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Spire DigiPanel II


Date
: 12/15/05 – 03:29:11 AM

Author
:

Category
: Misc

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Spire

Price:
~$30 (Froogle)

Spire, short for the Spire Cooling Solutions Company, has been around for over fourteen years. Founded in 1991, they specialize in computer thermal solutions. They have production facilities in China and corporate offices in many countries including, but not limited to, the United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Taiwan, Japan, and Brazil. As their name might suggest, they originally made cooling products such as heatsinks and fans. Today, along with heatsinks and fans, they also produce computer cases, power supplies, cold cathode products, hard drive enclosures, and accessories such as this panel we are reviewing.

In this article, we will be reviewing Spire's DigiPanel II, model SP-206, a multifunctional 5.25" panel capable of controlling fans, monitoring temperatures, and allowing easy access to USB, FireWire, audio, and microphone ports.

Page 2 : Package

The Spire DigiPanel II arrived directly from Spire in a fairly light ragtag cardboard box via UPS. I was quite concerned as it looked like it sustained some damage.

On the attached invoice, there was a brief technical overview of the features, which we will explore in great detail in the following section. The description "DigiPanel II Controls only Silver" was quite vague as it suggests that enclosed are just the controls for the DigiPanel II, which would be a problem.

In any case, I proceeded to open the package and was greeted by another box which, thankfully, seemed sturdier than the outside box; also, there were an ample amount of packaging peanuts surrounding it.

The box seemed very simple, consisting of just the name, model number, and some specifications in monochromatic colors. One of the specifications that caught my attention was the blue LCD light. Furthermore, I noted that the panel is capable of controlling up to three fans and monitoring up to three temperatures. The DigiPanel II weighs only 171g, less than half a pound, which should pose no problems when installing it in even the flimsiest of cases. The product is made in Taiwan, where Spire probably has a production facility.

Pulling the box out, I figured out the reason why it had seemed so simple: it was the bottom of the box I was looking at!

The words elegant, classy, and attractive do not even begin to describe the other sides of the box that the DigiPanel II was in. The top consists of the model number, SP-206, in the upper left corner, the Spire logo in the upper right, and the name, DigiPanel II, with a brief overview of features. Also, we catch our first glimpse of the panel itself, courtesy of a small picture. Its audio ports, USB ports, and FireWire port are clearly visible. Furthermore, the display is large and is neighbored by a shiny knob, which most likely has many functions associated with it.

Below is a closer view of the feature overview. It turns out that the panel has an overheating alarm, which could prove useful for overclockers and enthusiasts who like to keep their hardware running at optimal temperatures.

The front of the box has the Spire logo, a smaller picture of the DigiPanel II, and the URL to Spire's website, www.spire-coolers.com

Both of the sides are almost identical except for slight differences in color and layout.

Here is the back side of the box, showing once again the Spire logo, model name, etc. It also has a small collage entitled "Other Spire Product Series" and lists the following: Hard Drive Enclosures, Laptop Cooling, Hard Drive Cooling, Liquid Cooling, and System Cooling. According to Spire, the DigiPanel II falls under the System Cooling category as is seen by its picture.

We will now take a closer look at the specifications before revealing the contents of the box.

Page 3 : Specifications

Information on the Spire DigiPanel II SP-206 can be found under the "Products -> Accessories" section at Spire's website.

Spire's description is as follows:

Below that, there is a feature overview list:

The technical specifications are also listed:

These are impressive features and specifications for this mid-range panel. It has a fairly large LCD monitor with blue lighting, which should match my case's blue + UV lighting scheme well. Note that the panel itself is constructed of an aluminum alloy which explains its low weight of 171 grams. The controller supposedly allows fan speed adjustment from 60 to 100%. I was unsure what temperature control range was; hopefully, we will find out later.

Page 4 : Contents

Opening up the box, I was immediately confronted with a user's manual. The panel itself can also be seen packed in thick plastic. There is also a white box-like cover beneath the manual, probably containing the wires and sensors.

Indeed, the white cover reveals a pack of cables. To be honest, I was quite overwhelmed by the sheer amount!

Unwrapping and removing the panel from the plastic covering, we get our first look at the panel. It looks exactly as advertised. The first thing to catch my attention was the large yet stylish knob; when turned, it makes small "clicks", like a gear, so you know you are turning it. The LCD panel is big and has a horizontal line dividing the rectangular area into two parts. There are indeed two USB ports and a FireWire port. Additionally, the audio and microphone ports are distinguished with small images. Finally, there is a small button which allows the user to change temperature measurements between °C and °F.

As the following images show, the panel is fairly shallow in its depth, so you can still hide your cables in your case behind and under the optical drives.

The panel is powered by one molex pass-through connector which powers all three fans, the temperature sensors, and the components of the panel itself such as the blue LED lights and other circuitry.

