The NZXT Century 3 Fan Controller and Temperature Readers: A Comprehensive Review

The NZXT Century 3 is a follow-up to the popular Century 2, both of which are designed as five-and-a-quarter external drive bay accessories. These products install into external drive bays and can be used with various cases on the market, including those that do not have pre-installed mounts for them.

One of the primary features of the NZXT Century 3 is its ability to provide a readout of fan speeds. The device can display temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, making it easy to monitor the performance of your system's cooling components. Additionally, the Century 3 allows for the linking of fans together to control their speed, which can be beneficial when trying to achieve optimal airflow within your case.

For instance, let's say you have a setup that includes three fans: one large 200mm fan and two smaller 120mm fans. The 200mm fan is designed to run quietly but still provide adequate cooling, while the 120mm fans are significantly louder and produce more airflow. In this scenario, it would be beneficial to use the NZXT Century 3 to control the speed of each fan individually.

To do so, you can connect all three fans to different channels on the device, allowing you to adjust their speeds as needed. For example, you could set the 200mm fan to run at maximum speed while keeping the 120mm fans running at a lower speed. The NZXT Century 3 makes it easy to achieve this level of control over your system's cooling components.

One of the most innovative features of the NZXT Century 3 is its use of touch input to adjust fan speeds and temperatures. Simply touching the device's screen or adjusting the dial will change the settings for all connected fans, making it easy to fine-tune your system's performance.

However, there is a limitation to this feature: temperature probes can only measure external temperatures and not internal component temperatures. This means that you won't be able to get an accurate reading of your CPU or GPU temperatures using the NZXT Century 3's built-in temperature probe.

Fortunately, NZXT has announced its Cam software, which provides a more comprehensive solution for monitoring system temperatures. The Cam software displays information about both external and internal temperatures, allowing users to gain a better understanding of their system's cooling performance.

If you're looking for a way to monitor your system's fan speeds and temperatures without the need for an external temperature probe, the NZXT Century 3 is still a great option. However, if you want more detailed information about your system's internal components, you may want to consider other options.

In terms of the device itself, it works well and provides a sleek, sci-fi design that will fit in with most gaming setups. The touchscreen display is responsive and easy to use, while the control panel functions smoothly and looks great.

Overall, the NZXT Century 3 is a solid addition to any system that requires precise fan speed control and temperature monitoring. Its ease of use and intuitive interface make it an excellent choice for users who want to optimize their cooling performance without breaking the bank.

As with any device, there are some minor drawbacks to consider. For example, the NZXT Century 3 can be a bit finicky when it comes to viewing angles, which may require some adjustments to get the display working optimally.

Additionally, the device's cables can be a bit of an issue for users who prefer a clean and organized cable management system. However, this is easily mitigated by using modular cables or routing them neatly through the case.

In conclusion, the NZXT Century 3 is a high-quality fan controller and temperature reader that provides excellent performance and ease of use. Its innovative touch input feature makes it easy to adjust fan speeds and temperatures, while its sleek design fits in seamlessly with most gaming setups.

