Ikonik RA X10 SIM

Making Cooling SIMple

We’ve already touched on Ikonik’s SIM, but felt that the system deserved some more coverage as it’s so impressive. The RA X10’s our groups of fans come pre-connected into the SIM unit, although there are two additional 3-pin headers for additional fans or watercooling pumps, with the unit itself connecting to your PC via either a spare USB header on your motherboard or via any spare external USB port using the included adapter.

Ikonik includes six lengthy temperature sensors with the case, and they’re all easy enough to fit and secret throughout the case thanks to the room design, although the mess of wires coming out of the back of the SIM box will quickly become a problem to keep tidy – just as well it’s hidden well out of view behind the 5.25” drive bays.

Once everything is set up it’s simply a matter of booting your PC and installing the software, with the fans running at full speed in the meanwhile to prevent any cooling issues. While this sort of system is similar to more complicated fan controllers like the MCubed T-Balancer, Ikonik’s software is much easier to use and is laid out in a straight forward way which clearly shows each set of fans current RPM and the individual temperatures from the six available temperature sensors.


Each group of fans can then be independently configured, with six separate cooling profiles available. As well as Full Speed and Fanless (12v and 0v respectively) there are also two profiles each for Silent and 0dBA start. The silent profiles keep the fans spinning at 7v, with the controller increasing fan speed as the temperature from the selected sensor increases, with options for the increase in fan speed to start at both 40°C and 60°C. The 0dBA start profiles are similar, but leave the fans off by default, starting the fans as the recorded temperature increases.

It’s a seriously impressive set of automated fan controls, even allowing you to switch the case fan LEDs on and off at whim and all from within the operating system. However, it’s not perfect and we’d have loved the ability to manually set individual fan group RPMs or design our own cooling curves as you can do with the T-Balancer.

Nevertheless, it’s still an unprecedented level of control and the simplicity of the SIM software only improves the situation, making it easy to setup your cases cooling as you see fit. Linking the front fans to the temperature sensor on top of your HDD, switching off the side panel 80mm batteries and switching the rear exhausts to spin up only when the case temperature gets too hot is a doddle, and it’s a fantastic and innovative inclusion that we'd love to see more of in the future, not just from Ikonik but from other manufacturers.