Looking at the back of the unit, we see a plethora of connectors present. From the bottom left and going in a clockwise fashion, we have the power connector, temperature sensors connector, three fan connectors, USB connector (black), audio/microphone connector (white horizontal), and FireWire connector (white vertical). Also, there is a small speaker in the bottom right corner.

Next, let us take a look at the bundled cables. First, we have the USB cables. They are meant to be connected to actual USB ports from the back of your motherboard. The header plugs into the DigiPanel II's connector; both USB cables are connected to one header. I would have much rather liked a connector which plugs directly into the motherboard; these types of connectors are available from other sources and could be purchased separately if so desired.

There are three temperature probes. I was surprised to see that they had no protective covering over the sensors; however, they came in their own plastic zippy bag. They are labeled 1, 2, and 3, and come with three pieces of sticky tape, allowing you to attach them virtually anywhere.

Next we have the three fan cables. They are also labeled and are male-to-female, wherein the male ends are where you would plug in your fans and the female ends plug into the DigiPanel II's headers.

Both audio cables, like the USB, share the same header. They are color coded with the standard green for speaker and pink for microphone. These are merely extenders; they connect into your sound card's ports that would normally be in the vicinity of your expansion slots and you have effectively relocate the ports to the panel.

There is one FireWire cable (also an extender, like the USB and audio cables) which has its own header in the panel.

Last but not least, there are four fine-thread mounting screws in a plastic zippy bag.

Page 5 : Installation

The victim of this installation is going to be the Aspire X-Dreamer II case. We will be installing the DigiPanel II in the third 5.25" slot from the top.

Naturally, installing the panel required the removal of the 5.25" bay cover. I attached all the wires to the panel, then slid it in from the outside and secured it with two screws on each side; it was relatively easy but people with large fingers may find it difficult to attach and remove the cables, especially the ones close to the edges of the panel's insides. The screws aligned perfectly with the second screw holes in the case bay, making installation a breeze.

Here is a shot of all the wires coming out of the panel in the background with some other wires from the power supply and other components in the foreground.

I then proceeded to connect my fans to the connectors from the DigiPanel II. The three connectors accommodate one fan each and require three-pin connectors; this makes sense because only three-pin connectors allow RPM monitoring.

After that, I routed the USB, FireWire, and audio cables through open expansion slots in the back of the case. Because of their size, the cables are quite visible and you will have a hard time trying to hide them.

Here is a shot of the wires coming out via two open expansion slots. I had to use two because my homemade three-fan PCI-slot cooler was in the way; usually, it would have only taken up one slot. It would have been nice if Spire included a special slot cover with holes cut out specifically for the wires.

Finally, I completed the installation by connecting the routed cables to the appropriate ports in my motherboard. Once again, I really would have liked it better if the cables could have plugged directly into the motherboard headers.

The included manual outlines all of these steps, though in lesser detail.

Here is the panel in action in the light and the dark. The contrast is great in both conditions. However, the angle of view is not too wide, it is slightly less than 45° and I have trouble reading the panel from my seat unless I lean over.

Next, we will evaluate the functions of the DigiPanel II and put it to a battery of tests in order to see whether it is worthy of taking up one of your case's precious 5.25" bays.

Page 6 : Function and Testing

The manual has directions on how to adjust fan speed, basically spinning the knob, monitor temperatures, and set up the overheating and fan speed alarms.

The unit is able to measure three different temperatures, and monitor and control three different fans. Each time the knob is pressed, it switches between T1/F1, T2/F2, and T3/F3, which stand for the respective temperature sensors and fan connectors. Changing the temperature from °C to °F requires the push of a small indented button for which you may need to use a small screwdriver or some other needle-like tool. To adjust fan speed, the knob is turned to the right for increasing the speed and turned to the left to decrease the speed. The specifications claim that the product can adjust fan speed from 60 to 100 percent.

The alarms are set by pushing the knob in for 2 seconds. The unit will then beep once and you will be allowed to set the temperature and fan speed thresholds. If the temperature exceeds the threshold, the panel will beep, and also if fan speed drops under the threshold. To test the alarm, I set the temperature threshold to 30°C, the minimum possible, the maximum is 90°C, and then ran Prime95 for a few minutes. The temperature in my case increased and the alarm went off and, might I add, quite loudly! I also tested the RPM alarm threshold, only two settings are possible: off and 1000. I set it at 1000 and then stopped the fan manually by depressing the axis of rotation with my finger; do not try this at home as it may damage your fan, your finger, or both. Once again, the same alarm sounded. The alarms are stopped by resetting the thresholds or if the temperature or fan speed returns to optimal values.

