Final Thoughts
When I first heard about the Lamptron SM436 I was quite excited to check it out, but after installing it and using it I do have some reservations. When it comes to a fan controller I think it does a really great job. It supports up to four PWM fans and those fans can be controlled using the controller. This display is great and allows you to see the speed of your fans as well as the temperatures of the four included temperature probes. So as a fan controller the SM436 is quite good.
Now as for being an RGB hub, again I think it does a pretty good job. Your have four 3-pin ARGB connections and four 4-pin standard RGB connections. This is great as typically our motherboard only has 1 or 2 headers total. This allows you to connect multiple RGB components, especially ones that cannot be daisy-chained. I like this idea, but I don’t understand why Lamptron offers two different versions of the SM436. We received the SYNC version, which can only be connected to your motherboard for RGB control. But the normal version includes a full RGB controller that allows you to change colors and effects. Why isn’t there just one version that allows you to either use their controller or connect to your motherboard. We’ve seen plenty of products that offer that type of functionality and ultimately give the user the choice of what type of RGB control they want.
Other things that bothered me about the SM436 is that it uses two different types of power connections (Molex & SATA), they do not provide any way to actually mount the controller, and the remote does not come with batteries. Another thing that I think should be mentioned on their website is that if you are using a standard mid tower case and a 2.5 slot or thicker card the display won’t fit. You need to use a 2-slot card or smaller. Finally the instructions are quite vague.
At the end of the day I do like the SM436, it gives users something to put below their graphics card and it looks pretty awesome, but I feel like it is a little lacking. Right now the SM436 is selling at our favorite online retailer for $78.99. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Lamptron SM436 Sync Edition Fan & RGB Controller a 7 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Gives you something to put below your graphics card
– Display looks awesome
– Supports 4 fan, 4 ARGB devices, and 4 RGB devices
– Great as a fan controller
Cons:
– Two different power connections (Molex & SATA)
– No way to mount the controller
– Batteries not included with the remote
– Won’t work with 2.5-slot or larger cards in mid-towers
