[Gig-O-Ram]

I don't have the first clue about case lighting...UV lights, cold cathodes - any of that stuff.

I'd like to know what are the most common types of lighting, and what are some good brands to look at. At the moment, extra case lighting isn't important, but after I do my window mod, I'm gonna want to do some kind of lighting.

Should I go with UV? My DFI board, I think is designed with lighting in mind, because the DIMM sockets are UV colored. What is the difference between UV and CC?

[redrumy3]

Originally Posted by Gig-O-Ram

I don't have the first clue about case lighting...UV lights, cold cathodes - any of that stuff.

I'd like to know what are the most common types of lighting, and what are some good brands to look at. At the moment, extra case lighting isn't important, but after I do my window mod, I'm gonna want to do some kind of lighting.

Should I go with UV? My DFI board, I think is designed with lighting in mind, because the DIMM sockets are UV colored. What is the difference between UV and CC?

go uv imma buya dfi board to not cause of the uv just love the layout uv is awesome looking

[goodgod]

the ccfls with colors give you a colored light, everything will be in this color, the uv ccfls will make your uv reactive components (sleeving, if u have, fans, board like you said, paint - you can add uv reactive paint to make parts of the mobo glow, or even the HSF) glow.

You can check my mod, where i got both red ccfl and uv ccfl, and where i compare them

Here

Click the link and go down to the last pack of photos, you should know what's the difference between colors and uv effects

[Deadbot1_1973]

A technical explanation....warning science content...

UV is an abreviation for UltraViolet. It is a wavelength of light that is generally invisible to the human eye. It can be reflected of of certain substances to produce a shift in the wavelenght giving a visible reflected light. The amount of shift determines the color. This is UV Reflective. UV Reactive Materials actually Flouresce(give off light) when subjected to UV light. This seems to give a glowing effect to materials of this type. The plastics used in many of the newer motherboards are made with both reflective and reactive materials, with reactive being much more common. UV lighting shows up best in absense of visible light, as what you are seeing is either reflected or weaker Flourescing from the UV.

CC is an abreviation for Cold Cathode. They are a variation on standard flourescent lights. They are called Cold Cathode because the Cathode end of the tube stays relativly cool compared to standard flourescents. These tubes produce everything from visible to UV light. When you see a UV light advertised it is generally a CC light that emits both UV and a small amount of visible violet(purple) light.

LED is an abreviation for Light Emitting Diode. They are small electronic devices that produce light when a current is passed across them. the color of the light is determined by the doping(impurities mixed into the emitter). They can produce light from Infrared to UV(basically from one end to the other of the spectrum). LED's draw much less power than CC and the light they produce is much purer in color. LED's generally take much less space to utilize, and produce little to no heat. The drawback is that the light is usually very directional(lazer lights anyone).

end science content......

So if you want one spot to be lit up with darkness around it, LED is the way to go. General area lighting is best accomplished with CC. UV is simply a wavelength of light and either form of lighting can produce it.

Brands I can't help with much, sorry.

I have heard that Sunbeam makes pretty decent CC stuff. check out these three sites for ideas....

http://www.frozencpu.com/
http://www.crazypc.com/
http://www.xoxide.com/

straight off my favorites list.

Hope this helps.

[fuzzba11]

I've found that the best lighting comes from blue LED fans, UV LED fans also glow bright. Cold cathodes usually look very flourescent white compared to neon tubes, but since cold cathodes take up a fraction of the space they have become more popular. If you want the best, these Day/Night cold cathodes are it, they include a blue and UV bulb in one tube. My case looks blue, but my UV green also lights up. I had just a UV bulb in there, everything would look purple.

[Adragontattoo]

What do you want to know about case lighting??

I have had multiple different lights in my systems and had multiple different lights also catch fire in my systems.

the above info is dead on with the suggestions they have given you, one other place to check out is somewhere that I have been buying from for a few years now, www.svc.com

[Gig-O-Ram]

Originally Posted by Adragontattoo

What do you want to know about case lighting??

I have had multiple different lights in my systems and had multiple different lights also catch fire in my systems.

the above info is dead on with the suggestions they have given you, one other place to check out is somewhere that I have been buying from for a few years now, www.svc.com

I guess I just want to know what is the best way to go about getting some nice visible, colored lighting in my case...something to show off what I've done a little bit...add a little extra flair to my case.

Now, the fans I'm running currently are AC Ryan BlackFire UVs, of the 92mm, and 120mm variety. The 92s are 2x blue/green (blue body, green fan) 2x orange/blue (blue body, orange fan) and the 120 (on top of case) is an orange/blue as well. I also have a blue/green 120 and a orange/blue 120 that will go into my panel mod. So, those are already sources of light, I know, but I'm just looking for something to maybe enhance the whole system.

[Adragontattoo]

12 CCFL UV lights would be your best bet if you have UV reactive components in the system. The system will look dark except where the UV reactive parts are.

One word of caution, be careful with what you plug in, and where you place the power converter (usually a blue or black box about the size of 2 books of matches, I have had a few power converters either explode or catch fire when they are placed somewhere that they can overheat. It is also possible that I was either over or under powering them and they couldnt take it.)

[Deadbot1_1973]

well with blue and green setup, I would go with one or more of the blue/uv CC lights mentioned above. If you are just looking to enhance the system, try to place them out of sight of windows. This way you will get the UV components reacting and a soft, diffused glow that will fill the whole window.

