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Xoxide 12in Dual Blue CCFL Kit |
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Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
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Sunday, 01 July 2007 |
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Thanks to Xoxide for the product sample.
Nowadays everyone wants a piece of the "riced PC pie". LazerLEDs, EL wire and MADlights are all innovative attempts at a share of the market. The cold cathode is no longer a novelty, at least not to the enthusiast crowd. We've seen several iterations of the CCFL with various improvements along the way in the form of bulbs, casings, inverters, and more. Recently Xoxide sent over a package to help along with the building of a new system and these dual cold cathodes were part of the deal. While there's nothing particularly special or inventive about the kit, it's a good example of what can and should be expected from your next CCFL purchase.
Since they came along with a case there was no formal box and because there's no label of the manufacturer I would assume these to be wholesale parts. However, each bulb was safely encased in layers of bubble wrap and taped shut for respectable protection. Along with the 12" lights I also received a dual inverter, 4-pin pass-through molex connector, sound activation box, and a sensitivity/mode knob. Everything except the bulbs came connected and ready to hook up.
The dual inverter that came with the kit had a few holes up top, most likely for passive cooling of the internal transformer. This latest version is also completely silent (unlike earlier models which emitted a barely audible but still annoying whine) and doesn't heat up as much. But before getting to the inverter you go through the "sound box" and knob which are responsible for the supposedly fancy show. The former is simply a pass-through box with an opening for a microphone. One wire then goes to the inverter while the other to a controller knob which toggles the on, off and sensitivity functions.
The bulbs themselves are white with a blue tinted acrylic case. The only logical reason for having the tinted case (in my opinion) would be to distinguish the various colors at the store. While it does help "spread" the glow a bit during daytime (as opposed to a clear case), at night it's all the same. At either tip is a clear acrylic cube with pre-applied pieces of velcro. The same can be found on the bottom of the inverter and sound box for vertical/anti-gravity mounting.
That's about it. Above are a pair of night pictures, one with a flash, the other without. If you recall, some of the earlier models had a wire running back through the case (next to the bulb). This was detrimental to the overall look of the cathode and I'm glad to see that no such thing is present on Xoxide's offering. Since everything aside from the bulbs comes pre-assembled, setting up the kit is a no-brainer. Figuring out where to place the lights for optimal illumination is the hard part.
Had this been a plain kit the review would end here. But as it stands there's the sound activation feature left to discuss. The black knob only clicks once. At either extreme you either turn the lights off or have them run continuously. Everything in-between adjusts how sensitive the microphone is. In "normal" environment (another computer off in the distance, AC running, TV on in the other room, some outside traffic noise) this works pretty well. It's great if you're right next to the receiver and gets progressively worse as you move away. Anything over 10 feet and you'll need something pretty loud to activate the lights.
But the real issue is adjusting it to work properly inside your case, where the various fans, hard disk(s) and optical drive(s) all generate their share of noise. It's possible, but it takes a while to get it just right. Furthermore, sensitivity must be decreased a good deal, meaning any external sounds (music, movie, people talking) have to fairly loud. In general, the louder your computer is, the louder everything else will have to be in order to trigger the lights. There is a way to remedy the situation, but most likely in the next revision unless you're the DIY type.
The problem is with the sound box placement. It's routed between the molex connector and the inverter with pretty short wire length in-between, meaning there's no way to place it outside the case unless you're willing to make the extensions yourself. You can then place it next to your speakers or just leave it sitting on the table, but this is the only simple solution I can think of (another would involve a direct pass-through audio jack connection which would automatically tailor the lights to sync with your sound card's audio, regardless of the volume).
Should you get it to function according to your preferences, another issue arises. Because of the time delay (external sound source > mic > inverter > cold cathode > back to sound), the lights won't be able to fully synchronize with fast-paced music, in-game sounds or conversations. Also, according to Xoxide there's supposed to be a "blink mode" where the cathodes blink alternately. No such feature was present with my sample. Finally, there's the talk of price. At $16 for the plain kit ($19 with sound box and mode dial) + $8 for an extra bulb it's reasonable, though some competitors offer kits for half as much. I can't comment on their brightness/quality/feature set, but it's still something to consider.
Pros
- Good packaging
- Noiseless inverter
- No wires through bulb casing
- Tinted tubes
- Pre-applied velcro for mounting
- Sound activation box/knob function
- Bright; two bulbs enough to light up an entire case)
- Good pricing at $16/19 (no sound/sound) + $8 for extra bulb; can mix and match
Cons
- Lots of wires to deal with
- Sound box needs longer wires for external placement
- Nonexistent "blink mode"
This particular pair of cathodes it nothing to wet your pants over, but at the same time it's a fine product that generally works as advertised (except for the mysterious blink mode function). Aside from knocking a buck or two off the sticker price and extending the sound box wire for external placement there's not much I'd change. They're bright and they look cool, which is why you'd buy them in the first place. The ability to mix and match colors to your preference is even more food for thought. Once again I'd like to thank Xoxide for sending over this dual CCFL kit and if interested you can get yours here. Thanks for reading and enjoy the site!
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