Bitfenix Recon 'Control Yourself' end user review (Picture and Video heavy)

Soldato
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I must admit I had some early troubles with mine but that was operator error. If you set s lower speed using the front panel and do it correctly it should change the speed eventually. If it doesn't and the GUI doesn't work either then maybe your unit is faulty. What about auto control?
 
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To all of you Recon owners, could you answer a few of my questions please:

Is it possible to set it to turn off all fans once a temp sensor reads below a certain temp?

Ideally I would like for this to be possible:

Under load when gaming I would like all the 3 pin case fans (2 x Yate Loons intake, 1 x 140mm vertical exhaust, 1 x 120mm Gentle Typhoon rear exhaust) and ideally the PWM CPU fan to spin up fairly fast.

Once a temp sensor that is placed on the CPU heatsink drops below a certain level, such as 60c, I would then like the Recon to switch all of these fans off. I understand it may be not possible to switch off the PWM CPU fan, but I really want a nice quiet PC when there is no need for fans to be spinning.

Is this likely to be possible? Cheers.
 
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To all of you Recon owners, could you answer a few of my questions please:

Is it possible to set it to turn off all fans once a temp sensor reads below a certain temp?

Ideally I would like for this to be possible:

Under load when gaming I would like all the 3 pin case fans (2 x Yate Loons intake, 1 x 140mm vertical exhaust, 1 x 120mm Gentle Typhoon rear exhaust) and ideally the PWM CPU fan to spin up fairly fast.

Once a temp sensor that is placed on the CPU heatsink drops below a certain level, such as 60c, I would then like the Recon to switch all of these fans off. I understand it may be not possible to switch off the PWM CPU fan, but I really want a nice quiet PC when there is no need for fans to be spinning.

Is this likely to be possible? Cheers.

Don't have a Recon but he question has come up before and IIRC I can tell you that you cannot have the controller disable the fans.
 
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Thats a shame. You would think it could as many people would want a feature like this.

It is a shame but then perhaps it is better to have some airflow. I like a quiet system but prefer my 3 case fans to run at very low speed when idle just to keep the air flowing through the case. Even at idle it gets toasty in there if I disable all fans (my Recon turned itself off once).
 
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It was this or the lamptron fc6/5v2 in the end i went with the lamptron and cant fault it kinda glad after reading your review. However bitfenix fans I cannot fault, really silent and push a good amount of air
 
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Above statements are not true I run my rad fans in exactly that way using phoebetria to manage them. Ive got a probe in each rad and the fans only come on when the probe reads 30c and above which is normally only under load or long periods of idle
 
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As above, The above isnt true. Phoebertia you can have your fans turn on at certain temps as i do. My rear fan only comes on to exhaust excessive heat whilst gaming whilst the front two are on permanant high speed and my extra intake on bottom turns at 50% on when the probe i have on my gpu rises above set temp and then to 100% if it rises anymore :)
 
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Forgot about Phoebetria, which isn't that surprising as my Recon blew it's USB interface about a month or two after receiving from Bitfenix.
 
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Thats dissapointing :( Mines going 14 months strong now and still not missed a beat. When i don't turn the pc on for afew days though it forgets im on manual or software assisted and changes back to hardware auto.. Maybe V2 Will be better once released
 
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I've now found a way to control all the fans apart from GPU and CPU from Speedfan, meaning no need for the Recon. I was using the wrong type of fan header on the mobo before. All 4 case fans now simply turn off when CPU temp is below 55c ish - perfect.
 
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I have a Supermicro X10SL7-F motherboard that has the following fans attached to it:

3 x 120mm BeQuiet case fans
1 x 140mm BeQuiet case fan
1 x BeQuiet ShadowRock Pro with 120mm fan

They all have 4 pin connectors except the 140mm fan which has a 3 pin connector.

The question I have is, can I use the BitFenix Recon fan controller on a NON Windows machine? I run FreeBSD (UNIX) on my machine. I'm not interested in changing the fan speed via the web interface or from my phone. I just want to set the fan speed settings on the fan controller and that will be that. Will this fan controller work with my setup?

The reason I want to use a fan controller is that the Supermicro fan speeds are insane on this board! You either have the choice of noisy or VERY noisy. Theres no other options to reduce fan speed in the BIOS.

I assume I can run the BeQuiet fans with this fan controller and set the fans to run at 300-700rpm?

Thanks for all your help!
 
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The Recon has 3/4 pin connectors which your fans get connected to.

Your fans will fit if your fans have either 3 or 4 pin PWM fan connectors.

Recon may not allow 300 RPM on your fans. I got about 500 out of my fans but that is pretty quiet and around the lowest I ever run my fans anyway.
 
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So I bought the Bitfenix Recon from OCUK and am very happy indeed :D

With one exception...the adhesive tape they included is rubbish!!

So the question is:

Can anyone recommend a replacement? What tape can I use to attach my temperature sensors to my hard drives, fans, case, CPU heat sink etc?

I've had a look online but there are so many options that I am a bit overwhelmed!
 
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