A few weeks ago Bitfenix did a competition for 2 Recons and 2 Hydra Pro's,i was 1 of the lucky peeps to win a Hydra pro and also i recieved 2 Bitfenix Spectre Pro (red LED) fans.Thankyou Bitfenix.
Here is my attempt of a review feel free to point anything ive missed or could have improved in anyway.
Enough of the small talk lets get into some pictures.
Top of the box nothing to say that you cant see.
The bottom gives you some details of the contents and specifications.
Instructions with a list of box contents and a nice picture of the Hydra Pro.
The controller has a black soft touch front with the fans LED on/off switch on the left and a power LED on the right with the 5 fan speed sliders inbetween (gun metal i think ).A nice simple look,i would have liked to have seen the Bitfenix logo somewhere though thats probably just me.I have to say I prefer the sliders than the turn knobs you get on most fan controllers as you don't see big black or silver knobs sticking out the front of the PC or if you have a door on the front no problem with it fitting in behind it.
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro is 147 x 43 x 67mm so leaves plenty of space at the back of a 5.25" drive bay if its needed for say Radiator space.
The Fan LED connection cable,this only works with upto 5 Bitfenix Spectre/Pro fans.The length of this cable is 13"/33cm.Short but theres plenty of length with the Spectre/pro fans to connect to this.
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro is powered by a single molex power supply connector.Length is 24"/61cm.
Here are the five fan connectors clearly labelled going to each channel. This fan controller is capable of 30 watts per channel so it is possible to run multiple fans from each channel.Length is 28.5"/72.5cm.
All cables plugged back in and ready to install.
Installation was simple as 1-2-3 and took minutes,i used 2 of the 4 provided screws 1 each side.This fan controller looks like it was made for my case the black soft touch front matches and it just looks so sleek.
One thing i did find which at first i thought was a fault was the 5 slider buttons (dunno what to call them) fell out this was prior to fitting the Hydra Pro.Onced its installed they seem a lot more secure so becareful you dont lose them lucky for me they fell into my hand i would suggest taking them out if yours are also loose.Now i dunno if this was planned by Bitfenix for easy removal for replacing with different colours that they might be planning on selling in the future (just speculating).But another idea is to easy paint them to match your colour scheme.Not sure if you can remove the LED switch to paint that aswell,i will have a look next time im in my case.
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro works great,a nice fluid motion for adjusting the speeds of the fans.I connected the two Bitfenix Spectre Pro's 1x120mm and 1x140mm and two cheap nasty 120mm Corsair fans.The 120mm Spectre pro is set @ max speed on the controller and its silent,moves a lot of air aswell.The 140mm is set on low speed works great but does get loud as you start to move the speed up.The Corsair fans are now silent set on low speed anything higher and they sound like hairdryers.The LED on/off switch does exactly that turns the LED's on and off.(Only works with Bitfenix Spectre/Pro's)
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro retails at £24.98 on Overclockers (Specs are wrong)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-071-BX
I think £20 would have been much better price tag for what you get,control over the LED's on upto 5 Bitfenix spectre/pro's and 5 x 30 watt per channel fan controller,plenty of power to daisy chain more fans or even a water pump.
Overall on a score of 1-10 i would have to give this a 9
Well think thats all thanks for reading.
Here is my attempt of a review feel free to point anything ive missed or could have improved in anyway.
Enough of the small talk lets get into some pictures.
Top of the box nothing to say that you cant see.
The bottom gives you some details of the contents and specifications.
Instructions with a list of box contents and a nice picture of the Hydra Pro.
The controller has a black soft touch front with the fans LED on/off switch on the left and a power LED on the right with the 5 fan speed sliders inbetween (gun metal i think ).A nice simple look,i would have liked to have seen the Bitfenix logo somewhere though thats probably just me.I have to say I prefer the sliders than the turn knobs you get on most fan controllers as you don't see big black or silver knobs sticking out the front of the PC or if you have a door on the front no problem with it fitting in behind it.
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro is 147 x 43 x 67mm so leaves plenty of space at the back of a 5.25" drive bay if its needed for say Radiator space.
The Fan LED connection cable,this only works with upto 5 Bitfenix Spectre/Pro fans.The length of this cable is 13"/33cm.Short but theres plenty of length with the Spectre/pro fans to connect to this.
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro is powered by a single molex power supply connector.Length is 24"/61cm.
Here are the five fan connectors clearly labelled going to each channel. This fan controller is capable of 30 watts per channel so it is possible to run multiple fans from each channel.Length is 28.5"/72.5cm.
All cables plugged back in and ready to install.
Installation was simple as 1-2-3 and took minutes,i used 2 of the 4 provided screws 1 each side.This fan controller looks like it was made for my case the black soft touch front matches and it just looks so sleek.
One thing i did find which at first i thought was a fault was the 5 slider buttons (dunno what to call them) fell out this was prior to fitting the Hydra Pro.Onced its installed they seem a lot more secure so becareful you dont lose them lucky for me they fell into my hand i would suggest taking them out if yours are also loose.Now i dunno if this was planned by Bitfenix for easy removal for replacing with different colours that they might be planning on selling in the future (just speculating).But another idea is to easy paint them to match your colour scheme.Not sure if you can remove the LED switch to paint that aswell,i will have a look next time im in my case.
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro works great,a nice fluid motion for adjusting the speeds of the fans.I connected the two Bitfenix Spectre Pro's 1x120mm and 1x140mm and two cheap nasty 120mm Corsair fans.The 120mm Spectre pro is set @ max speed on the controller and its silent,moves a lot of air aswell.The 140mm is set on low speed works great but does get loud as you start to move the speed up.The Corsair fans are now silent set on low speed anything higher and they sound like hairdryers.The LED on/off switch does exactly that turns the LED's on and off.(Only works with Bitfenix Spectre/Pro's)
The Bitfenix Hydra Pro retails at £24.98 on Overclockers (Specs are wrong)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-071-BX
I think £20 would have been much better price tag for what you get,control over the LED's on upto 5 Bitfenix spectre/pro's and 5 x 30 watt per channel fan controller,plenty of power to daisy chain more fans or even a water pump.
Overall on a score of 1-10 i would have to give this a 9
Well think thats all thanks for reading.
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