We have all seen transfer panels before, devices designed to make the audio and USB connectors found on the back of computers more accessible by bringing them to the computers front panel. The one I am about to look at from Maplin Electronics stands out from the crowd for two reasons. One, it has a built in digital temperature monitor and two, its incredibly low price.
This is how it looks before you open the box.
Opening the box reveals a surprising amount of hardware. The transfer panel, Molex power splitter, 3 temperature probes, a 3 into 1 stereo audio cable, a 2 into 1 USB cable, IEEE 1394 cable, (FireWire), a punched PCI blanking plate to pass the cables through, a bag of mounting screws, cable ties and sticky pads for the temperature probes and an instruction leaflet. A very comprehensive and complete kit of parts, and remember this lot only cost £14.99! The cables should be sufficient in length for all but the largest of towers, with the temperature probes being 600 mm and the other cables 800 mm.
The unit itself is made from a plastic front with metal mounting rails. As can be seen from the picture below, the unit accommodates 2 x USB, 3 x audio and 1 x 1394 sockets. The audio sockets are standard colour coded. The temperature monitor is a 2 digit red led affair with a small slide switch to select which of the 3 temperature probes you want to monitor. The switch positions are labelled CPU, HDD and SYSTEM but there is nothing to prevent the probes being used elsewhere such as on the video chip set or memory etc.
There are two circuit boards mounted behind the front facia. The temperature monitor board and connection/mounting board for the panel sockets.
The three temperature probes connect to the monitor board via a common multipole connector but each probes cable is colour coded for easy identification. The probes are of the flat variety and are thin enough to be used directly on the CPU body, (Not the slug itself obviously).
The front panel sockets are directly connected to cable connectors with no intervening electronics. This allows for using the sockets for signals other than those designated, should you so wish, including USB 2.0.
Applying power to the transfer panel brings the temperature display to life. Selecting which probe to monitor is just a matter of setting a slide switch. As well as the temperature reading there are also LEDs to indicate which of the probes is actually being monitored. The measured accuracy of the monitor was within 0.5°C.