I orderd the Akasa All-In-One on Wednesday 3/1/06. It arrived via USPS First Class on Saturday 3/4/06. Sidewinder Computers is located in Indiana and I live in Georgia. The total cost was :
Subtotal 49.95
Shipping 4.80
Tax 0.00
Total 54.75
Sidewinder Computers
Overcool.com also sells them
Akasa site
My photos
I was impressed by the contents of the package (check out the picture link). It took approximately 1.5 hours to get everything hooked up. There quite few cables to connect if you want everything connected. The cables for the USB and Firewire have an internal set to route inside the case for connecting to the motherboard plugs and an external set to connect to your external USB and Firewire sockets if you do not have a motherboard plug available. The cardreader cable will have to use an internal motherboard USB plug.
My system:
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
2 GB Patriot Signature DDR400 PC3200 RAM
AMD 64 x2 3800 CPU
Coolermaster Ammo 533 case with a 120 mm LED intake fan on the bottom front blowing through the drive cage
Scythe Ninja heatsink with a 120mm Akasa amber fan blowing across the fins toward the back of the case
Antec SmartPower 2.0 500 watt PSU (dual 80mm fans in line- the rear one hardly comes on)
Antec Tricool LED 120mm rear exhaust fan
eVGA Nvidia 7800GT video card (just one)
Hitachi IDE 160 GB HD
Seagate SATA 250GB HD x2
Hauppage WinTV tuner PCI card
Avermedia HDTV tuner PCI card
On idle my MB temp is usually reading around 38-39 C via PC Probe II and my CPU is usually 32-34 C. I have gotten my CPU and MB temps up to the high 40"s running Prime 95 x2, and a music player and surfing the web.
I placed the thermal probes on the bases of the two motherboard chips that use the passive heat pipes, the Nvidia C51D and the Nvidia CK804SLI chips. My CPU was being monitored by the motherboard probe and the PSU has a monitoring probe connected to the MB as well. I elected to control the front intake fan and the rear case exhaust fan(it has its own speed switch which I set to medium).
Manually controlling the fans is done via speed bars on the LED screen. Each fan is contolled independently. The fan response is immediate when the speed is raised or lowered via the All-In-One.
In Auto mode you can set each temp probe threshhold independently and it will control a particular fan speed.
From the Akasa web site, some of the features:
Stylish push open front cover
Hi-speed USB 2.0 backwards compatible with USB 1.1
4 Memory slots addressing 9 memory card formats
All 4 memory-slots are active allowing cross format transfer
LED display indicating power on and drive access
LCD shows 2 fan rpm?s and monitors 2 temperature zones
Over-temperature alarm · Fan failure alarm
Compatible with Mo/Bo fan signal detection
13 I/O ports
USB 2.0 x 2, IEEE1394 x 1, audio - speaker x 1, mike x 1,
earphones x 1, memory card reader x 4, A/V x 1, SATA data x 1,
SATA power x 1
Package includes:
1 SATA data cable
1 USB external cable
1 IEEE 1394 external cable
1 Mic cable
1 Audio cable
1 RCA video cable
1 PCI backplate
3 Cable ties
1 Screws and adhesive set
2 Fan cables
1 SATA power adaptor
1 Power connector
1 External SATA power cable
1 IEEE 1394 internal cable
1 USB internal cable
2 Temperature sensors
Multi language installation manual
The manual is good one with 4 color photos showing the cable hookups and the LED readouts. Makes it easier to figure which cable is which.
In the past 2 days, I have run the computer at idle and at load with Prime95 x 2 running. Using the Auto mode of the All-In-One, it does seem to be doing the job of keeping the temps in the 40"s C under load. But I also had Asus's Cool 'N Quiet running to control the CPU fan speed and the Antec Smartpower 2.o has it's own second fan which comes on when it reaches a certain temp (which I have yet to determine exactly what it is).
