Scythe kaze master ace
Since I purchased my new rig and started folding on it at night I found her to be a little bit noisy. I asked my brother to order a Scythe kaze master ace fancontroller with his rig so I could silence the huge fans in my HAF.
Features
The features I found most important are the following:
- 4 temperature sensors
- 4 controllable fans, from off (0 volt) and from 3.7 to 12 volt.
- Shiny look (hey, the eye wants something too)
- Good buttons, no flimsy stuff as I found on some other controllers
- Clear FMV display which can be read from almost any angle and does not emit too much light.
- Alarm which goes off when a fan speed drops to zero when voltage is still > 0.
Packaging and bundle
The Ace is sent in a quite small package with the 'standard' Scythe layout: lots of rings, bells and strange japanese signs.
I'm not really a packaging man, so let's move on by opening the package.
This unveiles the components in a simple but effective foam protective layer. Pictured on the photo below is everything I found in the bundle:
- The 5.25" controller itself which was packaged in an antistatic bag which I removed for the sake of photo composition.
- 4 standard 3pin / 4pin PWM to Ace fan wire convertors, numbered 1-4.
- 6 temperature probes, numbered 1-4 and two spares.
- 1 Molex to Ace power connector.
- A manual, 5 languages on two pages.
- Four screws, a few pieces of double sided tape and the shipping materials.
Looks
Always an important thing when it's about external devices. Personally I like it a lot, but I'm not going to say much more about it and let the pictures to the talk. Saves you from having to read my english :+
And after installing:
Installation
The installation of the controller is best described as a disaster. This is what I did...
1: get the fancontroller near the drive bays but still have it hanging out. I did this by connecting the power cable and then let it use that to hang out of the drive bays.
The molex to power cable. When looking at this picture I certainly understand why Scythe chose for a custom connector. The custom connector is way smaller, probably making the board easier to design.
2: Connect the fans to the fan wires to the fan controller.
Well, as it describes... Not exactly a fun job, routing four cables through what was already a mess behind the motherboard tray, but in the you will succeed. Major pain here is the badly chosen position of the fan connections on the board:
The fan connectors being in the worst location possible.
Also here Scythe decided to use custom, smaller, connectors
3: locating the temperature probes
This was a difficult step, but I didn't expect it to be easy anyway. After placing the four probes at different locations (front intake, at CPU cooler fins, above CPU cooler, between CPU cooler and exhaust), the probes had to be fitted into an array of pins named RT1 - RT4:
From left to right: The beeper on/off jumper, the power connector, the temperature probe connectors and the *C/*F jumper
And the probes themselves of course
4: Final checks
Is everything correctly inserted? It wasn't in my case, two of the four temperature probes were connected to only one of their two pins. Also do not forget to see if your temperature settings are right (jumper on *C or *F) and if the BEEP for the 0RPM alarm is on. I left this on, but I seriously advise you to turn it off if you want to keep everyone in the house asleep...
Conclusion
The Scythe kaze master ace is one hell of a fan controller. The only thing I feel it's missing is maybe the control over more than 4 fans. Installation is a pain, but once you have done that it's a very nice controller
The pro's:
+ clear VFD display
+ Shiny looks
+ High build quality
+ Fan failure alarm
+ Two spare temperature probes
The cons:
- Layout of the board
- Probably will not fit into cases with a front door because of the knobs sticking out.
- Fan failure alarm doesn't just wake you but the whole house and maybe the neighbours too.
Since I purchased my new rig and started folding on it at night I found her to be a little bit noisy. I asked my brother to order a Scythe kaze master ace fancontroller with his rig so I could silence the huge fans in my HAF.
Features
The features I found most important are the following:
- 4 temperature sensors
- 4 controllable fans, from off (0 volt) and from 3.7 to 12 volt.
- Shiny look (hey, the eye wants something too)
- Good buttons, no flimsy stuff as I found on some other controllers
- Clear FMV display which can be read from almost any angle and does not emit too much light.
- Alarm which goes off when a fan speed drops to zero when voltage is still > 0.
Packaging and bundle
The Ace is sent in a quite small package with the 'standard' Scythe layout: lots of rings, bells and strange japanese signs.
I'm not really a packaging man, so let's move on by opening the package.
This unveiles the components in a simple but effective foam protective layer. Pictured on the photo below is everything I found in the bundle:
- The 5.25" controller itself which was packaged in an antistatic bag which I removed for the sake of photo composition.
- 4 standard 3pin / 4pin PWM to Ace fan wire convertors, numbered 1-4.
- 6 temperature probes, numbered 1-4 and two spares.
- 1 Molex to Ace power connector.
- A manual, 5 languages on two pages.
- Four screws, a few pieces of double sided tape and the shipping materials.
Looks
Always an important thing when it's about external devices. Personally I like it a lot, but I'm not going to say much more about it and let the pictures to the talk. Saves you from having to read my english :+
And after installing:
Installation
The installation of the controller is best described as a disaster. This is what I did...
1: get the fancontroller near the drive bays but still have it hanging out. I did this by connecting the power cable and then let it use that to hang out of the drive bays.
The molex to power cable. When looking at this picture I certainly understand why Scythe chose for a custom connector. The custom connector is way smaller, probably making the board easier to design.
2: Connect the fans to the fan wires to the fan controller.
Well, as it describes... Not exactly a fun job, routing four cables through what was already a mess behind the motherboard tray, but in the you will succeed. Major pain here is the badly chosen position of the fan connections on the board:
The fan connectors being in the worst location possible.
Also here Scythe decided to use custom, smaller, connectors
3: locating the temperature probes
This was a difficult step, but I didn't expect it to be easy anyway. After placing the four probes at different locations (front intake, at CPU cooler fins, above CPU cooler, between CPU cooler and exhaust), the probes had to be fitted into an array of pins named RT1 - RT4:
From left to right: The beeper on/off jumper, the power connector, the temperature probe connectors and the *C/*F jumper
And the probes themselves of course
4: Final checks
Is everything correctly inserted? It wasn't in my case, two of the four temperature probes were connected to only one of their two pins. Also do not forget to see if your temperature settings are right (jumper on *C or *F) and if the BEEP for the 0RPM alarm is on. I left this on, but I seriously advise you to turn it off if you want to keep everyone in the house asleep...
Conclusion
The Scythe kaze master ace is one hell of a fan controller. The only thing I feel it's missing is maybe the control over more than 4 fans. Installation is a pain, but once you have done that it's a very nice controller
The pro's:
+ clear VFD display
+ Shiny looks
+ High build quality
+ Fan failure alarm
+ Two spare temperature probes
The cons:
- Layout of the board
- Probably will not fit into cases with a front door because of the knobs sticking out.
- Fan failure alarm doesn't just wake you but the whole house and maybe the neighbours too.