Another way to do things would be to get a few of the lazer LED spotlights...pick out one component that is UV and paint it with UV light. Remember LED's draw a lot less power than any CC inverter.

yeah, as Adragontattoo mentioned be careful of the inverters. It's best to place them where they can get a little airflow. After a few hours of operation they can get rather warm. I have heard of them bursting into flame, but never experienced it. The inverters don't take that much juice, but a few of them can add up.

[Susquehannock]

IMO many of the inverter flame out horror stories are from people performing incorrect mods.
i. e. - modding the high power wire from inverter to light tube. Or trying to power too many
lights from a single inverter. They should be used only as they were originally intended.

If you are still worried about flaming CCFL inverters try some sealed all metal ones.
http://www.vibelights.com/coldcathodes.html

[Adragontattoo]

Sus my flameouts were from neither modding the inverter not powering too many lights.. I honestly think my problems came from a fluctuating PSU. Hence my plan on the next case of a second PSU solely for lights and fans.

But yes modding the inverter or maxing the out the load on it is a bad idea and one of the things that you probably should NOT mod

[Susquehannock]

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say it was the cause of your problems Adragontattoo.

I have however seen a few burned inverter posts where it finally came out that the
modder did some screwy stuff. There was even a case lighting mod article, at a smaller
site, where they spliced two CCFL fans into the inverter for dual 12" tubes. Seems I
remember it was withdrawn a few weeks later. You can guess why.

[Gig-O-Ram]

Originally Posted by Adragontattoo

Sus my flameouts were from neither modding the inverter not powering too many lights.. I honestly think my problems came from a fluctuating PSU. Hence my plan on the next case of a second PSU solely for lights and fans.

But yes modding the inverter or maxing the out the load on it is a bad idea and one of the things that you probably should NOT mod

I don't think my PSU has any fluctuations, but it does seem to have some slight dipping going on with the rails, where the volts are just under where they should be, and I've noticed the more fans I plug in, there seems to be some power drop among all the fans. They all run, and when I turn the settings on the controller all the way up, the all respond as they should, but I'm beginning to think my PSU may not be the greatest, despite the 560W rating.

I saw this post earlier (had to go to work - couldn't respond at the time), and it got me thinking about the two more fans I want to have in there and then about extra lighting as well. There does seem to be enough power for all the main stuff, but like I said, the fans seem to be a heavier draw than I thought they'd be, given my watts.

[Deadbot1_1973]

More fans isn't always the answer. I have one of those little x-qpack cases. there are basically two fans...the 80mm in the psu and the 120 exhaust fan. My temps stay nice and cool. The secret is good airflow through the case. cool air in and hot air out at a good pace. Equal amounts or slightly less in then out.

[Gig-O-Ram]

Originally Posted by Deadbot1_1973

More fans isn't always the answer. I have one of those little x-qpack cases. there are basically two fans...the 80mm in the psu and the 120 exhaust fan. My temps stay nice and cool. The secret is good airflow through the case. cool air in and hot air out at a good pace. Equal amounts or slightly less in then out.

Basically, what I'm looking to do is have as close to equal amounts of intake and exhaust as I can achieve. What I have planned overall is air intake at the bottom front of the case (2x B/G 92mm), exhaust out the upper back (2x B/O 92mm), exhaust out the top (1x B/O 120mm), intake over the video card (1x B/G 120mm) and I haven't decided if the last fan (B/O, which will sorta be over the RAM) will be for intake or exhaust.

And the color scheme I came up with has the blue/green fans representing intake, and the blue/orange representing exhaust.

[Deadbot1_1973]

well you could cut that in half by only having exhaust fans. you will be dealing with negative case pressure then, but that can actully be used to your advantage. The use of ducting with negative case pressure can be just as effective as all those fans, and less noisy.

But I'll admit that it wouldn't look as nice. The color coding thing is a cool idea.

[Gig-O-Ram]

Originally Posted by Deadbot1_1973

well you could cut that in half by only having exhaust fans. you will be dealing with negative case pressure then, but that can actully be used to your advantage. The use of ducting with negative case pressure can be just as effective as all those fans, and less noisy.

But I'll admit that it wouldn't look as nice. The color coding thing is a cool idea.

Yeah, I thought using colors like that would be cool since I was getting the lighted fans anyway. Enablingwolf actually showed me the way to the AC Ryan fans, and I really like the way they look.

As far as noise, the case isn't totally quiet, but it's tolerable with the fans all set on low. I run the rear ones a smidge higher to eliminate some whistling that was happening (you'd think the whistling noise would go up, but it stops ), but otherwise it's not that bad. Actually, a lot of the noise I get comes from the video card fan blowing air out the end of that part that has the eVGA logo. It is really loud, especially when you're sitting in front of a system build with no case - as was the case when I was getting everything ready to go. Go here to see my rig getting made.

[grumperfish]

Originally Posted by Adragontattoo

Sus my flameouts were from neither modding the inverter not powering too many lights.. I honestly think my problems came from a fluctuating PSU.

I had a couple logisys CC's flame-out, but the ULTRA uv cc's I'm running now seem to be fine. Just mount the inverter vent-side-up and avoid logisys (imo).

[Navig]

I'll just some of my artistic impressions here:

CCFLs are about light. If you want even colored lighting, then mount some CCFLs.

UV reactive is about CONTRAST. Light absorbing materials will be black, light reflecting materials will be purple, and UV reactive material will glow like the dickens. So for best WOW factor, you want bright UV light shining on UV reactive materials agains light absorbing background.


navig