Heck, even the box is cool, the Musketeer is well protected inside.
Conclusion, so, is this just a toy or a real bay bus controller? I'll be honest, the answer is who cares? This thing just screams cool! When I found this through my supplier I had to get one! My problem as it turns out was so did everybody else! So I got onto a waiting list for the black one and today they came in!
The controls aren't as exact as one would like so don't use it as a CPU fan controller, the audio slider isn't very exact either but then this isn't a serious peice of equipment. Build quality is excellent considering the cost. I got mine for $39.00 each retail, not discounted for my business. It's meant to look cool and provide some function, in this it has done it's job, everybody who has seen it wants one and to a person they didn't care if it did much more than just look good, kind of like adding cool gauges to a hot rod. Sometimes you add things just for the effect.
I give this product a 9 out of 10 rating. Had the controls worked better it would have easily gotten a 10.
* Edit - It turns out that the cases used by Thermaltake have different tolerences in the top bay used by the Hard Cano. The Musketeer installed easily into one and was extremely tight in another. I also found out that the two Musketeers do need plenty of volume to really get the sound pressure gauge going, this is unfortunate. It looks like I'll be adjusting that slider a lot! Final note is the voltage slider works fine on fans that don't need the full 12 volts and the operation is smoother than I thought it would be.
MaximumPC forum member INJIMIDATOR mentioned the PC Tach that received some attention recently. We are going to look into modifying this review to include a small Tach, check back soon!
Today we bring you the Musketeer!
The contents included the Musketeer, VU Hub, Thermal Sensor wire, Dual 3.5mm stereo plug audio cable, 80cm 3-pin to 4-pin molex fan cable and 80cm cpu fan cable with rpm wire. These cables were long enough for the full tower case I installed it in, so chances are good it will fit in your case as well
Specifications
Voltage (Left) Dial Display: DC 0 to12V
VU (middle) Dial Display: -20 to +3dB
Temperature (right) Dial Display: 10-90 Celsius/ 50-180 Fahrenheit
Voltage Adjustment: DC 6 to approx. 11V (IC controlled)
Sound Pressure: -20 to +3dB (depends on input from sound card)
Here is a picture of the rear of the Musketeer, you have to be careful when installing the molex power connector. Pushing the connector in can cause the internal connector to pop up.
Thank you for checking out our first review! Unfortunately for us our digital camera had problems then finally died. We are purchasing a new one tomorrow so our next review will have better quality pictures. Click each picture to see the full size image.
We'll also have a few movies of the Musketeer in action. Dial-up users beware, the full size pictures and movies are large and will take awhile to download. Broadband connections are recommended to view them. The entire review is on this page and should load pretty quick even on a dial up connection, please scroll down to view everything.
Thank you,
The Nordic Computer Systems Staff
The Musketeer was installed into an Antec case with Thermaltake upgrades. I removed the Hard Cano for this review. I chose not to use the fan controller at this time.
Coolermaster Musketeer - Model LLC-U01 Black
Click to see the PCI slot pass thru connector. I noticed no degredation in sound quality hooked up this way. The Coolermaster PCI plate is the one on top.
Click to see the inside view of the PCI connector. The wiring hook up behind the PCI plate could be cleaner, someone forgot that many people have windows on their computers.
Here is a picture of the Musketeer installed. Looks great doesn't it! I think on the XaserII it looks good where the Hard Cano used to be.
Here is another angle. The sound meter doesn't move much at lower volume, even if you turn up the slider. I received two of them so the next install will tell me if this is the norm or not.
Right Click and choose Save Target As to download the movie of the Musketeer in action! Or if you want to you can view it here, you need to make sure you have Quicktime loaded.
Don't mind the poor quality, I used my digital camera which does ok video, but not perfect.
* This file is 5 megabytes *
Review posted 8/26/2003
