ccfl alternatives?

[pejsaboy]

I've got a 12" set of blue ccfl's, but after hearing about how the converter tends to burn up and smoke when they die, i'm not sure if i want that inside my case. i'm not 100% against mounting the converter outside the case, but the less of that kind of thing the better i think.
so, is the dying converter an actual problem to be worried about, or is it a good idea to look for some type of alternative? if that's the case, are there easy 'plug and play' alternatives? i don't feel like wiring LED's together for it.

 

[synthetic_fenix]

Well one alternative could be, to buy the meteor lights from Xoxide or Frozencpu or anywhere else for that matter. But as for the inverters burning up, I have had two inverters in my comp for over a year and no burn ups. Just dont leave them on 24x7.

 

[Haste266]

or just buy some lights that come with metal inverters...that way if the inverter does go bye bye the inverter wont melt and catch on fire...


http://www.vibelights.com/coldcathodes.html

 

[jeepguy_1980]

Do the inverters put out a funny smell (as in different from an electrical smell)? I just installed 4 CCFLs (with 2 inverters) and both lights on the 2nd iverter stopped working and my whole room smelled really funny. This was after about 1 hour of use.

 

[Haste266]

ccfl inverters shouldnt put out any kind of "smell"
i would definitely unhook those lights and inverter from your comp asap.
check out the inverter to see if its burned out.

 

[Adragontattoo]

Jeep yes they do. You are smelling burning eletronics.

Those vibelight inverters are very nice but you REALLY need to put them in the airflow path. I have a nice warm red mark on my hand about 5 mins after I touched one that had the fan away from it.

THe metal ones have less of a tendancy to do much more then go Kaput, due to them being metal enclosed there is limited risk of any serious issues.

Vibelights isnt any brighter then any other CCFL maker though, I question where they got that statement from.

 

[jeepguy_1980]

The lights I put in were plastic and so were the inverters. The lights aren't suppose to produce heat, though I never considered that the inverters might.

Are you saying the inverters get hot? Or the lights? I have both inverters mounted upside down too, but I don't think that should have any impact on them. The one that burned is not near any fans, it's actually near my PSU.

I do have a spare inverter, since two lights each came with their own. Maybe I'll try mounting it near the exhaust fan. The good inverter is mounted near the intake, but that is not a practical location for the other, unless I were to extend the wire length on the lights.

 

[Adragontattoo]

I have heard of problems with extending the wire coming from the inverter to the light.

The inverters are what got hot and you smelled. The lights produce almost no heat at all.

I have two inverters in my current rig, one is mounted on the backplane right next to the PCI slots so it gets a 120 blowing on it and the other is mounted atop the HDD cage so it gets the blowout that is coming out of the 3.5 bays.

Try if you can to figure out a way for them to get ventilation. Also do not leave them on 24/7. Unfortunately they arent meant to be.

LED lights have no inverters and produce minimal heat as well.

 

[SemperFiGuy]

I've had one inverter fry on me after having it in my computer for ~8months. For the most part, it was on 24/7, so I guess that's my error.

Can anyone provide any input as to how well those individual LED projection lights work? can you get near the same effect?

 

[Daedalus0]

I havent had that much problems with CCFL's just buy a reputable brand.
Logisys come to mind.

But if your set on no CCFL's (AKA paranoid) try out LED strips. Might take a look at these

 

[pejsaboy]

i feel a bit better about using the ccfl's now. i don't turn them on all the time, so it shouldn't be a problem from what it sounds like. i do like some of those LED options from Xoxide though

 

[Daedalus0]

yea metor lights are pretty sexy I have to say. You wouldnt be takeing that bad of a hit on prettiness by switching to LED.

 

[pejsaboy]

i was actually thinking of adding some LED goodness, not switching i like the overall glow of the ccfl's.