120mm Fan Grill:

At this stage, I was eager to mount the Grill onto the fan and couldn't wait to turn on the light show. Then, I found this problem;




The screws provided are too short. They are the machine screw and do not provide self taping. But, this isn't the only problem, as the acrylic housing of the fan grill is too brittle for self taping screw. This particular fan came from SunbeamTech’s own Tranformer case. Thinking other brands may have different configuration, I pulled out another 120mm fan from my pile of junks which was found to be the same.

The following photo shows the type of fan mount configuration that meets the requirements in using the provided screws/nuts.



I managed to mount the Fan Grill using the 120mm fan bracket came with the "Transformer" case. However, instead of four mounting points on the four corners only two diagonal points could be used. Another option would be getting proper length screws and size of nuts to mount the Fan Grill, which may not be ideal for some users.



Alright, let's turn the lights on .......





The light intensity from CCFL is much brighter than that from a LED. But, the name Code Cathode doesn't mean it is "cold", rather it refers to less warm-up time unlike the fluorescent light (hot cathode) we accustom to using. It fact, it is warm to the touch. Let's measure the heat. Using a Sears Model 82028 auto ranging multimeter with external probe touching the acrylic housing, it reads only 3°C higher than surrounding air temp.

The photo on the left is a full 2 f-stops higher than the one on the right; illustrating the light intensity difference between CCFL and LED.



Next comes the more popular 80mm fan & grill ->