I picked this up because I thought maybe it would add some life to my Xbox by keeping it cooler. Heat is what end the life of electronics prematurely, so if I can get it to run cooler and that buys me a couple extra years, great. The problem is, I have no idea if this device actually does anything. There's no real way to gauge the temperature of the console components (or at least not a way I know of). So using this is kind of just having faith that it's doing something. I guess that's fine but I would like to know more personally.
I am disappointed that I can't turn off the fan light. The outside lights can be turned off using the included generic controller that's common for mass-produced generic LED strips (which again, is fine) as well as adjusted for brightness and colors (neat), but why can't the fan continue to operate with NO lights at all?
Why is the USB power cable silver instead of black? It sticks out like a sore thumb. Wouldn't it have made sense to make it the same color as the console for at least a little bit of camouflage?
I guess if you want a nice aesthetic top piece for your console that has pretty configurable lights, this is awesome. It certainly looks cool when you want the lights on.
I see some people reviewing this raving about how quiet the fan is. That's because it doesn't spin very fast. It's not moving a whole lot of air. So again, is it actually DOING anything in terms of removing additional heat from the box or is its primary function for aesthetics? I'm personally more interested in heat removal than the aesthetics.
I think 4 stars is generous, but I can see some people might want this for different reasons than me (aesthetics) so they didn't completely miss the mark with this device. I just don't trust that it removes a significant amount of heat. However again, to be fair I can't be certain it doesn't. Maybe it removes a ton of heat so I'm only knocking the one star for the limitations of not being able to turn off the fan light and the wire being silver instead of black. Will this cool down your Xbox more than the stock fan alone? No idea. But ignorance is bliss for some people so maybe the answer to that question isn't important to you. If not, this thing is pretty and has all kinds of lighting options so if that's more important to you, this will likely please you. It does look good.