For the first test, I wanted to find out the real fan speed adjustment range to see if it was as promised. I lowered the fan speed to the minimum and then divided by the maximum to find the fan speed adjustment range percentage. For all three fans, it turned out to be approximately 50%. It turns out the controller was actually able to adjust fan speed from 50 to 100 percent, which is a bigger range, by 10%, than the specifications state!

I had some trouble with the knob as each "click" of the knob did not correspond to any particular change in the RPM, it was quite random to be honest. However, just over 20 revolutions represent the full range, from minimum to maximum RPM. Therefore, it is highly difficult to set the RPM to a specific quantity you want.

Next, I did the quantitative benchmarks and tests.

First were the HD Tach tests to see if using the USB ports offered by the DigiPanel II have an adverse effect on the performance of my USB 2.0 flash drive, Memorex TD 2B 512MB. I ran HD Tach with the drive in one of the ports of my Aspire X-Dreamer II case, which is connected directly to a header on the motherboard. Then, I ran the test with the drive directly plugged in to the motherboard's port. Finally, I ran the test with the drive in one of the DigiPanel II's ports, which is basically an extension of the motherboard port.

The results show that there is no major difference in the speed between all the ports. The random access times are extremely close and the difference can be disregarded as experimental error. CPU utilization was slightly different for the different ports, with the DigiPanel II port using the most, case port second and direct motherboard port using the least. Once again, the differences are negligible and most likely due to experimental error.

To get a second opinion, I ran the SiSoft Sandra Removal Storage test.

The results indicated that the combined index, higher is better, is once again relatively equal, with the motherboard port pulling slightly ahead, followed by the case front port, and the DigiPanel II pulling up the rear. The endurance factor, an estimation of the life of the device was around 8.2 for all of the ports; however it is not directly related to performance.

Next, I wanted to figure out how accurate the RPM measurements were. For this, I compared the readings outputted by the DigiPanel II to the readings from software, such as Asus' PC Probe and Lavalys' Everest Home.

We see that the RPM measurements were right on target. I noticed that the DigiPanel II tended to round things off to the nearest ten while the software did not. I observed the panel for a while, adjusting the fan speed to see if I can get an RPM measurement that ended in a 5 but to no avail.

Finally, I wanted to see the accuracy of the temperature probes. For this, I compared the panel's probes to the probe that came with the Aspire X-Dreamer II case, and three software programs. Each of the DigiPanel II's probes was placed in a different spot. The case probe was alternated between the exact same spots as there is only one.

Immediately, we notice that all the software measurements in each section are identical. That is probably because they all access the same sensor embedded within the hardware. The DigiPanel II's probe correlated with the software temperatures, not differing by more than 0.5°C. It also did not differ from the case probe's temperature measurement by more than 0.5°C. Of course the CPU and chipset temperatures measured by the physical probes were less than the "real" temperatures, measured by the software, because the physical probes cannot be placed inside the CPU core or chipset die!

That concludes the tests. We'll move to the next page and wrap everything up.

Page 7 : Conclusion

As seen throughout the review, the Spire DigiPanel II is a great product. Quiet computer enthusiasts will love its ability to control three different fans while overclockers will love its ability to measure three different temperatures. The RPM and temperature alarms are also a plus. Users will know when their fans have malfunctioned without needing to open up the case, especially if your case is non-windowed. The temperature alarms can also help pinpoint problems with overheating components.

Apart from its main purpose, the panel also offers its port extenders; no longer will you have to go behind your computer to plug in devices to the USB or FireWire ports. Also, you can quickly plug in your microphone or a set of headphones to the panel. Though I would have liked the ports to be able to be directly plugged into motherboard headers, the current feature is welcome nonetheless.

Aesthetically, the panel is very pleasing to the eye and will compliment the look of any case, regardless of color. The shiny aluminum and the large knob, paired with a large blue-backlit LCD panel, are very futuristic. The LCD panel's contrast is excellent though I had a gripe with its view angle; it is not very convenient to lean over every time just to check the readings. From my observations, the maximum viewing angle is around 45°. Note that the knob is not very good at changing fan speeds – that is, you cannot be sure that one click is equal to a particular amount of RPM. The only reliable settings are either on maximum or minimum, there is no specific in-betweens.

Some features I would have enjoyed if Spire had included them with the DigiPanel II are the ability to store different configurations and the ability to turn fans off completely. However, I understand that those features would have driven the price of the panel up considerably.

Advantages:

• Controls 3 fans, monitors 3 temperatures and has alarms for each
• Stylish blue-backlit LCD panel with good contrast
• Good feature to price ratio, excellent value

  Disadvantages:

• Dysfunctional fan speed adjustment knob
• Restricted viewing angle (<45°)
• Front ports only extend motherboard ports – do not plug directly into motherboard headers

  Overclockers Online would like to thank Spire for providing this review sample of the DigiPanel II SP-206.