four fans to the unit as well as four thermostat style temperature sensors. This four-by-four configuration provides flexibility when compared to many of the other units that we have reviewed. In addition, the SF-609 features a full display with audio warning alarm.

A close-up of the front of the Fan Master SF-609.

Once the SF-609 is installed into your computer, it is controlled by accessing one of the three buttons below the display and by using the four fan control knobs next to the display. The three buttons below the display are labeled "T" for temperature, "F" for Fan, and "C" for color. Pressing the "T" labeled button allows the display to be rotated among the temperature readings of the four sensors. These sensors monitor the readings of the CPU, HDD, case and power supply. Each SF-609 sensor has a pre-programmed default temperature. The placement location of the thermostat will affect the readings of the sensors; but these functioned well in our test setup and we found them to be fairly accurate when compared to our manual temperature readings.

The SF-609 allows you to adjust the default alarm settings for each of the temperature settings by pressing the "T" and the "F" buttons. You can switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit by pressing and holding the "C" button. If the temperature reading reaches an alarm condition, the unit will sound an alarm for about 20 seconds and the display will also blink. We tested the unit to make sure that the alarm mode functioned, and it worked well on our test unit.

A look at the back of the Fan Master SF-609.

Another slick feature of the SF-609 is that you can change the display back lighting among one of seven different modes. In addition, you can switch it to automatic mode, which causes the SF-609 to rotate every three seconds among the seven different colors. If this is annoying, you can also turn the display off or disable it if you choose not to use it.

Compared to the other products in this review the SF-609 delivers a lot of "bang for the buck." It offers a variety of features in an affordable package that is a step beyond most of the other products in this review. The one feature that could be improved is the "action" of the fan knobs: there were somewhat hard to move in our review unit. Other than that, however, there was little else to complain about. We recommend the SF-609 as it is a well designed product with a robust selection of features.