Zalman Fan Speed Controller ZM-MFC3

As others have said, this is one of only a handful of true fan controllers to feature true 4-pin PWM capability. The screen is nice and not too bright or dim. The only issue I had was hooking fans to the connections in the back and for this I used fan extension cables to be safe. The fit was so tight I had to use a Razor blade to shear off the 2 small plastic guide rails on the female end of the extensions but it did work. Trying to remove them was a different story - it took needle nose pliers to slide them off the 3 pins, one extension didn't survive the experience. They're not installed poorly, just extremely tight and once they're on hooked there won't be any reaching behind the unit to get your fan wire back, you'll have to pull the unit out of your case and do it carefully. Also, split your fans onto one pin control and you'll see a drop in RPM (at least the readout is honest about this). Still, good controller. Handles the PWM control (not power) of 2 D5 pumps in tandem and 6 radiator fans with no issue.

This works GREAT when controlling a water cooling setup (Fans and PWM pump)! It also has a spot where you can plug in a temperature monitor (2-pin). This works great with a stop fitting temperature meter. It even comes with an adapter that lets you know how much power your PC is using. AWESOME!Negatives though... I have the Phantek Enthoo case and it fits in the front, but with the knob, I couldn't close the door, so I had to move it back and drill 2 holes. This isn't the products fault, but it'd be nice if you could somehow push the knob in when not in use.

Works great and fills the void left in my custom rig since I removed the DVD drive. In a MicroATX install, I'm not sure how effective it is to have four thermistors in such a close proximity, but it does look cool and is accurate which is the most important thing. Visibility is excellent at an angle too which is nice if your box is not right in front of you.

Use it daily to monitor my high end system build which is water-cooled by Zalman dual heatsinks, has solid state drives, and dual 10K rpm drives on a mirrored RAID. Easy to control fan speeds, especially the dual Zalman unit. The temperature sensor monitoring is great in helping me control the 8 fans. I don't know how I did without this in the past. Really helps when I'm rendering a large video clip which heats up the CPU pretty good, and can just kick up some fan speeds.

I had bought Zalman's previous model Fan Controller with display back in 2007 for a desktop PC I built and had a great experience with it, so bought this model for another recent desktop PC build last year (2013) and was not disappointed. It works well and gives the front of my case a cool factor, very sweet looking.

I bought it because it was the only controller I could find with true PWM control, not just voltage regulated and claiming to be PWM. I do wish all the channels were PWM, which would accommodate different size (and make) fans. Overall, it has worked well.

Product as advertised and delivered very quickly. Would recommend to anyone and do business again.

Garbage, don't have alarm functions.... It doesn't offer enough added value to justify this,The test results are mediocre, we could only test it up to 0.2A. Don't buy. maximum fan output voltage is 11V no more.... with a minimum of 5v... save your money and look else where

This is a very poorly made item. It arrived with a wire broken off the CVS header. I requested a return from Amazon who responded immediately however they had no replacement to offer. The controller despite its poor build quality went well with my new Antec 300 case. I tried to get support from Zalman but the RMA system just would not work for me and I gave up and contacted their tech support who forwared my email onto their customer services asking them 'to take care of this customer'. END OF STORY!! NO REPLY!! All I needed was a replacement CVS bracket/cable and I would have returned the u/s one to them. Such simplicity!!!I repaired the wiring by stripping it back and joining it to one of the small pins taken from a spare Zalman fan header. I had to support the main cable with sellotape on the underside of the controller case so that its' weight would not pull off the repaired wiring. It took considerable time to do this as I had several unsuccessful tries. All a waste of time over a defective item.The pin header for the processor fan does not fit on the MOB so I cannot control that fan's speed. The wiring and connections is 'a la China' and is so delicate as to be useless in case of any small repair and also open to damage. Nowhere in the sales literature or the enclosed instructions does it explain that when the Y cable is assembled to control two fans simultaneously they run at half speed. I understand two cables reduce voltage and hence fan speed but this should be explained. I would still have bought the item but it is another small annoyance. The screen is excellent and can be viewed at any angle and the heat sensors seem to do their job. There are too many presses of the button to set each fan in turn. This is not really an issue as I knew about it when researched. However Zalman might have come up with a better system had they thought it through in their design department.The controller is up and running and enhances the looks of the PC. Let's hope the electronic reliability is better than the paper like build - especially the wiring.Without wingeing on too much - would I buy Zalman products again - NO!

The comment made by George is correct about the CPU fan controller.However, I don't think it's limited to AMD coolers. My CPU cooler is compatible with both Intel and AMD but has the 4 pin connector (Like most cpu coolers).The connecters supplied with this controller make it impossible to connect a 4 pin fan up to the unit. I couldn't even plug the fan directly into the unit without the connectors as the little plastic fins on the connector don't match. I might trim these off later and try again.Other than that (pretty big) flaw it's actually a good piece of kit. It's pretty cool being able to see how much power your PC is using and monitor temperatures and fan speeds. The unit looks smart in place and is easy to control, although it doesn't seem to do automatic control of fans according to temperature.If the connectors were correct it would easily get a 4.5 out of 5, (the lack of auto fan control from temp loosing it a 0.5) but because of the pretty big boo-boo with the 4 pin fans I'm being generous with a 3 out of 5.

Looks very nice on a black PC case. Instructions are a bit vague like most imported PC goods but a relatively competent PC builder can get it installed. The one thing I didn't like about it is that it is a few button presses to select the right fan and change the speed whereas I would have preferred a separate control for each fan. Overall a nice looking product which works well.

Just as they say in the previews. Looks just like an old in-car CD-player, and it is slow to use as you need to wait 3-4 seconds in order to adjust fan speed... Other than that its ok.

ok