We've all seen those crazy case mod jobs around the Internet, or even more tame-looking computers, equipped with small, text-only displays (or in some cases, graphical) that display the text of your choice, controlled by the computer. It could be vital system info, like the temperatures or voltages, or not-so-vital information, like the currently playing song in Winamp. However, many of these devices have required custom wiring jobs, or were not pre-fitted for a 5.25" bay, forcing the user to make a mod project out of it.
Not anymore-- SilverStone brings us today the SST-FP54 VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display). It's an attractive device that fits in any available 5.25" bay, and displays 32 characters of text (2 lines, 16 characters each). That may not sound like a lot, but you'd be surprised what you can fit into that small amount of space-- Winamp info, network stats, and system info like memory/CPU utilization, just to name a few.
To cut to the chase, let's take a real quick look at the box:
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This box shows the SST-FP54. It's a well designed, easy to open blue and black box. Not too much else to say, aside from the fact that the box shot is a little misleading, and they all show a silver panel, regardless of whether or not the panel is silver or black. However, the color can be denoted by the "Color" section towards the bottom left.
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Here is an overall shot of the unit outside of the box. It's black, and the screen is a dark red color, as shown.
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The unit is a full-depth unit, so it will be fully compliant with all tool-less drive systems found in newer cases.
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The back has a single, 14-pin, propreitary connector, used for the proprietary included cable for the FP54.
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The cable has a small arrow (look closely on the left of the connector) so that you know which end is where-- the arrow is supposed to be towards the #1.
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The FP54 uses a parallel port to connect to your computer, and a 4-pin Molex to power the LCD display. A PCI passthrough plate is included for the parallel cable.
Now, let's move on to the next page as we not only install this unit, but download the correct software and see what we can do with this nifty piece of equipment.
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