Sunbeam Rheobus II

Reviews: Cases

Sunbeam Rheobus II

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
Silicon Valley...
Jun. 3, 2003

Specifications

Introduction

We have seen many fan controllers here at The Tech Lounge, and each one has its own pros and cons. Some allow voltages from 7-12v while others let you go down to 5 volts. Some rheobuses, which are supposed to help eliminate noise, sadly produce noise of their own, while others have cheap knobs and other parts. Today, thanks to Silicon Valley Compucycle (SVC), we will be looking at Sunbeam Tech's Rheobus II, which seems to be an end all solution for your fan control needs.

The Rheobus II

The packaging from SVC was decent, but it was basically the Rheobus box sitting diagonally into the brown package. Of course, no damage was done and the product is in great condition. The box that the rheobus came in was appealing and durable. The product we received contained the rheobus mounted onto a black aluminum bay, 2 pages of instructions, mounting screws, and a 4-pin molex "Y" cable.

The features consist of (taken from www.svc.com):

- Includes a 4-pin Y-adapter
- Retail Package
- Smooth control from 0 to 12V
- Tactile click from power off position
- Handles 20Watts per channel
- Brushed aluminum finish
- Solid construction
- Consistent knob resistance

The faceplate that the rheobus is mounted on features the Sunbeam logo as well as knob labels (Fan #1-4) and a design around the knobs for a better idea of the fan speed. The knobs are made of plastic, but the quality is good. One big advantage of this fan controller is the ability to bring the voltage from 12 volts all the way down to 0 volts. When you reach 0 volts, the knob will click into the off position. This is a very nice feature which allows the user to have full control over their fans. To the top right of each knob there is a small LED that changes colors depending on the fan speed. Each channel can handle 20 watts. This is definitely sufficient for a single fan per channel, and then some!

On the backside of the rheobus you can see the PCB, fan connectors and the giant heatsinks. The PCB is rather large, but mainly to facilitate the giant heatsinks. The older version of this rheobus had screw terminals for connecting fans, but Sunbeam opted to go with 3-pin connectors for this new revision. This way you don't have to cut your fan wires if you don't want to, but you may need to get some 2-3 pin or 4-3 pin converters if your fans do not have the 3 pin connection required by the rheobus. The bottom of the PCB is covered by a thin sheet of foam to protect from an accidental short circuit. Sunbeam has paid a lot of attention to details with their new rheobus.

The quality of the rheobus is very good. The mounting is sturdy and the knobs turn smoothly. If you want to, you can take off the knobs and unscrew the PCB and mount the rheobus into your own faceplate. You can also use Sunbeam's faceplate as a guide for drilling the holes. There is even a different version of the rheobus which doesn't come preinstalled on a faceplate.

Performance

Now that we have spent some time looking at the rheobus, let's see how it does in action. To test the rheobus, we have taken our Raidmax 400w power supply and did a little wire trick to allow it to run without a computer. You simply connect pin 7 (usually green) with pin 6 (usually black). This works like the switch on your computer and completes the circuit and allows your power supply to operate. Do this at your own risk. We are not responsible for any damages.

Now I decided to hook up 4 x 120mm Aluminum fans. These giants produce CFMs into the hundreds while maintaining a relatively low noise level. Using the rheobus, I can now lower the speed and sound even more. The rheobus easily manages all 4 fans on high. We dropped the voltage of each channel to ~7, then ~5, and the fans still ran great. At these low voltages, I could barely hear the fans, and they still pushed a good amount of air. At ~5 volts, the fans were virtually inaudible and still pushed more air than most 80mm fans.

Now I wanted to see how much a single channel could handle. I put all 4 of the 120mm fans on the first channel, and turned the knob to full speed. All the fans were at full speed. When I lowered the voltage, the fans all went down the same as if they each had their own channel. This rheobus can definitely handle anything you throw at it.

This rheobus produces no noise of its own. The Vantec Nexus would start to buzz at lower voltages due to low quality components, but the Sunbeam does not have this problem and is completely silent.

The LEDs on each channel change colors depending on what the current voltage is. When the fans are on full speed, the LEDs are blue, when the voltage drops below 7 volts, the LEDs turn red. When the knob is clicked into the off position, the LED turns off also. It would be nice if the LEDs faded from blue to red, but it is still good as is.

The big thing about this rheobus is the ultra bright LEDs. A lot of reviews say how great these ultra bright LEDs are, and that it makes this rheobus even better. I, on the other hand, don't care much for the ultra bright LEDs. How bright do these LEDs need to be? Are regular LEDs not visible? These LEDs light up my room in red and blue shades at night. Is this too bright? If you look at the LEDs even from an angle, you see spots afterwards. Is this too bright? Sometimes, I wonder what people are thinking. Sure, they are brighter than any rheobus I've ever seen, but do you need ultra bright LEDs? I think not. I would hate to be playing Battlefield 1942, and then glance to the side just to be blinded and die in the game. However, if you take this to LAN parties, maybe that is part of your strategy...

Conclusion

From our testing, Sunbeam has released a damn good product, with some great features that most other rheobuses fail to acknowledge. The ability to turn the voltage down to 0 and even turn off the fan is a great feature, and the ability to put multiple fans on a single channel is great for people who have more than 4 case fans they want to control. Sadly, the ultra bright LEDs, which are supposed to be a great feature, have not pleased me at all. Ultra bright is too bright, and these LEDs are TOO BRIGHT! If I were to use this rheobus, I would definitely switch out the LEDs with some regular ones as to preserve my vision for a few more years. Beyond that, the quality of the rheobus is excellent, and I would recommend this rheobus over any other, as long as you wear sunglasses.

Pros

Good quality
0-12 volt adjustments
Knobs click off
LEDs change colors depending on speed
No noise like other controllers
Plenty of power for multiple fans per channel

Cons

Ultra bright may be too bright

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Add Comment

3 User Comments

1 - Posted by MyFifthLimb on June 4, 2003 - 2:15 pm

I bet you are still depressed that my Zalman Fan Controller is better than that Rheobus....................... ...........I am a jerk aren't I.

2 - Posted by Mark Schlegel on January 6, 2008 - 4:47 pm

You mentioned the buzzing produced by the vantec Nexus, this is not due to low quality parts as you said. The Nexus uses PWM instead of voltage reduction to slow the fans. PWM can cause buzzing of the fans because the voltage is turning on and off quickly (which is how PWM works). The way to correct that is to filter the pulsing via some capacitors before getting to the fans. What Vantec should do is add the filtering.
The sunbeam uses a different method to control
fans in that it uses variable voltage regulators (the parts on the heat sinks), these don't pulse
the voltage so no buzzing happens.
Mark

3 - Posted by Kurtis on January 6, 2008 - 9:31 pm

He wasn't referring to the fans buzzing. The actual unit itself was buzzing.

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