3rd Party Front Panel Display

[DrSlinky]

I was hoping somebody here might be able to give me an idea or two about what's good and what's crap in the range of front panel connector/display/control units.

Originally, my PC had an Asus mobo, so I went with their front panel unit. I was very happy with it. Post codes, temperatures, voltages, fan speed, hardware frequencies, etc. Two USB ports, a serial, the standard 3 audio jacks, and 2 user defined buttons. The best part was that it was incredibly easy to install, as the main cable was one piece that connected directly to the mobo.

At work, thanks to employee training incentives, I picked up a fantastic deal on a new processor. A P4 3.0, with mobo and copy of WinXP Pro, all for $199. The mobo is an intel P865GBF I believe. Naturally, after the upgrade, I realize that the asus unit will only work with an asus mobo.

I'm strapped for cash these days, as most of us seem to be, and upgrading the mobo just to use the front panel unit seems excessive and non-plausible. Does anybody have any recommendations as far as the front panel units go? The only real specification i need is that it will be compatible with an intel mobo.

Thanks in advance,

DrSlinky

[Iron Hawk]

Im not sure if there is anything that will work directly with your mobo. Crystalfontz (http://www.crystalfontz.com) makes some stunning LCD pannels that can be programmed to do just about whatever you want. The drawbacks is that it will only work once you are in windows and is not cheap. There are other fan controllers that have temperature and fan rpm readouts, those usualy run anywhere from $30-65.
Perhaps you could upgrade your mobo to an ASUS and sell your older motherboards to a friend or on ebay or something.

I wish you luck. let us know what you finaly decide to do.

[Deathknight]

Yeah I really love my LCD display as well, although you won't have all those connectors. I prefer the Matrix Orbital displays(although they have some newer models that have alot of the features of the matrix orbitals now) over the Crystal Fontz, although you really can't go wrong with eirther for sheer cool factor.

www.matrixorbital.com

Here is where some are on sale, I haven't shopped for one in a while so not sure who has the best prices on em:

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=HSPC&Category_Code=MatrixLCD

[Borisw37]

I have the CrystalFontz display. VERY happy with it. you can connect 32 temperature sensors (sold separately :( )
Deathknight- why do you prefer Matrix Orbital?