Today we are going to take a look at a fan and light controller, the Vantec Nexus NXP-301. After working with this unit for a bit, I must confess that there are many things I like about the Nexus NXP-301. However, there are also a couple of quirks that you may have to get creative and work around.

First, the package is attractive and well put together. The contents are well protected by the use of a clear plastic clamshell nesting form inside of a sturdy cardboard box.

Package contents include the following items:

Fan and light controller module
Two blue cold cathode lamps
One power adapter (power cord extension)
Three universal power cables for fan hookups
Four screws for mounting the controller module in a 5.25” bay
Four small pieces of double sided tape for mounting the cathode lamps
Installation guide which is clear and easy to read – if you need it at all

The overall features are impressive, from the contents included in the kit as well as the performance specifications. There are three fan controller channels, each capable of supporting up to 18 watts each (1.5 amps at full voltage adjustment of 12V). This is quite amazing actually… 18 watts is a lot of power, for that can be utilized for fans or even different accessories; the included universal power cables make it easy to use these outputs for something other than fans. With three fan controllers capable of high wattage, you could potentially run more than one fan off a particular channel, and run an additional accessory off of another channel. If you have one of the big Delta or Vantec Tornado fans, this controller will supply them with power just fine. Hmm… I can think of a couple of potential case mods with that in mind. Maybe for a future article! :-D

The controller module also has a built-in dual CCFL inverter that powers the two blue lamps at just under 600 volts, using about 3 watts each. The specifications state that the output luminance is 5800 NIT each – which is very bright. I can say this… they are much brighter than my Sunbeam tri-color lamp, and Vantec has included TWO of them in this package! I'll show a picture of the powered and lit installation in just a bit.

Let's take a close-up look at the unit.

Here’s a top view of the controller module. As you can see, there are three outputs for fan hookups, two lamp outputs, and a Molex power plug in the middle to power the Nexus controller module. Here’s nitpick #1 – I wish that the Vantec engineers would have placed the CCL inverter on the left and the fan controller outputs on the right. Why, you ask? Simple – because most people place the cathode lamps to the far left of the case near the left side windows. With the lamp output plugs on the far right of the controller, you lose a couple of inches of possible placement distance on the lamps due to reduced cord length.

In fact, let's move right on to nitpick #2 and solve both #1 and #2 at one time. The two blue cathode lamps have leads that are about 15 inches or 38 cm long. This is simply NOT long enough for most cases. In fact, with the controller unit installed, it was impossible to mount the lamps near the left side of my case at ANY location near the bottom and front of the case due to lamp cord length. My case is only an aluminum mid-size tower (Skyhawk AL-4378D-SL) that is only about 16.5 inches in height. If the lamp cords are too short for my case, I can only imagine how short they would be for a larger case. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I temporarily moved operations to my workbench, and decided to operate a bit on the lamp cords. I actually had several lengths of 1/8” white heat shrink on hand, so I spliced in about 8” of 18 gauge wire for both lamp leads, cutting them one at a time so as not to get the polarities mixed. After soldering in the extra length of wire, I shrunk the heat shrink and viola…better than new.

Next, it was time to mount the lamps in my case. The cord extra length now made installation a breeze and I was able to locate the lamps in my preferred locations. Oops…nitpick #3 and 3a – lamp mounting. Vantec has provided some double sided tape to mount the cathode lamps. Unfortunately, for serious modders that frequently access their case and move components around a lot – just as I often do for product reviews – this is more or less a permanent mounting system. Once again, I decided to take matters into my own hand and used some spare Velcro sections instead of the double sided tape. This will allow me to remove and remount the lamps if needed. Additionally, the Vantec lamps have triangular base mounts that keep the cathode lamp from direct placement against a surface. These mounts are a bit large, at over ¾ “ per side. This can make it tough to get into some narrow channels. A smaller square mount may have been a little better alternative. I think that those can be trimmed up if you are careful, but I was JUST able to squeeze in the mounting pads where I needed to put them.