By considering the pros and cons outlined above, users can make an informed decision about whether or not the NZXT Century 3 is right for their specific needs. If you're looking for a reliable and user-friendly way to monitor your system's cooling performance, the NZXT Century 3 is definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus dotnet and today we're looking at NZXT century 3 fan controller and temperature readers so the century 3 is a follow-up to unsurprisingly the century 2 both of which are five and a quarter external drive bay accessories so they install into external drive bays you would not be able to use this on the h4 40 case for that reason but it will fit on basically any other case on the market the centry 3 is focused on giving a readout of your fan speed it can show five channels with fans and it can also link fans to one another for controlling them in terms of the speed finally it's got a temperature reader just one installed by default though there are options to install more and you can hook that temperature reader up to different parts of your case if you want the fan to be controlled by temperature and thresholds rather than manually by you just a use case example here we've got five fan channels on the centry three which means we can hook up five different fans or we can daisy chain fans two single channels so to give you an example let's say we have a case that's got a two hundred millimeter fan a 120 millimeter fan and two 140 millimeter fans so the problem here is if we're using stock fans just for sake of example the 120 and 140 millimeter fans are going to be significantly louder than the 200 plus millimeter fans and that's just a matter of size and speed of rotation so let's say that we want to keep the 200 millimeter fan at max speed because it's the quietest anyway so who cares but drop the speed of the 120 140 s we can actually hook all of those fans up to different channels and then we can even link the two 140 millimeter fans together in a single channel so when we drop the speed of them it will impact both fans simultaneously and decrease the RPM which decreases the noise levels in the case hopefully to match your slower quieter fans and this all of this so far is handled to touch input so you can actually link two channels together let's say you have front fans and rear fans on your case so you can link the front and rear channels together and then when you adjust the the dial there the dial is actually touch input when you adjust that to 100% or 40% or anything in between it'll change all fans in the front and rear configuration so that's kind of an example of how this device works it displays temperatures in Celsius and Fahrenheit unfortunately this is done using a temperature probe the problem with temperature probes is they can only read external temperatures generally of things like the heat sink you can't actually read anything useful like t-junction on the cpu obviously because that is handled at a semiconductor level on the die and you can't even read T case because it would need to be touching the inside of the integrated heat spreader to read T case so really what you're getting is a much cooler temperature than what is actually going on under the hood so to speak and that's because we're reading something after it's already been pushed through the IHS or even into the CPU cooler since the Sentry 3 has launched NZXT has announced and put out their cam software which is a temperature monitor control to the software level it shows T Junction it shows your GPU temperatures it shows your system specs it's pretty cool it even integrates with the new grid plus that I wrote about so if NZXT can figure out a way to link their future sentry perhaps the Sentry for 2 cam and use the T Junction CPU temperatures which is the actual temperature of the die not the temperature of the heat spreader which is kind of useless if they can integrate those and make it so that the Sentry acts on the cams readings I think they would have a seriously good product that I would actually want on a functional level not just an aesthetic level for my system that said the Sentry 3 is still very good it's it works pretty well the touchscreen is durable it responds to input very well it is a bit picky on the viewing angles the colors look good the control panel itself functions well and looks good it looks very sci-fi and works well on cases in that regard if you're looking for a cool way to soup your system after you've already built it this is something I would highly recommend unlike the Sentry 2 this one has very few fan cables and they're all modular so you can unplug any cables or channel cables that you're not using and that just means less clutter in your case so good news all around that's what we think about the Sentry 3 I worked with Michael Mann on this he wrote the full review hit that link in the description below if you'd like to review and some photos and I will see you all next time peacehey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus dotnet and today we're looking at NZXT century 3 fan controller and temperature readers so the century 3 is a follow-up to unsurprisingly the century 2 both of which are five and a quarter external drive bay accessories so they install into external drive bays you would not be able to use this on the h4 40 case for that reason but it will fit on basically any other case on the market the centry 3 is focused on giving a readout of your fan speed it can show five channels with fans and it can also link fans to one another for controlling them in terms of the speed finally it's got a temperature reader just one installed by default though there are options to install more and you can hook that temperature reader up to different parts of your case if you want the fan to be controlled by temperature and thresholds rather than manually by you just a use case example here we've got five fan channels on the centry three which means we can hook up five different fans or we can daisy chain fans two single channels so to give you an example let's say we have a case that's got a two hundred millimeter fan a 120 millimeter fan and two 140 millimeter fans so the problem here is if we're using stock fans just for sake of example the 120 and 140 millimeter fans are going to be significantly louder than the 200 plus millimeter fans and that's just a matter of size and speed of rotation so let's say that we want to keep the 200 millimeter fan at max speed because it's the quietest anyway so who cares but drop the speed of the 120 140 s we can actually hook all of those fans up to different channels and then we can even link the two 140 millimeter fans together in a single channel so when we drop the speed of them it will impact both fans simultaneously and decrease the RPM which decreases the noise levels in the case hopefully to match your slower quieter fans and this all of this so far is handled to touch input so you can actually link two channels together let's say you have front fans and rear fans on your case so you can link the front and rear channels together and then when you adjust the the dial there the dial is actually touch input when you adjust that to 100% or 40% or anything in between it'll change all fans in the front and rear configuration so that's kind of an example of how this device works it displays temperatures in Celsius and Fahrenheit unfortunately this is done using a temperature probe the problem with temperature probes is they can only read external temperatures generally of things like the heat sink you can't actually read anything useful like t-junction on the cpu obviously because that is handled at a semiconductor level on the die and you can't even read T case because it would need to be touching the inside of the integrated heat spreader to read T case so really what you're getting is a much cooler temperature than what is actually going on under the hood so to speak and that's because we're reading something after it's already been pushed through the IHS or even into the CPU cooler since the Sentry 3 has launched NZXT has announced and put out their cam software which is a temperature monitor control to the software level it shows T Junction it shows your GPU temperatures it shows your system specs it's pretty cool it even integrates with the new grid plus that I wrote about so if NZXT can figure out a way to link their future sentry perhaps the Sentry for 2 cam and use the T Junction CPU temperatures which is the actual temperature of the die not the temperature of the heat spreader which is kind of useless if they can integrate those and make it so that the Sentry acts on the cams readings I think they would have a seriously good product that I would actually want on a functional level not just an aesthetic level for my system that said the Sentry 3 is still very good it's it works pretty well the touchscreen is durable it responds to input very well it is a bit picky on the viewing angles the colors look good the control panel itself functions well and looks good it looks very sci-fi and works well on cases in that regard if you're looking for a cool way to soup your system after you've already built it this is something I would highly recommend unlike the Sentry 2 this one has very few fan cables and they're all modular so you can unplug any cables or channel cables that you're not using and that just means less clutter in your case so good news all around that's what we think about the Sentry 3 I worked with Michael Mann on this he wrote the full review hit that link in the description below if you'd like to review and some photos and I will see you all next time peace\n"