Thermaltake Commander F5 Fan Controller Review

A fan controller is an interesting piece of optional equipment. Strictly speaking, most people don’t really need one, but some prefer to have full control over their fans and also the possibility of eking a bit more performance out of them. Thermaltake’s Commander F5 aims to deliver on both fronts here, and hopes its good looks will win you over.

Fan controllers are a lot like, I don’t know, adjustable suspension systems on a road car. Even on a car with sporting pretensions, the fact is that unless you intend to take it to your local race track and indulge in regular cycles of hot lapping, you would never experience the benefits of changing the spring rates, anti-roll bar stiffness levels, bump and rebound damper settings, and camber angles.

But fan controllers on a computer are not as pretentious as fully adjustable suspensions are on anything less than a racing car. For example, let’s say you live in an area where your ambient temperatures tend to soar, especially in the summer, and then dip down low during the winter. I used to live in an apartment that was so poorly insulated and didn’t have air conditioning where summertime temperatures reached 110°F/43.33°C, and then plunged to around ~60°F/15.56°C during the winter.

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