NZXT Sentry LXE Review

1. Introduction2. Contents3. Installing the card4. Automatic and Manual fan control5. Closing thoughts6. View All Pages

Over the past few years NZXT have released 3 variations of their Sentry line of fan controllers. The first 2 models were front mounted inside a case which often meant cables everywhere. Today we have their first external fan controller the Sentry LXE in the KitGuru labs.  The Sentry LXE is an external touch screen display that allows the control of up to 5 fans and 5 thermal probes using the touch screen display.

The 5 thermal probes can be configured to trigger an alarm if any of the sensors surpass the temperature settings we configure. We will be testing the Sentry LXE in the NZXT Phantom chassis that we recently reviewed.

	Intuitive Touch Screen LCD – Advanced, touch screen LCD displays temperatures in C/F, RPMs, along with the date, time, and day of the week. Users have the ability to switch the display off for complete darkness for more immersive gaming sessions
	Complete Control – 5 Temperature Probes keep tabs on thermals throughout the case while the 5 Fan controllers adjust the fans’ RPM speed for at least 10W per channel. Allows users to automatically adjust the fan speeds to correspond to a specific temperature, manually customize for extreme overclocking capabilities, or set to absolute silence
	Temperature Alarm – Instant notification if temperatures rise above a designated point
	Sleek Design – Brushed aluminum frame provides sleek aesthetics for any desktop.
	Rechargeable Battery – The Sentry LXE features a rechargeable battery for up to 500 times, keeping the LXE life time longer without the hassle of replacing batteries constantly.
	Using a NZXT developed PCI board and external touch display, the LXE allows for more 5.25″ bays freed up for other peripherals.environment. Simply set the fan controller atop your PC or desktop and connect through PCI card interface.

Specifications:

Fan Adjustment Range	3.7V to 12V
Fan Channel	5
Max watt per channel	10W
Temperature Module Channel	5
Temperature Range	0 ~ 99℃ / 32 ~ 199.9℉
Measurement Frequency	Every 2 Seconds
Temperature Alarm Range	30℃ to 90℃
(AUTO)	Min 50%, Under 0-25℃，fan RPM 50%
(MANUAL)	Min 40%
Screen Size	5.27 inches

The Sentry LXE is supplied packaged in a cardboard box that is shrink wrapped to ensure all the contents remain inside.  The front of the package is decorated with a colour image of the Sentry LXE's brushed aluminum external touch screen display.  This display unit sits on your desk and via an 8pin power cable, it then plugs into the controller card that resides inside your computer.

The image above are all the contents that were enclosed in our package.  There is the card with the 5 fan connection cables, 5 temperature diodes and a power cable to attach to a Molex connection from our PSU. There is also a battery that needs to be placed on the card to save important data like the time, date, and fan speed settings.

There is also a battery that needs to be placed on the card to save important data like the time, date, and fan speed settings.

Above is the actual card that controls everything. It simply rests in any available slot inside your case and is secured just like any other expansion card that we would install. In the lower right hand portion of the card is where the battery goes. The power cable with the Molex connector on it attaches just above where the battery sits, and the thermal diodes are attached directly above that as we can see in our image.

These probes can be placed in critical areas inside our system to monitor how hot certain components get under stress. And then we have a shot of the 5 cables that attach to the controller card. These cables attach to the 3 pin adapters on our case fans and give us the ability to control each fan speed separately.

To get things started we have included this diagram to show exactly how things connect to the PCI controller card.

This should help to simplify things prior to starting our installation.

Installing it is as simple as screwing the card in place, hooking your fans of choice to the Grey and White cables, making sure the 2 8 pin power connections are tightly in place and then powering up the system.

We should make note of the fact that the PCI card does not secure as well as we would like. We ended up using a thumbscrew to secure our sample, so make sure that you pay special attention to this when putting the controller card in your system. To complete the install it may take 5-10 minutes at the most depending how fussy you are about cable management.

These pictures show the inside of the system with the temperature diodes placed in various locations to provided additional monitoring of our internal components.

The 8 pin power cable connected to the rear of  the external touch screen display. The opposite end of the cable then plugs directly into the controller card at the rear of our PC.

The Sentry LXE powered on and fully operational. On the right hand side of the display window are the RPM readings from each of our 5 fans.  We can let the LXE operate in either auto or manual mode. When in auto mode the Sentry LXE automatically adjusts our fan speed based on a pre defined temperature scale.

To get more control over the fans, the settings can be moved to manual. To adjust the speed of a particular fan just tap twice on the number on the left side of the display. The number will flash and then using the + and – signs in the lower left corner of the display we can either increase or decrease the RPM setting that corresponds to the fan we selected.

The Sentry LXE also allows alarms to be set via temperatures. To set our alarms we tap once on 1-5 on the display and then using the + and – signs we set the maximum temperature for each of the 5 thermal diodes.  Once configured an audible alarm will sound if any temperature surpasses our predetermined setting. There is also a built in clock and calendar which is also configured in the same manner of tapping the associated place of the display.

To test the NZXT Sentry LXE the first thing we are going to compare are component temperatures with our system sitting idle for 30 minutes. We will record our temperatures in Automatic fan mode as well as Manual mode where our fans are running at their maximum RPM's. The ambient room temperature during today's testing is a steady 23 degrees Celsius.

With the control set to automatic our system was very quiet yet temperatures remained good overall.  When we increased the fans to their maximum the noise levels increase, but not to a level that would be considered offensive in any way. Our idle temperatures drop between 2-4 degrees Celsius with the fans running full speed.

The next test we are going to run will record our temperatures while we get into some gaming action. Crysis Warhead is one of the more demanding games on the market even today and should be capable of heating things up. The question is can the Automatic fan setting keep our internal temperatures in check when we are gaming, or is manual the way to go?

Even during our game testing the automatic setting did a decent job of maintaining respectable system temperatures. Our CPU hit 41c and our GPU topped out at 60c while playing Crysis Warhead. Changing to manual fan control once again brings a reduction of 3-4 degrees Celsius in temperatures across the board.

We believe the NZXT Sentry LXE is very capable of keeping things under control even in the most demanding situations.

The NZXT Sentry LXE has proven to be a very versatile product.  It can be configured to meet individual demands allowing for nearly silent fan operation, or the ability to deal with even the hottest overclocked systems.  NZXT have made sure that all the fan cables and thermal probes are long enough to be routed neatly inside a chassis, keeping clutter to a minimum. We used the Sentry LXE with the NZXT Phantom case that we recently reviewed. The LXE provides the ability to monitor system temperatures and adjust fan RPM directly from our desk thanks to the elegant looking brushed aluminum external touch screen display.

We think the Sentry LXE would be a good addition to both HTPC and typical desktop systems.  HTPC users will be able to reduce fan speed to the point of virtually eliminating any unwanted noise.  This feature will make multimedia experiences as enjoyable as possible, while overclockers can crank their fans to their limit and keep a close eye on the temperature of their treasured overclocked components.

We have no problem recommending the NZXT Sentry LXE and feel it is a product worth buying. It will add functionality to your system and provide peace of mind knowing you can glance over and monitor you system temperatures at any time. This product can be picked up for around $60 in the USA.

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