NZXT Sentry LX Review

CB Droege 26 Jan, 2009 at 3:11pm ET Article published in Tech

Operation

Kicking it on was a pleasant surprise. The LCD is more colorful and attractive than the photos can really show; when viewed directly, it is clean, stark and easy to read. Unfortunately, the viewing angle of the LCD screen is also very small. As great as it looks from the front, the unit must be viewed directly to achieve that effect. Even setting the case next to the monitor required us to lean over to clearly read the display. Neither the website, nor the box, give any info about the viewing angle, but we estimate it to be about 30°.

The Sentry LX has a clean and colorful display.

The controls are as easy as it gets. The six buttons allow the user to switch between manual and automatic mode, set the speed of each fan manually and, if needed, reset the whole unit to factory settings. The manual controls were very responsive and immediately showed a change in the RPM of our fans. The LCD also employs a blue fan graphic for each of the system’s fans to visually present their relative speed.

Automatic mode adjusts the fan speeds based on temperatures read from the unit’s sensors. Unfortunately, the Sentry’s automatic mode ran our fans at 700-900RPM regardless of the ambient temperature. Try as we might, we could not get the unit to intelligently adjust the speed of our fans in response to the system’s temperature. Since a fan needs to run at approximately half speed before one begins to notice a real drop in noise, the controller’s automatic mode didn’t tangibly help out with the sound of this case.

The NZXT Sentry LX is a solid product. Those of you who need it will know you need it, and it works well enough and does the job while looking good. Some of the details could have been improved, but overall, we are pleased to award the Sentry LX with our Stamp of Approval.

Rundown

Pros

High quality components
Looks swank
Simple installation
Intuitive controls
Conserves electricity

Cons

Occupies two bays
Poor LCD viewing angle
Requires significant additional cable management
Ships with poor thermistor adhesive

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Comments

26 Jan 2009 ~ 4:02pm GnomeWizardd awesome looking! the cable management is too be expected on a device of this caliber
27 Jan 2009 ~ 1:03am Komete I find myself really perplexed looking ta this. I want to like it but something about it reminds me of my alarm clock that makes me angry.

Great review! And the picture you took makes it look a heck of a lot better than the one provided by NZXT. Anyone know how much this bad boy will set you back?
27 Jan 2009 ~ 1:04am Komete Shoot only 59 bucks. I think that is pretty good for an LCD display. Go NZXT.
27 Jan 2009 ~ 7:49am CB

Komete wrote:

I find myself really perplexed looking ta this. I want to like it but something about it reminds me of my alarm clock that makes me angry.

It is the giant, and unnecessary clock, I think. In the design of the face, the clock is actually the focal point of the display, which is a bit perplexing, as you say.
27 Jan 2009 ~ 1:00pm BuddyJ Nobody complains about Big Ben.
9 Jan 2010 ~ 2:03am CRIM THIS FAN CONTROLLER WILL NOT CONTROL ANY FANS THAT ARE OVER 200MM BECAUSE EACH FAN CHANNEL ONLY SUPPORT 4W. I THINK ITS TIME FOR AN UPGRADE!!!!
9 Jan 2010 ~ 2:22am primesuspect It's also time for a new capslock key
9 Jan 2010 ~ 1:22pm GooD

primesuspect wrote:

It's also time for a new capslock key

LoL :P