Archives
Contact Us
Contests
Downloads
Forums
Guides
History
Links
Mailing List
News
Reviews

Antec
Cooler Master
Futuremark Corp
Geeks.com
Gigabyte
Kingwin
Mushkin
OCZ
Patriot Memory
Plextor
Raidmax
Sapphire Tech
Seagate
Sigma

 
     By now you can pretty much tell that the Matrix Orbital has everything going for it. As far as user configured settings the software that the 412 uses is called LCDC. LCDC uses plug-ins for functionality, and therefore allows the 412 to display just about anything you desire, so long as there is a plug-in available for it. The only real dilemma is that LCDC appears somewhat alpha although, on a more positive note, development never stops...

You'll have to register your Matrix Orbital in order to get your registration code for LCDC.

While installing LCDC, this is one of the first things you'll have to do after getting your registration code. You'll always be able to retrieve your code via email.

     And we're off! As you can see the matrix is a very nice looking product. For our application we used a lot of the functionality within the Motherboard Monitor plug-in to monitor our fans, voltages, and temperatures.

Conclusion

     Overall the Matrix Orbital MX412 is a good product, although it was extremely difficult to configure. After looking through the Matrix Orbital forums and a few emails, we found out that the Asus P4C800E we are using is the only board that has some issues with this particular device. We eventually found a happy medium by running some beta v1.2 USB drivers, and updating LCDC to the newest version. LCDC comes with a pretty good configuration from the start, but both the Matrix Orbital and LCDC come without written instructions which can make it difficult for those of you not familiar with browsing for the .pdf documents. There is no readily available instructions to give you the full functionality of the MX412 either, although I think this has to do with LCDC not being owned by Matrix, whom I'm sure could make it a bit more user friendly. After spending a few days with the MX412 it became apparent that this device is not for the person that likes to plug and play their stuff. For us, It required a lot of research through vast resources to get it to where we wanted it.

     Despite these long stories of direly needed user friendliness, the MX412 became a very welcome addition to our test bed, and at the latest LAN, was eyed by onlookers. The MX is not recommended for those that are not DIY'ers, but we'll recommend it for those out there that can appreciate the freedom and functionality a good project gives you.