CrystalFontz- Continued:

The other big change in the CF633 is the addition of a header on the PCB that allows users to set the CF up where some of its buttons act as Power and Reset controls for the PC.

Documentation and Installation

Crystalfontz hasn't updated the technical documents for the CF633 to cover the CF633-USB's layout and new features.  This is on their "to do" list though and in the mean time the serial CF633 technical documents are available. The service file does come with a readme.txt that documents how to configure the service. I had never really thought about the lack of installation guides and software support when using my CF lcds in the past, but it really stands out in comparison with the quality and quantity of the documentation from Matrix Orbital.

Software and Ease of Use

Of more interest is the temperature tab, where you can set up your DOW probes to have names that describe where they are placed.  You can also set alarm temperatures in this tab.

Once you have the temperature probes installed and named, the next step is to set up fan PWM.  This is done in the fans tab by setting high and low values for the temp and PWM. 

In its current form this is a useful feature for people making custom cases and mp3 players for the car, but I think it would be much more useful to use one of the temperature probe's alarms to shutdown the PC in event of cooling failure.  I am sure this is possible with the CF633 but it doesn't seem to be implemented currently.

Conclusions

After playing with these LCDs for about a week and a half, I feel like I have given them both a pretty rigorous testing. On the surface they seem pretty similar as they both have DOW temperature probes, fan control, blue LCDs, buttons on the front for controls, and USB interface. But in fact they turn out to be very different products. 

The strengths of the Matrix Orbital MX 212 are its large LCD, excellent software package, documentation, and plug ins.  The overall package is very polished and anyone can set it up quickly.  The LCD is quite a bit larger than the CF 633, and the buttons actually work and can be mapped to a variety of functions. The MX 212 also features the general purpose outputs that I am sure can come in handy with a bit of thinking.   Matrix Orbital also has many LCD colors and brackets to choose from. When you take all these strengths into account, it seems clear that the MX 212 was targeted to the case modding crowd more than the Crystalfontz 633 is.  

The weakness of the MX 212 lies in its fan control.  Out of the box it doesn't spin fans up while the PC is booting (though you can fix that pretty easily), and its PWM performance isn't all that great. I have a feeling that the fan control and temperature functions were somewhat of an afterthought to this unit.  That isn't to say they are awful; just that they lack the polish of the rest of the package and seem still a bit rough around the edges.  I would hope that the PWM issues can be addressed in firmware/software updates.

Interestingly, the strengths and weaknesses of the MX 212 are somewhat reversed on the CF 633. The Crystalfontz unit excels at temperature-based fan control, and the PWM settings work smoothly and as one would expect.  The fans are run at full speed any time the NT service isn't running so there is no danger to your system.  The fans ramp up smoothly and quietly when PWM% changes.  The new Power/reset controls are a nice touch and could be useful for the DIY case crowd.  The NT service of the CF 633 is functional and useful, and I really like having the temperature probes available in MBM for logging, posting into IRC, and using to shut down the system in case a fan fails or something overheats.

Where the CF 633 pales in comparison to the MX 212 is in documentation for new users and in the software for changing screens on the LCD.  Crystalfontz uses their own CrystalControl software for this. You can make the CF LCD display a lot of the screen information that LCDC does, but you have to manually set everything up yourself. LCDC is a lot nicer because of all the plugins and sample screens that come installed with it. I don't really want to have to spend all day making screens for my LCD, and with LCDC I didn't have to.  I am not trying to say that CrystalControl is a bad program, but it just doesn't seem as mature as LCDC.  The service too seems a bit rough around the edges still. I had to manually edit the .ini some times because I couldn't get the save settings in the service monitor to work.  Adding an over temperature shutdown with the power line seems obvious but it isn't implemented.  The buttons still haven't been mapped to anything useful (except the power and reset functions). Overall it just points to immature software. Having said that, MWP at www.overclockers.com.au has come a LONG way with both the service and the CrystalControl software since I first started testing it.  The fan PWM and DOW temperature readings and MBM interface all work perfectly in the service. 

I can recommend both of these LCDs to our readers depending upon your needs. If you want something to impress your friends, finish off a case mod, and add some extra temperature sensors and fan headers to your system, then the MX 212 is for you. The larger LCD and LCDC software just can't be beaten for the case modder. Just set the PWM to the desired level and you should lose most of the annoyances of the temperature-based PWM.

If you are buying one of these for automated fan control though and not for bling bling, I would definitely recommend the CF 633-USB.  The NT service does a great job of controlling fans and is simpler and more intuitive to set up than the LCDC digital baybus features. In either case, you are going to get an extremely high quality unit that I think you'll be pleased with. Both manufacturers have active forums to deal with tech support, plugins, and customer service issues.

Thanks again to Henry at www.matrixorbital.com and Brian and Brent at www.crystalfontz.com for sending these LCDs my way for review.

If you have any comments or Questions please contact pHaestus@ProCooling.com