Setup is the
same as other cold cathodes, plug the lamp into the inverter
and the molex connector into your PSU. The power button
is designed to be placed into an empty PCI slot cover, which
mounts very easily without requiring any tools. We liked
this design, as it saved us from pulling out the dremel
and putting a hole somewhere in the case for the switch.
The cathodes are very secure once mounted,
definitely suitable for a computer that often travels to
LANs.
The cathodes
also mount very easily. Simply peel off the protective paper
from the sticky pad that is on the cold cathode, and place
the cold cathode wherever you want it. No Velcro, no plastic
ties, just peel and stick. Once mounted, the cold cathode
is staying where you put it. We were able to toss, drop,
and do just about anything to the panel that we attached
it to without loosening the cold cathode at all. Unfortunately,
once mounted the cold cathodes cannot be moved without tearing
off the sticky pads.
The white lamps create a very clean and appealing
look in your case.
My personal
favorite of the group is the white cold cathodes. They are
very bright and are able to show each piece of hardware
in its original color (great for those of you with colored
motherboards). A very clean and appealing look is produced
from the white cold cathodes.
Unfortunately, the real thing isn't as bright
as this.
The Red-Green-Blue
cold cathode is, well, interesting. From the outside it
appears as three 100mm cold cathodes (one of each color)
are all crammed into a 300mm casing, and this appears to
be somewhat true. We found this cold cathode to be quite
dull, and would recommend picking up at least two if you
plan to light a mid-sized tower. We even had to increase
our camera's exposure time in order to give you a better
idea of what the RGB may look like if you have two or more.
Although we
had trouble capturing it with a camera, the UV cathodes
are quite bright, one 300mm is able to dimly light a complete
mid-sized tower with a light blue/purple color. Although
we did not have any UV reactive products, we did notice
that the green stripes that are found on green Sunbeam cold
cathodes were quite reactive to the cathodes. Even at about
two feet away, the green lines were quite noticeable.
