Mystery buttons on PC

[Eichhörnchen]

Sorry, DragonRider... just me being dumb: of course you guys mean that this button just operates the fancy LEDs on the FAN (I'd thought you meant it turned off the little power and hard drive ones) I get it now.

I'm pretty sure I can hear a fan going at the front even if I can't see it; I don't much care if it lights up like a birthday cake so long as it goes around... maybe they fixed it to stay on all the while the power is on. Anyway, I shot them an email earlier so I'll wait and see what they say.

[Rockin Robbins]

Looked to me like the button turned the fan off and on and the fan is just your run of the mill 120mm lighted fan. They don't have separate wires for light and fan power.

Either way it's really stupid to put a fan on a switch. How do you know when you want it on? The motherboard knows and will throttle a fan to take care of the temperature, running it as slowly as it can at all times to get the job done.

If you are anti-Christmas tree, although I haven't seen a blue christmas tree since the 1980s, unlighted fans are cheap. Get a 3-wire one, plug it into one of the motherboard fan controllers, then connect the stupid switch to an air raid siren or something useful.

[Eichhörnchen]

Now you've told me what it is, I've found no end of reviews online. The button IS there merely to turn the front fan's purdy lights on and off (two separate sources quoted below):





Thanks again

[Rockin Robbins]

Wow! They built their own fan for the non-standard wiring. Amazing that they would go to so much expense and trouble for a feature that doesn't mean a thing! It's a definite plus that the air intake is filtered though. That's a legitimate selling point.

Nice looking case too.

You know for playing Silent Hunter, I wouldn't mind a case all lit up in red. Nowdays subs use blue lighting in some instances, claiming that blue light is even better than red for preserving night vision. Saw that on a guided missile destroyer and it blew my mind.

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

You know for playing Silent Hunter, I wouldn't mind a case all lit up in red.

Looks as though you can: http://www.xoxide.com/lightedfans.html


Maybe it's a hip-hop thing

[DragonRider]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Wow! They built their own fan for the non-standard wiring. Amazing that they would go to so much expense and trouble for a feature that doesn't mean a thing! It's a definite plus that the air intake is filtered though. That's a legitimate selling point.

Nice looking case too.

You know for playing Silent Hunter, I wouldn't mind a case all lit up in red. Nowdays subs use blue lighting in some instances, claiming that blue light is even better than red for preserving night vision. Saw that on a guided missile destroyer and it blew my mind.

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Looks as though you can: http://www.xoxide.com/lightedfans.html


Maybe it's a hip-hop thing

These fans have been around for a number of years. They did have a separate wire that controlled the colour change or sequence the lights flashed.
I have a Thermaltake Level 10 case the LED control button allows you to change the colour of the lights through a sequence of Blue, Green, Red or a fast change patterned sequence of all three or a slow change patterned of all three or just turn them off.
Although I must admit I only use them at Christmas or if playing a lot of music

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by DragonRider

These fans have been around for a number of years. They did have a separate wire that controlled the colour change or sequence the lights flashed.
I have a Thermaltake Level 10 case the LED control button allows you to change the colour of the lights through a sequence of Blue, Green, Red or a fast change patterned sequence of all three or a slow change patterned of all three or just turn them off.
Although I must admit I only use them at Christmas or if playing a lot of music

I had a red/blue/violet backlit keyboard from Saitek for ten years. It was a great keyboard and perfect for playing SH4 in the relative dark without killing my night vision for those evening ambush attacks. But for some reason my lighted fans and my external disk drives are lit in blue. Finally the electronics went out and it sent an autorepeated single letter to my computer until it crashed. Thought a reboot might fix it but no, it was the keyboard. Keyboards apparently don't have dying words, they have dying letters...

I agree with the modern navy that blue doesn't interfere with my night vision either. Backlit keyboards are presently in a $100 phase right now, so I'm not replacing the Saitek Eclipse II, which was the best keyboard I've ever owned. The typing quality of keyboards is steadily increasing though, as people abandon traditional ten-finger typing. I'm a dinosaur!