Introduction

Matrix Orbital is a Canadian company whom specializes in the manufacturing of LCD and VFD screen products for PCs and other electronic devices. Many PC enthusiants and case modders are familiar with Matrix Orbital's lineup of LCD solutions. These screens, much like the MX424 model we are looking at today are available in an assortment of colors. These screens are also designed to be mounted into one or two 5 1/4" drive bays. The MX424 requires two free drive bays.

Now lets take a look at what the MX424 model can do...

Closer Look

Specifications

• Appearance
  20 characters x 4 lines
  Module size: 98.0mm(L) x 60.0mm(W) x 24.4mm(T)
  Display size: 76.3mm(L) x 25.0mm(W)
  Character size: 2.95 x 4.75mm
  Silver Aluminum Overlay
• Interfaces
  Interface with up to 24-key keypad
  Use 6 General Purpose Outputs
  Communicate over USB
• Functional Capabilities
  Variable brightness backlight
  Software and manual on CDROM
  Memory chip saves settings
  Available in a PC drive bay insert.
• Speed
  USB mode : 19.2 Kbps using VCP or direct USB 1.0 or 2.0 communication
  Fully buffered - no delays in transmission

The Matrix Orbital MX4 series comes in a variety of drive bay insert colors. Colors such as: silver aluminum (pictured above), white, black and black aluminum. The silver and black aluminum inserts blend right into brushed aluminum cases, looking so good it seems as if it is part of the case. The aluminum finish is top notch and sturdy. The display is a 20 character x 4 lines LCD and is approximately 76mm x 25.0mm.

The picture above shows the small compact LCD screen and its components. The 6 white male connectors on the left side of the LCD are for temperature probes. The four 3pin male connectors are for fan monitoring. The silver box on the right of the green PCB is the USB connector. It can be connected to the motherboard via USB cable or an internal USB header. On both sides of the bay inserts are 4 holes which are used to mount the MX424 on the drive bay.

The GPO (General Purpose Output) can be hooked up to the GPO LEDs like the ones above which are available separately from Matrix Orbital. The LEDs can be configured to light up whenever an event is triggered to notify the user.

The temperature probes, like the one shown above are optional when purchasing the MX4. However, they are very useful in letting the user monitor the temperatures all around their PC.

Features

Now we are going to look at the features and capabilities of the MX4. All the display features of the LCD are powered by a software suite called LCDC. This software is provided free with the MX4, but requires the user to register in order to activate it. The vastness of this software is amazing! The software works with a large number of plugins and displays the information on the LCD. It is compatible with MBM5 (Motherboard Monitor 5), WEA weather plugin, Winamp (versions 2, 3 and 5) and also FRAPS just to name a few.

LCDC comes with a screen builder function where the user can configure what is displayed on the LCD. The displayed images and characters are totally customizable and LCDC comes with a few pre-saved configurations and screens for beginners. When we first started to experiment with LCDC, we found that the screen builder was not as easy to use as we expected. However, after some trial and error, just about any user should be able to create their own screen.

Every line and character space on the LCD can be customized by the user. There are even custom characters and font packs for download on the LCDC and Matrix Orbital websites. Programming the screen is very easy, just drag and drop from the plugin menus of what you want to display and it's all set. The screen above shows the text definitions in which LCDC uses to display information on the LCD. For example in the screenshot - [#$ SysCPUPro] will display the processor information.

 

Sample Screens

Here are some of the display screens which can be configured to run on the MX4. The LCD being shown is the MX424, which is displays yellow text on a black background. Matrix Orbital offers an assortment of other color combinations as well.

The screenshots above shows that the MX4 is very customizable and powerful. All the above information is not manually entered, but gathered by the LCDC software suite from the PC and displayed in real time. The email and weather plugins can be configured to gather their information at a specific times and/or intervals. The user can then program the GPO LEDs to alert them when a new email arrives or when temperatures are above their set threshold.

The Winamp plugin is compatible with Winamp versions 2, 3 and 5. The output screens are displayed only when Winamp is active, which means a blank Winamp output screen will not be displayed unless Winamp is playing an audio or video file.

My personal favorite is the FRAPS plugin. This plugin utilizes FRAPS to display the framerate of DirectX/OpenGL games or video files. Using this plugin is especially cool when gaming or benchmarking by allowing the user to show off their PC's performance to spectators.

Conclusion

With the combination of great looks, expansive functionality and practially endless customization the Matrix Orbital MX4 is a real stunner. The MX4 series of LCDs are very well built and the quality of the LCD is superb. Fonts displayed look very crisp and clean and installation is extremely easy.

MX4 has almost everything the PC enthusiast wants. For overclockers, there are 4 fans header and 6 temperature probes. If a fan burns out or the CPU starts getting too hot, the MX4 display will inform. It can also be set up to monitor almost every aspect of the overclocked PCs health via MBM5. For the case modder and/or everyday user, this screen is a definite eye opener. Smooth aluminum finish, crisp display, cool scrolling effects and colors. The MX4 can also be run externally. It can be mounted in its own enclosure and powered by a USB cable which can definately expand is modability.

What makes the MX4 so great is the feature-rich LCDC software which comes with all the Matrix Orbital LCDs. It gives you endless possibilities of custom screen outputs and makes it very easy once you get accustomed to it. The Matrix Orbital and LCDC forums both have plugins for the LCDC application along with an archive helpful tips and tricks, which makes it easier to remedy the problems that you might encounter.

The MX4, like all products has some flaws. In stock form, it is not able to support high powered fans like the Vantec Tornado. Another issue is that the LCDC application may make customizing screens easy, but it takes some time for the user to play and meddle with before they can fully utilize all its commands for customization. To make it short, the application has quite a learning curve for those who know nothing of programming. Lastly, The email plugin does not support popular web email clients like Hotmail or Gmail, however it seems that there is a solution in the works.

 

VR-Zone Rating: 90 VR-Marks!