Thermaltake Hardcano 8 VR

Company: Thermaltake
Product: 4 Channel VR Fan Speed Controller
Street Price: ~$25?? USD
Date Reviewed: January 4, 2003
Reviewed By: Jason R.
Rating: (6.5/10)

The Fan Controller (cont):

This unit only comes in blue, which some of you might not like since it wouldn't match your cases color. However I do have a blue Chieftec tower case and the Hardcano 8 VR matched up pretty well. For those of you who are curious, yes you can mount this flush, and yes the front door will close just fine. The Chieftec design is the same as the Antec for those of you who don't know. I've heard stories from people who have some other brands of fan controllers and they either can't close their front door, or they had to recess the bus in the bay quite a bit which doesn't look attractive.

Specifications & Comparisons:

Here is the actual specifications for the Hardcano 8 VR taken from the Thermaltake website. When hooking up any fan to a fan controller, be sure it is a regular constant speed fan, and not one that is temperature controlled because that could cause some serious issues.

I thought it might be nice to compare the Hardcano 8 VR to a couple of the more popular fan controllers on the market today.

Conclusions:

Overall I like the Hardcano 8 VR, however I'm not sure I would choose it over competitive products. Installation is a breeze and all the included connectors let you hook it up to virtually any fan in your case. The design is very simple yet functional. Personally I like the lack of LEDs since I'm not too fond of having the front of my case glow 24/7. While the knobs are smaller than comparative controllers, they are still very easy to turn and visually check their settings.

I do have a few complaints about the controller however. It would be nice if they included some 3-3pin extensions so that you could run wires out of the way, this isn't that big of an issue though. Second, it would be nice if the unit was available in colors other than just blue, I think a lot of people would be turned away from this controller because the color would just clash with their case. Lastly I think all channels should be able to support at least 12w, having only one channel that can handle a lot of power is a real negative selling point since most people who buy these have really powerful fans (which is why they want a fan controller to quiet them down). With competing products being able to offer 15w+ on all their channels, having only 4.2w on 3 of the Hardcano's channels seems pretty wimpy.

Unfortunately I have to give this controller a rating of only 6.5/10, which isn't the best. While it does perform its job as a fan controller, there are just too many downsides, both cosmetic & internal design that need to be thought about and improved upon to make it a more competitive product.

Rating: (6.5/10)

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