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Laser LED Case Lighting Manufacturer:
Glowire By Dean Barker (4/9/2002)
Introduction Case windows and lighting go hand in hand. Several options are available from Cold Cathode to Lightstrips to Neon. Price, size, and brightness all play a part in the choice of what appeals to you. Today we have another lighting option, Laser LEDs. Laser LEDs are billed as small, lightweight, bright, and inexpensive. I am typically a bit skeptical when I hear all the wants possible being provided for when mentioned in the advertising of a product. Thanks to Case Cooler, we have an opportunity today to check some of these out, first hand, to get the skinny on them. Are these Laser LEDs what they are cracked up to be? Let's find out.
At a glance the Laser LED doesn't look like much. Just a small housing with three mounted bulbs. It is powered by a four pin Molex connector you just plug into your PSU. No fancy switch (which is just a much a plus for simplicity as it is a minus for lack of that feature.) With its size being so small, how is this thing going to make much light? Let's look at the specs and jump in feet first. Specifications
Installation The Laser LED comes with two 1mm diameter holes to assist in mounting if you would like to screw mount the device. I'd appreciate these mounting holes more if some form of mounting hardware was included. However, given the light weight of the product, two mounting screws and nuts might weight more than the unit itself. The most practical method to utilize in mounting the device is with double sided tape or go with a very complex mounting arrangement as we did below.
You gotta love black electrical tape! For some reason in looking at this, it makes me think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Let's see it. I was very surprised at the amount of light the Laser LED put out. We had some Tweakmonster Lightstrips that we used to illustrate the differences in the intensity of the light given off below. The Lightstrips are on the left and the Laser LED is on the right.
That is a huge difference. The Tweakmonter Lightstrips we had were the original version which did make some noise. Imagine a florescent shop light and the buzz it gives off. The Lightstrips are nowhere near that loud but it is loud enough so that only a Delta 7k fan will mask it. The Laser LED on the other hand made Zero noise. Leaving the unit on for more that a few minutes allows you to feel the heat of the light if you touch it. The heat is so low that it shouldn't affect case temperatures one way or another. For fun I have no idea why the Laser LEDs are advertised as 'waterproof' but it was worth checking out for absolutely no logical reason or purpose what so ever. Prior to dropping the LED into a glass a water, I said a short prayer expecting to hear a buzzzap of my PSU and mobo biting the dust. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Conclusion The Laser LEDs turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Low heat, high light, inexpensive, compact design, and not to mention being waterproof, put these lights on the short list of any case modder. With the competition of Cold Cathodes being large and priced at $35; Neon also being bulky and priced in the $25 range, and finally Lightstrips being very adaptable but not giving off enough light, show off the real benefits of going with this type of case mod light. Multiple colors are available for what ever suites your fancy. These are indeed on the short list of any parts list for a case mod project. Again, we wish to thank the folks over at Case Cooler for sending the units over to play with. Pros
Cons
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pages Copyright © 2000 - 2008 by R. Dean Barker.
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