VIZO Master Panel II

Introduction:

Let's face it - people hate connecting things to the back of their computer, especially if it's only for temporary use. Having to poke around the back of your case (where there is already a jumble of cables) just to connect a camera to download photos off of it is a pain. Thankfully, most cases nowadays come with front USB ports. But what about other connectors and outputs?

There have been many products providing a solution to this problem. Most of them fit in a 5.25" drive bay and basically re-route or provide front connections for, among other things, USB ports. This can be helpful if your case didn't come with front access for these connections. While most of them are fairly basic, the VIZO Master Panel II takes an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach by providing a plethora of I/O options as well as some other nice features. Today, we'll take a look to see if the Master Panel II stands out from among the rest.

Specifications:

We reviewed the original Master Panel over a year ago, and by comparison, it seems fairly bland. In addition the basic USB, Firewire and audio ports offered on most cases, the Master Panel II also has a fully-featured memory card reader, an eSATA port, an A/V connector (RCA style) and two fan controllers. It's safe to say that it will be able to work well and improve most PCs.

• Full specifications

The unit sits nicely in a 5.25" drive bay and appears to only come a black colour - no worries though, since black appears to be fairly popular for cases nowadays. The card reader has four separate slots and supports most Compact Flash, Memory Stick, Smart Media or SD cards out there. The device does require a power connection, since it must power the fans connected to it and the memory card reader.

The VIZO comes in a professional-looking box but the phrase "No need to go to the back... do it in the front!!" sounds not only comical, but contains just a little too much sexual innuendo for a computer accessory. Opening it up, you're likely to be overwhelmed by the contents. In addition to the Master Panel II itself, you get every single cable you could ever need for this device and as you can see, that is quite a lot. The cables take up more box space than the device itself and once you lay them out you'll think that you just bought a new motherboard, minus the motherboard.

Boxed up.

Back of packaging.

Lots of cables included.

While other manufacturers may skimp on the cables/accessories, VIZO inundates you with them. Like me, you may even have to open the included manual to figure out what all the cables are for. Lastly, you also get a small driver CD for the memory card reader if you're using an ancient OS.

As a quick run down, the accessories pictured below, from upper left clockwise are: Expansion slot pass-through, internal Firewire cable, mic cable, audio cables, A/V cable, cable ties, fan connectors, unit power cable, internal USB cable, USB cable for memory card, SATA cable and some screws.

You get all these  cables. Seriously.

The front is very busy , but still sleek.

Knobs control fans' speed.

For a device providing so many connections, the Master Panel II manages to remain looking quite clean and sleek from the outside. The metal knobs compliment the exterior as well while providing variable fan speed control. The cables allow you to connect only 3-pin fans; a pass-through is also included so that you can still monitor the fan's RPM through a motherboard 3-pin connector. (The fan will report its speed through the sensor wire but not draw power from the motherboard) Though you can control fan speeds using software, as I've written about, some may still prefer external physical control.

Side view.

Back internal connections.

Bottom.

Looking at the back, you can see that there are numerous internal connections/pin headers for all the ports that are on the front. As there are so many cables included, one can easily see that if everything's hooked up there will be a huge mass of cables emanating from the back of the Master Panel II, creating a nightmare for those trying to keep things clean inside their case. This is perhaps the Master Panel II's greatest weakness - because it offers so many connections/features, it's plagued by an equal amount of cable hell. The only solution is to take your time when plugging everything in so that the insides of your case remain neat.

4 memory card slots.

USB, Firewire and eSATA.

Fan controller knobs.

The front has four memory slots and these cover almost every type of memory card out there. Don't be fooled by the "18000-in-1 card readers" out there - to arrive at this figure manufacturers usually count things like SD, MiniSD and MicroSD as separately supported devices - when in fact they're all really the same and the reader won't work with Mini/MicroSD cards unless you have the regular SD adapter anyway.

The USB, Firewire and eSATA ports are below the memory card slots. All of these ports are intended to be connected to internal headers on your motherboard, so you'll need to have these in order to use the ports. While most cases come with USB and Firewire ports, not many currently come with eSATA, so this is a nice option. The eSATA port is merely connected to an internal SATA connector using the included cable, and should work so as long as your motherboard supports hot-swapping for SATA. (Which most modern ones should) Combined with an enclosure supporting eSATA, you can finally use your external HDD the way it was meant to be used: With full SATA speeds and none of the slowdowns of USB.

The front audio ports (mic, line in, line out) do not connect to internal audio headers. They merely re-route the appropriate connections from the back of your case to the front and thus are not a true solution in my opinion. Most audio ports on cases are designed to connect to internal audio headers. (either AC'97 or HD-Audio) When this is done, if you plug headphones into the front line-out connector (which is the most common use), output to the rear connectors is automatically muted. This is useful when you have speakers but sometimes would like to use headphones during the night. (And your speakers don't have a headphone jack)

The Master Panel II's solution just routes the back audio connections to the front, so if you want to switch between speakers and headphones, you'll have to unplug and re-plug them each time. I would've preferred a solution that attached to internal audio headers.

Fan and audio internal connections.

RCA, eSATA, Firewire and USB connections.

All connections.

Installation and Testing:

Installation is straightforward but can be tedious if you choose to connect every single cable. As mentioned before, you have to take precaution to avoid ending up with a rat's nest inside your case. Other than that, there were no major issues and installation went smoothly. The cables were even labeled for proper orientation (one side has "UP" on it) to help with the installation. Because of the amount of cables that you have to connect, you'll probably want to connect them to the device before you screw it into place; this will give you more room to work as connecting tiny cables inside the confines of a case can be challenging. As long as you have a spare 5.25" drive bay, the Master Panel II will work great in your black-exterior case.

Installed.

Matches well with the Lian-Li PC-C32.

However, the installation guide was a bit too brief in my opinion. While I had no trouble matching up the connectors, the task might be daunting for someone with less exposure. For example, the internal USB connector and cables are shown in the manual as being a 2x4 pin block when they're actually 2x5. An actual photo of the device with things labeled might've been better. I considered this to be a minor issue, nothing serious.

Once installed, it's very easy to take advantage of the functionality offered. There are two LEDs on the front, a green one indicating power and red one that indicates when a memory card is being accessed. Attaching devices to the ports is easy and the placement of the connectors doesn't cause interference with adjacent ports. The fan controllers work similarly well - the specs indicate they can vary voltage output from between 4-12 V, but I could not find a spec. on how much wattage they could support.

As mentioned before, the audio connectors merely serve a pass-through function, re-routing your outputs from the back to the front; switching between speakers and headphones will still involve pulling out one cable and plugging in the other.

Conclusion:

Overall, I was pleased with the VIZO Master Panel II. Offering a heck of a lot functionality, you simply can't look it over. With support for most types of memory cards and all types of ports and an included fan controller, it's hard to beat. If your case does not have front ports, you'll definitely want this; even if this isn't the case the additional features still make it worthy.

The only minor complaints I had were with the audio connectors merely being pass-throughs. They really should've been made to connect to an internal audio header, just as all the other ports connect to internal pin headers. This is a minor issue and one that doesn't detract from the fact that the Master Panel II is one of the most fully-featured devices I've seen in a while.

Pros:

• Adds front access for a variety of ports

• Memory card reader connects to internal USB header

• eSATA connector

• Two fan controllers built in

• Looks clean and professional

Cons:

• Audio ports do not connect to internal headers

Thanks to VIZO for making this review possible.

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