Introduction

When the fist BayBus shipped out of the FanBus labs in 1999, the requests for external USB and various other items naturally came along soon after. In the struggle to be the king of the hill of front mounted multi-function panels, the Enermax UC-9FATR2 bulldozes its way to the top.  It features a multipurpose card reader, front panel USB, front panel SATA ports, IEEE-1394 and a a two channel fan controller with alarms for temperature and fan speed. Whew!  That's a laundry list of items.  Follow along as I install it and give it a shakedown. 

Overview

The Enermax unit comes as a complete kit.  Included in the bundle is all the cabling you should need to utilize the various features.  To elaborate on the features listed above, the Enermax has a memory card reader (ported to a motherboard USB 2.0 header) that has jacks for the following standards:

• CompactFlash Type I/II
• Micro Drive
• Memory Stick
• Memory Stick Duo/Pro/Duo Pro
• Smart Media
• Secure Digital
• Multi Media Card

As stated above, the bandwidth limitations are helped by being hooked to an existing USB 2.0 header on the mainboard.  This means that the various cards should be able to transfer at speeds near the maximum of the various media types.  Different media types have inherent transfer limitations, but the USB 2.0 interface should not be a bottleneck to most (if not all) of them.  Note that the unit will not add USB 2.0 functionality to a mainboard that does not support it natively.  That would require an actual PCI card, which is not an option on this model (but should be for those trying to get some mileage out of an aging system). A savvy modder could probably use an existing add-in card to accomplish this.

Not a bad roundup of the competing standards (do we really need that many different varieties floating around?).  So as a card reader, the unit stacks up pretty well.  But the Enermax has more to offer.  I can always use a couple more front-panel USB connectors, and it has two, although they are really just pass-through connectors to existing ports.  If you do a lot of digital video, then you'll be ecstatic over the inclusion of a front mounted IEEE-1394 Firewire port.  You will need to bring your own 1394 interface card to the table, however, since this is again basically just a pass-through to an existing port.  To round out the I/O extravaganza, Enermax has also included two SATA pass-through ports, although I have not yet seen an external drive that utilizes this type of connector.  The last hard disk enclosure I looked at had a USB 2.0 interface and it never got strapped for bandwidth.  Dedicated SATA would not share USB traffic, however, so I concede that it may be of some use to folks looking for this function.  Completing the package is an integrated two-channel fan controller and two thermal probes.  The variable speed knobs allow you to adjust the fan speed for noise or cooling concerns.  The blue backlit LCD display shows fan speed and temperature for your choice of channels. An alarm is preset at the factory for one of three temperature thresholds (45, 55, or 65 degrees C) and a jumper controls the low fan speed alarm threshold at either 1000 RPM or 2000 RPM.

Additionally, the unit comes with a well-made 12 page (each language is 12 pages, 6 languages) instruction booklet that details the installation and setup of the unit.  Enermax has done an above-average job with the documentation, but it still suffers from occasional poor grammar (then again, so does me). The unit can be had in either black or brushed aluminum faceplate styles.  What little real estate on the front panel that isn't covered with jacks is covered with a thick transparent bezel that adds to the looks of the unit.  The fit and finish of the faceplate is top-notch, with no obvious manufacturing defects.

 

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