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Installation
Adding the three fan extension cables and four thermal probes (and hiding them!) in an existing setup is not easy at all. The main issue I ran into was the confusion that results from unplugging the Aerogate's 40mm fan and hooking up my own CPU fan - I mixed up the connectors with the proper headers.
Other than that, the installation was fairly simple - just plug in all the connectors, fit the Aerogate II into an empty 5.25" drive bay and screw it in place. Here's a picture of it installed in my case.
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Side shot
When the Aerogate II is first powered on, it cycles through all the component readings once, and the LED ring continuously cycles through all 7 colours. Pressing the "Color" button stops the cycle at the current colour.
One issue that came up was the fact that Aerogate II did not retain my fan speed and LED ring colour settings when I shut down the PC and booted it up again later. However, I found a quick and easy solution on the Cooler Master website - the unit can simply be reset to the factory settings by pressing the "CPU" and "Color" buttons. All settings thereafter will be retained.
Test Bed
| Processor | Intel Pentium 4 2.4B @ 3.15GHz |
| CPU Cooler | • Thermalright XP-90 • Sunon 92mm (2400rpm/45cfm/33dBA @ 12V) |
| Motherboard | ASUS P4P800S-SE |
| Chipset Driver | Intel Chipset Driver 7.2.1.1003 |
| Memory | Two 512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200 |
| Hard Drives | Two Seagate Barracuda IDE hard disk |
| Graphics Card | Radeon 9700 Pro @ 390/330 |
| Graphics Card Cooler | Zalman VF700 AlCu |
| Optical Drives | • LITE-ON 52x32x52 CD-RW
drive • Samsung 52X CD-ROM |
| Case Fans | • Intake • Exhaust |
| Thermal Controller | Cooler Master Aerogate II Thermal Controller |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Casing | All-in-One Noisetaker Generic mid-tower case |
| Power Supply | Enermax 535W PSU |
Testing
Since the Aerogate can only take 4 fans without the use of a splitter, I opted to connect my graphics card cooler's fan to a motherboard header and leave it at full speed. I installed the four case intake and exhaust fans to the Aerogate II, one of which was at the expense of the Aerogate II's 40mm fan.
My 120mm intake fan is terribly noisy at full speed, so we will see how well the Aerogate II tames it.
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Installed
A few turns of the knob later and Aerogate II slowed down by 25% to 1800 rpm.
Ahh, much better. I can actually hear myself think now. 
You can also see the reading from the corresponding thermal probe in the picture
above. Bear in mind that the low temperature recorded is due to the fact that
it's winter here in Australia!
Several people have criticised the Aerogate II's inability to shut off the fan completely. I honestly do not see the need for this. The fans can be slowed down all the way to about 1000 rpm, at which point virtually all fan noise would be eliminated. Unless, of course, you have one with a poor quality motor or bad bearings.
Frankly, the lack of fan noise at 1000 rpm makes me extremely uncomfortable.
Maybe the sound of a fan spinning assures me that the fans in my case are really
running!
The viewing angles for the Aerogate II's LCD display panel are acceptable at around 40º horizontally and 45º vertically (conservative estimates). Users who put their case on the floor should not have any problem reading the display, unless they are sitting very high up or the Aerogate II is placed in one of the lower drive bays.
