NZXT Sentry LX Fan Controller

With the proliferation of high airflow cases around, the enthusiast is full of the desire to keep things as quiet as possible. Gone are the days where one needs to run massively-loud high-CFM fans and larger-than-life heatsinks to keep the temps down. Silence is now the mantra of the day and new products have been springing up almost daily to help with this battle.

NZXT has established themselves as player in the gaming market. Their products have been a steady evolution from entry level to enthusiast grade hardware. Another key practice of theirs has been to keep prices low and quality high. With each new release that comes through my hands I can see a constant increase in quality. The Sentry LX is no exception.

I can remember a time when buying a fan controller was nothing more than a crapshoot. All you got for your money was a panel with multiple knobs and anyone’s guess as to just how much wattage could be handled. Given the fact that you were almost required to run powerful fans with high energy requirements, the chances of getting one that could even handle the juice for more than a moment was truly a chore.

With the release of the initial Sentry, NZXT looked to make things not only better-looking but better functioning as well. Unfortunately, with only two fan channels the options were limited. In comes the Sentry LX, their latest release. With a full five channels for fan control and a sleek design with a large and easy-to-read LCD, it really appears to be ready for battle. Offering a whopping 4W for each channel also means you can use some good high flow fans without worry as well. Add in the clock and calendar features and you have a controller with a full boat of features. Let’s take a close look and see just how well it stands up.

Closer Look

Once you strip it out of the box, you are greeted with a very well-built part. The aluminum chassis is strong and finished to high standards. There is a plastic anti-scratch sheet over the LCD screen to protect it in transit as well. The control buttons are well laid out and clearly labeled. The brushed finish is done to a high standard and will look at home in any case.

Looking at the side, you really get a glimpse of the attention to detail that was put into the design. I have seen many designs fall flat on their face here in regard to build quality leading to an underwhelming product. The LCD is well supported, and once installed you know it’s not going anywhere you don’t intend it to.

The PCB is well-laid-out and shows off another level of the engineering that was put into the design. Everything is logically laid out and clean.

The large aluminum heat sinks are for controlling the heat in the fan control circuits. Each channel gets its own heat sink so there is no worry about failure due to overloading. Each will safely support 4W so you can run some rather robust fans without fear.

Peering ever closer at the business end of all the wired connections we see that there were no steps missed. I really appreciate the fact that they took the time to glue the connectors into place since they are subject to an errant pull while running all the wires. We can also see that a battery is used for memory retention.

Overall, I rate the build quality as above average especially for a fan controller. Considering we are trusting out precious parts to such a simple device I feel that there has been some genuine effort to protect our stuff from premature death. Let’s get this guy installed and see if they put their money where their mouth is.