NZXT is known for its cases, although these have not really gotten as much press time as other companies. But NZXT also makes accessories for your system as well. We have recently been sent one of these. A nice five-fan, five temperature sensor controller called the Sentry LX. We took a look at this device, does it deserver the spotlight or should it say in the background with the other extras?
Product: NZXT Sentry LX
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: July 14th 2008
Product cost: $59.99
Manufacturer: NZXT
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff
{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Design}
Packaging and Design:
The Sentry LX arrived in small box. This box has the obligatory picture of the device and the usual list of features. On the back you get a little more detail as to what is inside the box.
Upon opening the box you will find that the Sentry LX is tucked away nice and securely.
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The Sentry LX itself is a rather large device and is going to take up some real estate in your PC. Before you grab this little device make sure you have two 5-1/4” bays free for occupancy. The reason behind this is the large LCD display, which I will cover later in this article. Flipping the LX around you get a glimpse of the mass of thermistors and 3-pin fan connectors that go to make up the Sentry LX.
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One thing I do like it that NZXT kept all of the thermistor cables together. This eliminates a lot of clutter and allows you to pull each lead off as you need it. NZXT has also labeled each thermistor and fan connector with a large, easy to read, label this will make setting up the fans a sensors even easier. For power the Sentry LX will need a 4-Pin Molex connector to provide both 12v and 5v power. To keep your settings while your system is off the LX uses a small CR2303 coin sized battery. This is the same type used on mainboards for maintaining BIOS settings.
The front of the NZXT has a nice large LCD display, this shows not only date and time, but also what settings are enabled, the speed of each fan controlled (with a small bar to indicated where that speed is in relation to max fan speed), as well as the temperature of all thermistors. The large display allows for all of this information to be displayed at one time instead of needing to scroll through.
Along the left side are buttons that are pretty self explanatory and allow you to setup the options available to the Sentry LX.
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{mospagebreak title=Ease of Installation and Performance}
Ease of Installation and Performance:
The Sentry LX was a snap to setup, there were no obstacles or headaches with configuration.
In fact the only issue I can foresee is cable management. The thermistor cables are thin and feel like they might be easily damaged. To set the Sentry’s modes you simply press the mode button. To set the date time and the auto alarm you press and hold the set button and then press set until you reach the desired setting.
Performance was excellent with the display viewable over a wide range of angles. I had originally thought there would be an issue with the amount of information displayed but this was not the case. I was easily able to check temps at a glance.
The display colors are not too bright and also do not glare out at you in low light.
{mospagebreak title=Price/Warranty}
Price/Warranty:
The Sentry has a retail price of $59.99 at this level the LX is a great value.
Warranty on the Sentry LX is one year. Nothing out of the ordinary but then again not terrible either.
{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
The NZXT Sentry LX is one of the best (if not simply the best) fan controllers I have worked with. It was very simple to get running with no major headaches involved in plugging in thermistors and then routing them. The Auto setting was well done and with careful placement of thermistors can help to reduce overall case temps significantly while helping keep noise levels down while the system is idling.
In terms of pricing the Sentry LX is also at the top of the list. If you are looking to get a handle on the fans in your system or just want something cool to look at on the front of your case the Sentry LX takes center stage.