System monitors

The last ten years have seen huge advances in PC case design. But while 21st century cases are made from improved materials and feature better airflow and more creative aesthetics, in one area they're still sorely lacking: controls. Cases almost uniformly feature just two buttons: 'On' and 'Reset', and that's it. Progress always has its casualties, and one departed case feature was the third button that was enticingly labelled 'Turbo' but actually slowed the PC down.

Still, even three buttons is hardly that impressive. Windows might feature a plethora of tweakable options but frankly, adjusting software settings feels a bit synthetic. Sometimes, you want something real. Sometimes, you just want to be able to turn a dial up to 11.

While progress might have consigned the 'Turbo' switch to the Recycle Bin of computing history, more and more peripheral manufacturers have been introducing control panels that slot into the front of your case and instantly add a range of dials to twist, buttons to press and switches to flip.

These devices are still a relatively new invention however, so there's no real agreement on standard features and functionality, or even what to call them. In rounding up products for this Labs test, we were looking for peripherals that offer more than just plain fan control. After all, these add-ons take up either a 5.25in or 3.5in drive bay, and in exchange, they should give you a range of information such as fan speeds and internal temperatures in order to help you accurately monitor your system.

So why do you need a system monitor? Two fans are a bare minimum for most modern PCs, and more fans mean more noise. A decent system monitor will give you direct control over your fans, and will allow you to balance the noise of your fans with your system's cooling abilities. System monitors will also allow you to adapt your PC to the task at hand - you hardly need seven fans whirring away at top speed if you're just leaving your computer on to download overnight, or playing a DVD. Similarly, keeping an eye on a range of temperatures inside your case is a much more accurate way of safely overclocking than just seeing how far the FSB will go. If you want to really take control of your system, two buttons are never enough.

Contributors: James Gorbold, Josh Blodwell and Alex Watson

To test the system monitors, we installed each, in turn, in a test PC based around an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ processor. We used a Cooler Master ATCS 220C-VX1 case with two 80mm cooling fans. We then connected the system monitor to the case's 80mm exhaust fan, and, if the monitor supported more than one fan, to a Global Win TAK58 HSF. We attached the temperature probe to the surface of the PC's Western Digital hard drive. If the monitor supported more than one probe, we connected a second probe and used it to measure the case's ambient temperature. We then ran the system for ten minutes, running the CPC benchmark CD, while experimenting with each system monitor's different settings and controls.

We rated the six system monitors on Design, Features and Value. When scoring for Design, we took into account looks, the number of colours each is available in, the amount of information the monitors displayed, and how easy and intuitive they were to install and use. In the Features category, the score was based on the number of fan speeds and temperatures recorded, and whether the system monitor had alarm functionality and an internal fan. We also factored in control methods, and points were deducted for monitors that fully occupied the 5.25in drive bay, preventing a hard disk from being installed behind. The Value score is then derived from a weighted calculation of adding together the Design (50 per cent) and Features (50 per cent) scores, then dividing by price. The Overall score is also weighted and is not an equal average of the three initial scores. For this ratio we used a weighting of Design - 35 per cent, Features - 35 per cent and Value - 30 per cent. Design and Features are equally important for system monitors - as well as being easy to use, a system monitor needs to be able to coordinate several different fan speeds and temperature readings if it's going to allow you to effectively check up on your PC.