Report: ASUS iPanel (2/2)

The inside

The iPanel's casing is of high quality and makes a very solid impression. On the inside all you will find is a small PCB carrying an IC responsible for controlling the display. That's all that's needed, since the information is sent directly from the mainboard itself. Good: Instead of using flimsy plastic for the front of the panel, ASUS chose metal instead. Bad: The iPanel is slightly narrower than most other front panels. A CDROM fronts or a plastic tower panels, for example, are usually wider. This disturbs the general look of the tower front. (...there are some people that care about these things, okay? :-)).

The plugs on the CUSL2

Something I really found annoying was the fact that the iPanel does not "remember" the last setting used. Every time you power down or reboot your system, the display reverts to the POST codes. If you want to keep an eye on the CPU temperature (because you want to see how far you can overclock it without toasting it), you'll be forced to press the MODE button seven times to get to it after every reboot. That can be a real pain. Also: Those of you with oversize towers beware! The cables are a bit on the short side, limiting their usefulness in very big cases.

At a price of around DM 60.- or roughly $ 25 for an iPanel Pure, the control freaks among you will get a useful hardware monitoring tool that gives you some front mounted connectors and ports as well. Still, ASUS has some fine-tuning to do where usability (hotkeys, storing of last display mode) and installation (short cable) is concerned.

Rating: No rating

Price: iPanel Pure ca. DM 60,-. No information available yet on the Deluxe version.

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Lars "Borsti"Weinand, 25.10.2000

Translation by Benjamin Kraft

Copyright: 26.10.2000 -   RIVA Station 2000 - Lars Weinand
No Copy without Permission!

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