UV Psu Cover, UV Rounded Cables, & UV Fans
UV
Psu Cover, UV Rounded Cables, & UV Fans
Introduction
Hi guys. Gotta another quick little review for you here. When I first laid eyes on the UV sensitive rounded cables and UV sensitive fans over at Case-mods.com, I just had to check them out and give you guys a closer look. Then about a week later, Case-mods.com got in the new UV sensitive psu cover in blue and they were kind enough to send one of them over to me also for this review. This is also on of them reviews that pictures will say just about everything, but I'll give you some of the fan specs here....
UV Fan Specs
 Front |
 Fan Alarm = BAH! |
 Back |
A couple of quick things about these fans. First off, the fan alarm feature is horrible!! The alarms gave me a hideous sound upon powerup. Just one fan alarm was loud, nevermind 4 or fan of these in a single case, you could have the neighborhood dogs scratching at your door. Another bad thing was the fact that ALL of the 3pin to 4pin adapters that came bundled with these fan were defective. They acted like a voltage reducer and every fan I tried them with, the fan spinned so slow, the fan alarm just kept beeping hideously! I've told case-mods.com about these issues and they've confirmed the problems stating they've have like a 75% defective rate on the adapters and they're also looking into getting these fans without the fan alarms. Hopefully, they'll have them soon. It'd be too bad for such a neat UV fan to be held down for such silly problems that never should've happened in the first place.
Moving on, once I used my own 3-4 pin adapter and got the fans powered up ( and after the initial alarm beep ), the fans were very quiet and ran smoothly. The airflow was on par with most of the other "fancy" 80mm fans out there , about 28cfm. These UV, LED type of fans seem to average 28-32cfm so these are in the ballpark.
Rounded Cables
They're isn't much to say about the rounded cables except, 1) they're excellent quality, 2) they're UV sensitive , and 3) they're silver braided w/ clear cover and boots.
 oooo... |
 ahhh...... |
 mmmm.... |
UV Blue Psu Cover
The new (blue) UV sensitive power supply cover was a welcome addition to the UV mix. Case-mods.com originally sent me the regular dark blue one , which I installed, then learned of the new UV blue one and was quickly sent that one. So the below pics will show the installation of the dark blue one and final pics of the UV blue one :o)
 Dark Blue Cover |
 UV Blue Cover |
 Instructions & Mounting Tape |
 Grill removed from Enermax |
 Top removed |
 Covers Compared |
Installation of the power supply covers is extremely easy and straight-forward, just remember though, you will void your power supplies warranty by removing the stock cover. Notice I'm installing it on an old crappy Enermax 330w psu...heh. I'm not ripping open my new Antec trublue 480 or 430w psu's just yet. I won't even consider that until I give this product a thorough review. I'm glad I waited too......read on...
 Hmm, not quite as long... |
 Pre-fitted for an Enermax 92mm |
 See Thru :o) |
 Oh yes, I think I will :o) |
 Mounting tape applied |
 Fan installed |
Up until this point, I was fairly confident I would really like this product even though I noticed the covers weren't an exact match. Well, again installation isn't a problem as far as toughness, but I don't particularly like the "tape only" method. Let's continue and I'll show you why I say that.....
 Looks good here....but... |
 Not so good here =\ |
 Looks good here...but... |
 Not so good here... =( |
 Looks decent.... |
 Here's the UV blue one... Looks much better glowing... =\ |
When I first saw this "PSU mod cover" thingy hit the market, I dismissed it as a candy cane mod. I really didn't think it had any serious authenticity in the mod market. However, I just had to get one up close and take a real good look at it. Well, my initial thoughts were confirmed. I think they could be much better designed. First, it really urks me that the acrylic covers don't even reach all the way down the sides of the stock PSU, nor is there an kinda connection from the new covers sides to the psu itself. It just kinda hangs there. Not good. You know how you grab your stock PSU, it feels like a brick, nice an solid? Well, once you install an acrylic cover like this, your PSU will now feel like a toy and very weak. Again, the sides of the acrylic cover ARE NOT CONNECTED......they flop in the wind....heh.
I certainly think , with todays technology in "pre-mods" , that this acrylic cover could be made with a lip that fits inside the stock psu, and it could also be made alittle thinner if it had the "locking lip" ....heh. I installed this "modded" psu in my Antec 1080AMG and it barely fit. I had to actually loosen and adjust, as high as it would go, the psu mounting plate on the chassis. The holes simply didn't line up the first time. I'm pretty damn sure there's no shot in hell someone would get this in a lian li pc60 or other small case with a tight psu area. So, that's a huge drawback in itself.
Here's my thoughts on the psu covers themselves...
Pros
Cons
So with all that being said, the bottom line is: The psu mod covers look great for the most part, but they're just not made to the kinda quality that they should be. I can't recommend for the fact that , to me, it's filled with faults. But as usual, you guys will take away from this what you want and decide for yourself. If everything you've seen so far, you can live with, then you can check out a large selection of the PSU mod covers right here.
More UV cover pics
 UV Cover Fully lite |
 UV cover installed and lite |
 Another Angle |
As you can see in the above pics, the UV psu cover (in the dark ) looks great, cuz you can't see the flaws. It is extremely sensitive to UV rays and don't take much to really lite it up.
Final Pics and Conclusion
Here's some final pics of the setup at work. Pimpy? For sure, but not without it's drawbacks ( as noted ). So , take a look at some final pics here and then I'll tell ya my final thoughts on all this UV stuff.
 UV fans and Cables |
 Uv fans and psu cover |
 Uv fans and psu cover |
So, let me go thru the list here real quick
UV Rounded Cables = Sweet! Not only do they glow like crazy to UV, but they're also nicely silver braided for the daylight hours.
UV Fans = The fan itself is nice, but be sure to ask for the ones without a built-in fan alarm. Also, don't count on being able to use the 3pin-4pin adapter until the issue is fixed. If you already bought the fans by chance, not a problem, just cut off the alarm and re-wire the fans for a baybus or something.
UV & Reg PSU Covers = They're "ok", but not something I really see myself using. I personally like my psu shiney metal and solid like a rock. I think these covers are too "candy cane" and not for real modders. I'm also dissapointed in the sloppy fit and finish (see above for pros and cons)
I'd like to thank Case-mods.com for sending me this stuff to review for you guys. I wish the review could've been better on all ends, but I just can't recommend all this stuff to you. Once the fans are updated to a new style without the crazy in-line fan alarms and shotty 3-4pin adapters, they'll be a much better investment. The cables are a no-brainer if you've got a UV cathode or neon. I'm just not impressed at all with the psu covers. I'll take my Antec trublue 480w over it anyday :o)
As a final note, Case-mods.com also sent me some new triple blue led fans that are uv sensitive also. However, the leds kinda wash out the UV'ness of them , so I'm gonna be showing you these fans in a different article I've got in the works. I'm stock-piling led fans here.....can you say "Led fan shootout!" ? :o) Stay tuned!
If you have any questions, or if I missed something important, please feel free to email me here. Take care!