VIZO has sent us a number of products over the last year which consisted of mainly hard drive enclosures and laptop cooling devices. This time, they sent a product that allows old cases to feel like new again! This product adds all the same front panel connectors those new fangled cases have into a standard 5.25 inch bay.
“No need to go to the back… Do it in the Front!!”… says the front of the box. Oh dear! Aside from the slighly risque translation, the product does indeed allow you to do it in the…umm…front. The VIZO Master Panel II re-routes audio, USB, Firewire, and eSata ports into a front panel that sits in a standard 5.25 inch bay. It even contains a dual-channel fan controller and a Multicard Reader. Looks like hanging on to that old case for a bit longer might just be an option afterall.
What’s In The Box…
In order to re-route all the back panel connections to a front panel 5.25 inch bay, the VIZO Master Panel II includes a plethora of connectors to get the job done. The package includes:
- Power Adapter Cable
- Fan Cables
- USB Cable
- MIC Cable
- 1394 Cable
- Line in / out Cable
- SATA Cable
- RCA Cable
- Zip Ties and Screws
- 98 Driver CD for Card Reader
- User Manual
I found it a little odd that there were no cables to allow the use of standard motherboard or audio card front panel connectors to route the audio to the 5.25 inch bay. Also a little peculiar is the inlcusion of an AV connector that only supports composite video. Who uses composite video these days?
First Impressions
The Master Panel II seems well put together and it is nice to see the inclusion of the card reader. The reader supports the following formats:
- Compact Flash Type I/II, Micro Driver
- Memory Stick(Duo*), Memory Stick Pro(Duo*)
- Smart Media
- SD, mini SD*, Multi Media card, RS-MMC*, microSD*
The formats with the asterisk require an adapter to work with the reader. The reader also allows media to media read and write capabilities between the seperate slots. The only thing missing here is SDHC media support which could be an issue if you are already using these cards. Below the reader, you will also see the USB 2.0, Firewire and eSata connections.
To the right, you’ll see the two fan controller knobs and the mic/headphone, and line input ports. Also present is the somewhat useless (by today’s standards) composite video port.
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Installation and Setup
One of the things that tends to bring a product down is the quality of the documentation. Though I often overlook minor spelling and grammar mistakes (and there were plenty), in a lot of the product manuals that come with the gear that we get from overseas, this isn’t why the documentation included with the Master Panel II is poor.
The lack of pictures and the mistakes in the diagrams inside the manual made the installation process confusing. For example, the plugs were drawn in a way that didn’t resemble what was on the back of the actual product. Although I figured it out pretty quickly, I can see how a novice would get very frustrated, and possibly short something on their motherboard, plugging in things the wrong way. There was also no mention of how to plug-in the card reader. I would recommend that VIZO really work on the documention and dress it up with pictures so that there can be no confusion. A bad manual can make or break a product.
The manual asks you to install the bay into the enclosure and mount it with the included screws. This is actually not the best way to approach the install. Because the connectors cannnot be seen in the darkness of the enclosure, it is impossible to see where to plug them in. Plugging in all the connectors into the Master Panel II before mounting it is the best way to start off. Once that is done, you can route the other end of the connectors anywhere they need to go inside the case.
The Master Panel II does not make use of any internal audio headers. Instead, it uses standard 3.5 mm audio cables that get fed through a special PCI slot bracket. The cables feed through this and connect to their rear panel counterparts. Although it does do the job, it also created a huge mess of cables that dragged across the motherboard. I really disliked the way that this was accomplished and in my opinion, really drags the execution of the product down. The other thing that really didn’t make sense for me was the inclusion of a Composite Video connector. If it was HDMI, I’d be impressed, but who uses composite video anymore?
The two fan controllers were comparatively easy to install and performed well, allowing speed control of up to two seperate fans. The only downside is that no adapters were included to allow you to use the controller with standard four pin molex connectors which are common on a lot of older cases that the Master Panel II may be installed into.
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Final Thoughts
The VIZO Master Panel II is a product that can let you hang on to that dated computer case that you just don’t want to move out of. It gives you front panel eSata, USB, and audio connectors along with a fancy new card reader and even a couple of fan controllers. You’ll notice that I totally left out the front panel composite video connection as a benefit of the product. Unless composite video is making a huge comeback that I don’t know about, that’s hardly a feature worth purchasing.
Since this product will likely be purchased by a lot of users that will want to upgrade an old case to support the new features of a motherboard, it’s disappointing to see how poor the manual was for this product. I can overlook the occasional spelling and grammar mistake, but when a manual confuses rather than clarifies, it can really break an otherwise decent product. The other thing I found odd was the way that the front panel audio connectors are routed. Using 3.5 mm audio jacks to route the connectors to the back panel seems a bit “Mickey Mouse” in my opinion.
Overall, the Master Panel II is a great idea that lacks in execution. The poor clarity of the manual was disappointing. At around $40 bucks, it’s almost enough to pick yourself up a cool new case, minus the dust bunnies. But to its credit, it is easier to install this product than it is to completely rip it apart a system to install it into a new case. There’s nothing horribly wrong with the product, but it definitely has a ton of room for improvement. Hopefully VIZO will get back to the drawing board and make the Master Panel III a great product.
Pros
- Allows you to ressurrect that old case into the present
- You can “Do it in the front instead of the back”…
- Card reader does not support SDHC media cards
Cons
- Poor documentation caused fits of rage during installation
- Odd inclusion of composite video connection
- Goofy front panel audio connections
Overall Rating: 7.0 / 10.0
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