Silverstone FP52: Conclusion

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SilverStone FP52

Conclusion
September 11, 2006

FP52 Introduction • A Closer Look • FP52 Conclusion

Pros

Aluminum housing
High-quality design
Generous cable length for the thermistors and fans
Beautiful sapphire neon LCD display
Simple and elegant look--not busy with buttons for a more clean look on the latest tech cases
All wires are professionally put together
Thermistors are of very good quality

Cons

None observed

Suggestions

More thermistors and more HDD and CPU fan wires
Manual control override of fans in specific situations

The picture shown above is the FP52 installed in a Lian Li PC-V2100B Plus II black aluminum case--mine actually. You can even see a small glimpse of a Pioneer DVR-111D. But more importantly, the FP52 fits like it was right at home with my Lian Li case. It absolutely looks gorgeous in the dark. Possibly even sexy. The way the FP52's beveled shape slightly sticks out is really a nice touch and adds dimension to the front. Having everything perfectly aligned and straight is nice but having something like this protrude from the rest of the components installed, gives a serious impression this computer means business!

A suggestion I did have is adding more thermistors (three more) and more HDD and CPU fan wires. I'd say add one more CPU wire for those guys who do the 2CPU thing--like me because I'm currently running a single Xeon 3.6GHz 2MB Cache (Irwindale) processor overclocked to 4.07GHz. Adding another Xeon 3.6GHz is going to happen soon. As far as HDD wires, I'd add three more for good measure. Hard drives are cheap. Most of us have at least two. Many of us have three, and a somewhat large minority of us have four or more drives. Reason? MP3's and Videos. I would certainly pay a little more for a FP52 Extreme version. The FP52 sells for about $40 online which is reasonable considering the design and operations it takes control of.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED PLUS

I didn't find any cons while using the FP52. Maybe adding manual overrides of fan controls would be nice. I still would like to have control over my fans in the event I know what's going on and the little microchip inside my nifty case does not. Minor peeve. The LCD itself appears to be of high quality and is viewable from more angles than just head-on. The aluminum case itself is "hearty" to the touch and feel. A sign of fine craftsmanship.

Overall, another great product from SilverStone and they did an absolutely wonderful job on the front design of the FP52. It goes very well with my Lian Li case and as I've stated in previous reviews, SilverStone designes many of their products to fit perfectly with Lian Li cases.