Labs

Keeping your PC cool involves finding a balance between noise and cooling. Having a fan in every mounting will keep the temperature down, but also create an awful racket. Some case fans and CPU coolers come with variable resistors that allow you to adjust their speed, but these are usually at the back of the case or inside it. Zalman's ZM-MFC1

ADVERTISEMENT

can control the speed of up to six fans, and is conveniently mounted in one of your PC's 51/4" drive bays.

The front of the ZM-MFC1 has four speed control knobs and two switches. You can manually adjust the speed of each fan to get the perfect balance between cooling and noise. Each fan controller has an LED above it that monitors the speed of the fans; the brighter the light, the faster the fan.

Installing the controller is simple enough as the kit comes with all the cables you need to connect up your fans. Two of the cables have an extra lead to connect to your motherboard's processor and case fans so the motherboard can monitor the fans' speeds. Connecting fans to the two toggle switches is trickier, as you have to remove the original plug and connect bare wires to the positive and negative screw terminals. This is annoying, but otherwise the ZM-MFC1 is an inexpensive and useful way to keep fan noise under control