When Logisys sent me a dual cold cathode 120mm fan to review, they threw a little surprise into the box. They included a sound activated Red cold cathode light without any note or explanation. I took a look at it and saw that it was interesting, but I had three reviews that took priority over that item. Well, guess what? I finished all my other reviews, and it is Saturday evening and I already killed my Honey-Do list for the day. Time to sit down and check out this light from Logisys.

Package

The Logisys light was included with another item as I stated above, and in the package was another long box that included the following items: The cold cathode light itself, a controller unit, a PCI cover with the on-off switch, a power pass-through cable, and some Velcro.

There is a page of instructions included that is printed on heavy stock "slick" paper. On one side is a diagram of how everything hooks together and on the other are some well written directions.

The Red cold cathode tube is 15 inches long with a diameter of 5/8th of an inch, so it is very narrow. The lit part almost runs the full length of the tube at 14.3 inches. The acrylic covering the tube seems pretty durable and the entire tube is constructed very well.

The PCI cover has a 3 position switch and the sensitivity knob attached. The 3 positions that the switch has is on/off/sound sensitive. The knob on the sensitivity switch extrudes about half an inch so it is easy to find while reaching behind a case.

There is a standard pass-through four pin Molex to provide power to the controller and cold cathode tube.

Logisys includes a strip of adhesive Velcro for the controller unit, and two smaller squares for each side of the light itself. There is also a screw to secure the PCI cover.

Performance

The controller for the cathode is encased in translucent plastic, and has two outputs so you can run a pair of lights off the same unit. The smaller vent to the left is actually the microphone, and the larger one on the right is a vent to expel heat. When the light is active a Blue LED turns on, and believe me, the Blue LED is bright. I find it surprising they used a method this bright to show the unit is activated because the LED would actually interfere with the color coming form the cold cathode. If they are going to use a bright LED, they should have at least ensured that the color matches the light.

This is a non-enhanced photo of the CC in semi-darkness. It looks so over exposed because the brightness overwhelmed my camera with the flash off. The light is bright, really bright. I played with the sensitivity a bit and it ranges from where it takes a loud slap to cause it to light up to where a normal speaking voice from 3 feet away will cause it to go crazy. The Red is really a deep Red and not the pink you get from many other Red cold cathodes.

Conclusion

Although I have reviewed many other cold cathode's, this is the first I've done that was sound sensitive. I have to admit I had a lot of fun playing different music and having my eldest son play some riffs on his guitar while the light kept time. The color is about the deepest and richest I've ever seen in a computer light and is plenty bright enough where two of them would really make the inside of a rig glow.

This product is pretty cool. Because of the sensitivity adjustment that really works and great color, I award the Logisys Sound Activated cold cathode a sweet 8 out of 10 and award it the PimpRig Approved award. If they would lose the LED in the controller it would rate higher. It can be purchased from online retailers like FrozenCPU for around $12 USD.

The Light
- Really bright
- Deep color
- Able to handle two lights
- Sensitivity adjustments work well

The Dark
- Blue LED is too bright
- Blue LED may wash other colors out

PimpRig Rating //
(8 pimp hats out of 10)

I would like to thank Logisys for providing this product to us for review.