One of my questions is: why Sunbeam decided to have the Theta fit into a PCI slot only as opposed to a PCI-E x1 design, or better yet, since the card doesn’t communicate through the PCI interface, a hybrid design that would allow it to be mounted into either slot?
Installation is pretty straight forward, pop the Theta into an empty slot, connect the USB, connect the fans and thermal sensors, power up, install the software, and your ready to go. I would recommend that when installing, if the case screw holes don’t align with the slot on the card, save your self the trouble and don’t put a screw in. It seems that the board is just a tad shorter than what it’s supposed to be, making uninstallation difficult.
Testing / Operation:
I tested the Theta using two 80mm fans with four blue LEDs each. Once you get the software loaded, you can modify your fan speed and settings and program the unit to your liking. You can manually set the fans to a speed, or you can set the timer feature to automatically reduce or increase the fan speed, or set it to be temperature controlled. There are four skins to choose from and you can also make your own if you’re feeling creative.
The Theta program at times feels a little flaky and unresponsive. It requires slower mouse movements and some slower and firmer clicking. In order to keep the changes made to fan speed and settings, the Theta program has to remain running, although it minimizes nicely into the system tray and doesn’t use a lot of resources you may not want to use it if you have less than 512mb of memory.
The Theta’s temperature monitors gave fairly accurate readings, I’m not going to push to much on temperature readings because I have no real “truly accurate” way to test. But using a house hold wall thermometer reading 76-80 degree Fahrenheit (24-26 degrees Celsius) the Theta registered a 78 degree Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius).
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