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Variable Voltage 6-Port Baybus
If you are anything like me, then you probably have tons of fannage in your case to keeps things nice and cool. There are also probably times that you would like to turn some or all of them to a lower speed or turn them off completely. This is where Xoxide's 6 Port Variable Voltage Baybus comes in really handy. It has 6 independant ports that allow you to control your fan speed, and each channel can be switched from high (12 volts), to off, or to low (variable from 6.5 to 9.5 volts)!
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The box that this baybus comes in is surprisingly small, and contains the baybus circuit board, wiring harness, clear acrylic front bezel, and an instruction manual. Although the intended installation is to drill holes in a 5 1/4 bay cover plate, and have the clear acrylic bezel in front of it, I thought it would look cool to do something a bit different and mod it to where you could see right through the clear bezel.
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This is the front and rear of the baybus circuit board. On the front, there are six 3 position chrome switches, and six 2-color LED's (Red/Green), as well as 6 yellow mini rheostats that are adjustable by a phillips screwdriver. On the rear, you can see the power input (4-pin molex) and a power block for 6 fans. The power block is clearly labled posative and negative for each channel.
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A few close-ups of the rear to show better detail.
The clear front bezel has 2 stick tabs to mount it to a 5 1/4 bay cover. Be careful, once you remove the protective plastic and stick this on something, it's nearly impossible to get it off. The stick tabs work incredibly well, so be careful when mounting the bezel!
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As I mentioned previously, instead of drilling 12 holes into a 5 1/4 drive bay cover, I decided that it would look cool to mount the baybus so you could see through the clear acrylic. I also opted to not use the included black LED sleeves that are included in this kit. By leaving the sleeves off, the clear acrylic glows from LED light and looks flashy. To acheive this, I simply cuy the ends off of a drive bay cover (about 3/4" wide) and mounted them to the acrylic so it would mount just like a drive bay cover.
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I was surprised how nice it actually looked once it was mounted, and it was a perfect fit on the first try! Now, I just need to clean that mess of switches up below the baybus, and this rig will be complete...
0000Here a few close-ups. I think it turned out nice, and was an easy installation. If you do the installation by the instruction manual, you will need a drill to drill out the holes in your bay cover but the only thing I used was a dremel tool with a cutting disc to trim off the bay cover ends for mounting.
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Since I had my dremel out, I decided to go ahead an mount my CCFL switch and Volcano 7+ switch to my last remaining bay cover to finish this rig. I had been putting this off for a while, but the baybus mod motivated me to finish it up!
Conclusion:
This is a very well designed product and even though it might look a little intimidating to assemble, it ended up being quite easy and took less than 1 hour to finish. If you need some control over your fans, Xoxide's Variable Voltage 6-Port Baybus provides a great solution! Most baybus units don't offer nearly as much control as this one does. PC fans have a start-up voltage which varies from fan to fan, so being able to adjust the voltage on the "low" setting gives this baybus a huge advantage over others on the market.
Try as I might, I just could not find anything negative about this unit so I am giving it the highest rating possible - 5 X's!
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