Software Control and Lighting

Now comes the time where you dig out the controller and at least the power + data cables if you only have one triple pack. Connect the individual fans in order going 1-2-3, and then use the dip switches on the bottom accordingly depending on how many fans/controllers are connected. Next, and this is especially if you are like me and have not used a full size MOLEX connector in a while, dig out a spare MOLEX PSU cable and connect to the power cable that is inserted into one side of the controller. Lastly, and here too Tt does a confusing job, use any one of the micro USB connectors on the 9-pin internal USB 2.0 to dual micro USB cable on the controller itself. If all has worked well, you should see the fans spin up and the LEDs turn on irrespective of whether any software program is installed. Then do all your cable management, including fitting the controller in a more permanent spot inside your PC tower.


Now download Tt RGB Plus 2.0 from this page and install it on the system. This is a must given the near-proprietary connections on the SWAFAN 12 RGB, and is the only sensible way to control the fan speed and change the lighting effects too. The latest version at the time of testing was v2.0.8, and it takes up ~210 MB after installation. I must say that this program needs some work in a few different ways though given it forced a system restart after installation without asking for one first, taking up CPU and RAM resources inconsistently even in the background, and just not having a well-laid out user interface that Tt says is being worked upon for improvement. When first launched with the controller all wired up, you will see a thumbnail of this so-called 4th generation controller show up on the home page. The number of fans set via the dip switches end up ignored here and you have to manually drag over the thumbnail of the exact fan to each occupied from a list at the bottom that pops up when selecting each channel on the controller. Be sure to save at this point lest you repeat it all over.

There's a lot of bloat here that I simply could not care about, and seeing my IP address in the settings->about menu wasn't nice either. The program takes liberties in reading information from the system I never approved either, including being a mediocre version of HWInfo that i never asked for. If you do care about hardware monitoring here, then perhaps you will also appreciate that Tt RGB Plus syncs with most motherboard LED control programs too. But even simple things such as changing the fan speed is behind two tabs/menus and even here there is no user-defined fan curve to be set. Instead, you can go from performance mode, silent mode, or a specific PWM duty cycle in increments of 10% from 0-100. No custome fan curves to set here yet, but again the company says it is being worked upon for a future update. The Lighting tab would be self-explanatory but here too I was occasionally frustrated with some lighting effects simply not taking effect. You also have to keep selecting all the LEDs to match things up here, and the virtual effects being shown on the screen is a nice touch. Otherwise you do not get per-LED control and rather it is a on a per-ring basis for each fan. We see a good number of pre-programmed lighting effects and full 16.8 M RGB colors on offer though! Overall I am not really happy with this software experience and it is made worse by knowing you need to use it with these fans. Oh, and this is before I even bring up the chugging experience with some of the on-screen lighting effects being animated.


Here is a look at the three Thermaltake SWAFAN 12 RGB fans powered on and lit up. I have the replacement fan blade installed on the middle fan to give you a better idea of how both configurations would look. There are 30 LEDs per fan split into 12/6/12 for the three LED rings here (front, center, back) and admittedly this is where Tt's experience with its Riing fans shines through in more ways than one. The colors are authentic and even manage to impress by churning out a natural looking white. They are also bright while still being uniformly lit through the diffuser rings as opposed to just seeing discrete LEDs. The lighting effects are also impressive in execution, so those wanting a light show will be happy. Just remember that you are limited to a max of three fans per controller and up to two controllers per system.