Next, with the fans, lamps, and power connection hooked up, it was time to slide the controller module into the case proper. Before I did though, I took a close look at the unit while powered up. This isn’t a nitpick, but I am a bit confused about a styling issue that Vantec has decided to employ. For some reason, they have included two high quality BLUE cathode lamps in this kit. However, the four main controller dials are backlit with GREEN trim rings that are lit under power. In fact, when you look at the back of the controller unit, the faceplate has a molded green plastic sheet that is lit by four LEDs that give the nice green glow to the front. But wait – the four LEDs used for the trim are BLUE! I wonder why Vantec didn’t simply include a clear plastic glow sheet and it would have matched the included cathode lamps much better. If you have your rig modded to a BLUE color scheme, be aware that you will have GREEN on the front of your case. If you are serious about modding your computer and this controller fits your needs otherwise, I believe that the green plastic could be removed and replaced with clear or blue – a potential future mod.

Now, let’s take a look a the Nexus NXP-301 in operation. WOW! Those two lamps are bright! These help generate EASILY the brightest color saturation that I’ve ever seen on a computer mod with two lamps.

The operation of the unit was satisfactory in all regards and it performs exactly as advertised, both for fan control and lighting. The lamp controller has three settings – off, fully on 100% of the time, and sound controlled. When set to the middle control position, the lamps are controlled by ambient sound as picked up by a small microphone near the lamp control dial on the far right of the faceplate. This was sensitive enough that regular conversation about 3-4 feet away was loud enough to activate the pulsing lamps. The effect additionally worked well with music and other sound output from the computer. However, elevated volumes may overpower the microphone and keep the lamps on the vast majority of the time. Then again, I have a home office separate from my home and actually have the luxury of cranking up the volume and you might not listen as loud as I do sometimes!

The Nexus NXP-301 unit controlled multiple fans with ease. While I could tell that the fans slowed and were a bit quieter, this effect really didn’t have a significant effect on the overall noise output of my computer, mainly because the three hard drives overpowered the sound of the fans. If I allowed my drives to go to sleep mode, this might make a more significant difference. For the purposes of this review, I did not push the Nexus NXP-301 controller past it’s limits. It is quite possible that the reduction effect would have been more significant on fan speed and noise than the fans I that I did pick to use (I had multiple fans to choose from). On one note… the fan controllers will work best on fans that are not lit with LEDs (such as this one). As the voltage drops, the LEDs will eventually dim and fail to illuminate below a certain voltage even though the fan will be turning at a reduced speed. LEDs are actually pretty rugged and should be able to withstand the power up and down cycling, but be aware that you might lose some of your intended mod lighting effect if you drop the voltage low enough.

Finally, here are some pics of the final installation and controls. Before I get any flak about my old Samsung 8x8x32 CD-RW, that’s my backup CD-RW that I use as a secondary CD drive. I figured, no need to waste an available bay when I have a perfectly good drive – albeit a bit slow – that could be used.

Conclusion:

Vantec has a nice product in the Nexus NXP-301 fan and light controller. It’s a good product – but the design falls a little short, most notably in the lamp cord length. The mix of green faceplate lighting and blue lamps are also a minor disappointment though the function isn’t affected. Therefore, I can only give this product 3 out of 5 stars because the average person may have trouble using it right out of the box. If Vantec would make a minor change and add several inches of wire to the lamp cord length, it would automatically gain 4 out of 5 stars. And if they would either include Velcro for the lamps, or enable a faceplate change to blue instead of green lighting (maybe with interchangeable faceplates or similar), I would rate it even higher. Once again, this is a good product. With some relatively minor changes and a little tweaking, Vantec would have an exceptional product.

I would like to thank ATACOM for donating this Vantec Nexus NXP-301 Fan & Light Controller for site review, the Nexus can be purchased here on their site for $39.99.

Pros:

• Easy to install
• Operation is simple and easy to understand
• It WORKS as intended
• High quality – well put together, no defects, great packaging
• Lights were exceptionally bright
• Very high “neat-o” factor

Cons:

• Not a functional problem… but would prefer blue faceplate backlighting instead of green
• Velcro would be better for cathodes instead of double sided tape
• Faceplate color is a compromise…not all silver, not enough black
• Cathode lamp cords are far too short – they required modification in order to work