Today I will be looking at Spire's NeonBar II. Lighting has become one of the most popular case mods next to case windows and there are tons of manufacturers that make different kinds of solutions for case lighting.  The most popular of theses solutions is cold cathodes fluorescent lamps.

The way a fluorescent light works is inside the glass tube there is a low pressure mercury vapor. When ionized, mercury vapor emits ultraviolet light, your eyes cannot see ultraviolet light. The inside of a fluorescent is coated with phosphor. Phosphor can accept energy in one form and emit the energy in the form of visible light. The light we see from a fluorescent tube is the light given off by the phosphor. The phosphor fluoresces when energized and that's why its called a fluorescent.

The reason CCFL's are so popular in case lighting is because of their small size and the fact that they don't heat up much past ambient temperature, making them a perfect way to light your case without heating up your other components. CCFL's are also used as the backlight in notebooks because of this same reason.

The first photo shows the box I got from spire containing the CCFL. The second photo above shows everything that came in the kit.   From top left instructions, CCFL tube, wiring harness, 12V power inverter, and pre cut velcro.

Since a CCFL cannot run on 12V it needs to use an inverter. The inverter that came with this kit can run two CCFL's at once. The wiring harness that came with this kit is top notch. I liked the fact that they included a switch so you can turn off the inverter. They also used shrink wrap to protect the connections on the back of the switch to avoid anything touching it and grounding it out. The kit also came with pre cut velcro to attach the inverter and the CCFL to the inside of the case. They recommend that you attach the inverter close to a fan to help keep it cool.  The kit also came with a washer to aid in cutting a hole for the switch.

The CCFL that came in this kit was wrapped in bubble wrap to keep it safe during shipment. After unwrapping it I noticed it also had a protective sheet of plastic covering the tube itself. If you look in the last picture you will see that this CCFL had blue lines running the length of the tube I haven't seen this before in other CCFL's but it gave it a great look when the power was out. I spent a few minutes looking over the CCFL and noticed something I really didn't like. The side the wire is on, the florescent light is held in place tightly like most CCFL's but on the opposite end it just hangs free. Most CCFL's have round holes on each side cut into the inside of the blocks, but this one didn't have that on the non wire side. Now without further ado lets see how it looks with the power on.

The first photo shows my old CCFL turned on and the spire one turned off. The last three photos show both CCFL's turned on.  As you can see from the photos they are both about the same brightness.

This kit was your average CCFL kit. I loved the wiring harness but the CCFL tube itself looked cheap because of the florescent being loose inside instead of stationary. Even though I didn't like the CCFL itself I would recommend this kit just because of the wiring harness. The light it gave out was just as bright as a higher quality CCFL  I had installed in my acrylic case but this one gave you the option to turn the inverter off.  If I wanted to turn the inverter off in my existing system I would have to open it up and unplug it from the power supply.  The instructions included where easy to read and usable but I am not sure why a CCFL would need instructions like this everything was very self explanatory.