Introduction

Today I'll be giving you all a look at the SunbeamTech Rheobus Kit #2. It seems alotta companies are starting to realize that a smart, functional, and high quality "Rheobus" is what the customers are looking for. You've probably noticed a few companies lately putting out there versions of a Rheobus. Sunbeamtech is no different. They're doing their best to stay on top of what the customers are looking for and they've been working hard on this unit I'm about to show you to give you everything you couldn want in a high quality rheobus. Did they succeed? Read on and I'll try to give you the info to come to your own conclusion....

Rheobus Kit #2

I started talking to SunbeamTech a couple months ago on their upcoming new products. They went around and asked a bunch of folks that are prominent in the "enthusiast" market to see what kinda features are gonna be the most sought after and/or needed. I helped them out best I could along with numerous other writers/reviewers/webmasters. However, simply feeding them our opinions and suggestions is a long way from actually making it into a reality. I've seen many product concepts that appeared to be the magic combination in theory, but never made it to the production line. It's just the nature of the beast.

Did SunbeamTech listen to the experts and deliver the goods? First, let's take a closer look at the unit in question....

I received two kits from Sunbeamtech originally. One being more of a conceptual prototype. Then a few weeks later I received a retail edition with all the fixes and improvements made, that sunbeam saw fit to market. I must say, the finished product is a beauty. It's a looker from the moment you pull it from it's packaging, but the real surprises come once you power it up. We'll get to that in a moment. The one thing I wasn't extremely impressed with upon first inspection was the light blue screening on the aluminum faceplate with the sunbeam logo, etc. It looks a bit too tacky for my liking. It's not enough to really sway a "like" or "no-like" decision, but I think sunbeam could improve this a bit . Maybe some darker colors for the text or something to give it alittle more aggressive styling.

Specs (taken from Sunbeam's site)

Run the fans at full speed when you are doing CPU intensive tasks, and then when your system is idle run the fans at a slower setting. The variable speed setting can be adjusted to whatever speed you prefer, making it perfect for reducing noise. So, instead of leaving all 4 fans on all the time, you can instead turn down two and run 2 at a higher speed, cutting down on the noise immensely.

Bi-Color Leds & 20 WATTS of power for the #2 Kit!

There's a few important features I want you all to notice when looking at the specs.

• 1) 20 watts of power! That's tons of juice people.
• 2) Bi-Color Leds, and not only that, they change color from red to blue at the 7v-12v settings.
• 3) You CAN turn off the leds when you're not using it! Not just all or none, but each individual spot can be turned off completely!
• 4) The LED's also adjust in brightness as you turn up/down the voltage settings. ( no more blinding light ,even when it's off )
• 5) It's available pre-assembled with a silver or black aluminum faceplate! ( if you've got a lian li, this is for you! )
• 6) Fan hookup consists of four 3-pin connections on the back ( good or bad?)
• 7) Power to the unit is supplied by a single 4-pin molex connector from the psu.

Rheobus Kit #2 (cont'd):

Front/Top Shot

Insulated Underside

Front/Top Shot

Blue/Red Led's

Blue Goodness

Black Faceplate Option

Upon removing the Rheobus Kit #2 from the box, there was nothing to assemble. It's a complete unit. You just slap it in a drive bay and plug in your power and fans. However...I'm the type that is used to using bare wire leads for my fans. I do that for more then one reason. Usually because I like to route my wires thruout the inner edges of my cases to hide them, and I need to make them longer. This unit comes with the 3-pin fan connections. I haven't used them myself in a long time. It's not a problem though, it's just one more step in my fan wire re-routing. Instead of just adding extra wire to the fans, then leaving the wire bare on the connection end, I'll just have to attach the 3-pin connection on the end for the rheobus. Though it will take a bit longer ( for me) to get them whole fan system the way I like it, it will save time down the line if I need to remove a fan for something. I won't have to break out the mini screwdriver and fiddle with those tiny screw terminals found on most rheobus'. So it's a "depends which way you look at it" feature. To me it's a wash. It really doesn't matter to me if they're 3-pin or screw terminals. I'm sure for alotta of you out there though, you'll be happy with the ease of just pluggin your fans into it ( if the fan wire reaches of course ..)

Just a minute after first inspection, I had this unit up and running with some Quad Blue/Red Led Fans from Coolerguys. I slapped a couple of them on real quick to check the bi-color led arrangement and also the variable brightness of the leds themselves. It worked perfectly. Look carefully at the pics above and you'll see a few different configurations. Now that it works, let's really light it up!

Bright Pic , under 7v	Dark, under 7v
Dark, at 12v	Dark, mixed voltage

As you can see, you can really lite up the room with all those led's around. :o) Again, the unit worked flawlessly controlling the voltages and the brightness of the led's. In case you're wondering, the unit is also absolutely silent. There is no whining or whistling as you'll get sometimes with voltage controlling units. It's usually inverters that whine, but I figured I'd fill ya in just in case you were curious.

If you're wondering why I used the led fans from Coolerguys , instead of some led fans from Sunbeam....we'll , I tried (see pic below).

No 3-pin'ers =(

Conclusion

Although it really seems to be geared for the Aluminum case owners out there, it really isn't. The aluminum faceplates you see included on the review units that are curculating are optional. You can get all the great features you see above and install it on your own faceplate from your case. That's very important to keep in mind.

I'd say Sunbeam hit a home run with this unit. It does everything you could want (and have wanted for quite some time) in a top quality Rheobus. This unit should be hitting the online retailers very,very soon and should retail around $40USD (est.). In my opinion, anywhere in the $40 price range is a good value for the features and quality you'll receive. If you're looking for a high quality rheobus with stunning good looks and the power to match, you can't go wrong with the Rheostat Kit #2 from SunbeamTech. You may also save a few bucks on the #1 kit if you can do without a feature or two. ( see spec chart above for differences)

I'd like to thank SunbeamTech for producing a great Rheobus and allowing myself to give you guys a closer look.

Pros

• 1) 20 watts of power! That's tons of juice people.
• 2) Bi-Color Leds, and not only that, they change color from red to blue at the 7v-12v settings.
• 3) You CAN turn off the leds when you're not using it! Not just all or none, but each individual spot can be turned off completely!
• 4) The LED's also adjust in brightness as you turn up/down the voltage settings. ( no more blinding light ,even when it's off )
• 5) It's available pre-assembled with a silver or black aluminum faceplate! ( if you've got a lian li, this is for you! )
• 6) Power to the unit is supplied by a single 4-pin molex connector from the psu.
• 7) Very High Quality PCB Design

• 1) Styling - The blue text on the silver aluminum faceplate looks a bit tacky.

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