The Superbox package
The Superbox package
Senfu
SuperBox & Temp. LCD Review
Date : Friday, 04 August 2000
By : Wolfman
Product : Senfu SuperBox & Temp. LCD Review
Today at Virtual Hideout, we review two nifty gadgets from Senfu, the Taiwan company that brings you the Senfu Watercooling Kit. These products are supplied to us by the distributor here in Singapore, MultiPlayCity.Com. The gadgets are the Senfu SuperBox and the LCD Temperature Probe. Let's get to it then.
You must be wondering what the hell is a SuperBox SF-DB 555. Well, it's like a small drawer for your PC where you can keep all your tiny little items like jumpers, screws and other small stuff. It can even accomodate a CD case and also those emergency floppies that you might have. It occupies one 5.25" drive bay.
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The Superbox package |
The Superbox package |
The package came with the necessary screws for you to mount it in your PC and also 2 space dividers for the box. It also comes with a 3M Stick-On Rubber Feet just in case you decided to just put the box somewhere else other than in your PC, etc, on your table.
 The box handle |
 Screw holes |
 Box internal with dividers |
 The 3M Rubber Feet |
Installation was a breeze. Just slide the box into an empty 5.25" bay in your case like you would with a CD-ROM drive and secure it on both side with the supplied screws. And the SuperBox is ready to go!
 Slide the box into the bay |
 That was easy wasn't it? |
Pack of smokes! And other stuff...:O)
The box retail price of only S$12 isn't high and wouldn't really stop you from buying it, unless you do not have any 5.25" drive bay to spare! All in all, the Superbox is a cool toy to have in your PC!
The next Senfu product is their LCD Temperature Probe. It's basically a thermal probe connected to a large LCD screen to display the temperature readout in °C. Although most mobos nowadays has it's own temperature probe or sensors, the readout can only be access through BIOS or special hardware monitoring softwares like Motherboard Monitor. Even some graphic card manufacturers like Asus inlcudes a software to monito the display adapter's temperature.
The Senfu unit gives you the alternative to monitor the temperatures of the various hardwares in your PC without the need to install any extra softwares. The LCD display is powered up via a G10 battery, much like your watch battery. The kit also includes stand where you can mount the LCD screen. The thermal probe sensitivity is also much better than the built in thermal sensor most motherboard has. And with a 3 seconds sampling, or "refresh" rate, the probe is able to pick up any slight changes in temperature faster than the built in sensors.
 The LCD Temp. box |
 The LCD Temp. Probe |
 The specification |
 The Thermal Probe |
To install the LCD screen, just pop it into the rectangular hole in the stand and push it in until the 2 clips locks into place. To turn on the display, you will need to remove the plastic tab that is found at the back of the LCD Screen. Use a flat head screwdriver and remove the cover. You will find a plastic tab covering the lower part of the battery, preventing the battery from coming into contact with the terminals.
 Front View |
 Rear view |
 Rear view of the LCD screen |
 Use a flat head screwdriver to remove cover |
Remove the plastic tab and replace back the cover. The LCD screen should now display the current temperature reading. I have been using the temperature probe for about 4 days now to measure my AOpen HX08 case temperature and find it much easier just glancing at the LCD screen than to launch a monitoring software just to know the case temperature.
 Remove tab and replace cover. |
 TADAA! |
The LCD on my PC...
With a retail price of just S$20, the LCD Temperature Probe is an investment that would go much farther than you would expect. Although the stand is a good idea for portability, some of you might not like the fact that you have 2 or more of those on top of your case. You might want to mount it in your 5.25" faceplates and slap the whole thing into your front bezel!
Senfu really has some cool gadgets here for the overclockers out there with the SuperBox and the LCD Temperature Probe. It might not be perfect for everybody out there, but it's sure damn cheap! Go get yourself some!