CleanNeon paint review

[fantomfreq]

So today a package came in the mail for me. It included a strand of EL wire, a couple of UV cathode tubes and a can of blue ClearNeon spraypaint. Now, for anybody who hasn't seen this paint around, it's paint that supposedly dries clear and colorless but glows under a blacklight. I immediately broke open my computer and started ripping out components to get sprayed down. The first thing I did was the Radeon, painting just the RAM chips on one side and the heat sink on the other. Next I pulled a stick of RAM and proceeded to paint the entire thing with the ClearNeon. Lastly, I unscrewed the fan from the CPU heat sink and sprayed that entire thing.
I found that spraying the components to get the desired result took a little bit of practice. The can says to hold it 3 to 12 inches away from the stuff you're painting. I found that a good 6 or 7 inches works best, as if you hold it only 3 or 4 inches away you get a blue and white residue that doesn't ruin the effect but lessens it. I also found that applying 3 or more coats of UV paint works wonders when it comes to the effect. Make sure that if you have any other cathode lights in the computer that they have switches to turn them off. The UV lights are not extremely bright and when my blue cathodes are on it kills the effect. The most important thing with this paint is just to be creative and have fun painting all day!

[RussianMissile1]

you might not want to spray any "chips," especially video card RAM, your performance could be compromised because the spray could be not very heat conductive and the ram chips will overheat, crashing your video card or maybe your computer.

to clean up, you can use rubbing alcohol, that is safe for computer compoments.


it the can says that the spray is safe for "chips" then by all means, make your computer a work of art!

[danrok]

I suspect that this paint is intended for spraying PCBs and doesn't conduct electricity. Putting a thick layer on might cause overheating.

Did the paint come with any instructions?

[fantomfreq]

No instructions really. Before buying I read a couple of reviews and demos of this product and in nearly every one components were painted just like I did with mine. No complaints about overheating or performance compromises in any of them. As far as I can tell, this stuff isn't made specifically for computers, but it certainly is computer safe. If I have any problems with it the stuff comes off with water or rubbing alcohol (as suggested earlier.) The computer has been running for an hour or two now without any problems. I'm now posting pictures. While taking pictures of the case in the dark has never really worked well for me, you can see the fan and graphics card lighting up. It seems that other things in the case light up also without even painting them. The second picture is with the neons off and the blue cathodes on for comparison.

[danrok]

That looks nice. I like the way the edges of cards glow under the UV light.

[mybabygirl21]

T like the flame design in the middle.

[fantomfreq]

I used the paint again with a new fan that I got yesterday. (Somehow the fan was on sale for 3 bucks at Best Buy. The next fan up was 15.) I tested out my theory of 'it will glow better if the spray can is held about a foot away' and it worked wonderfully. Plus, in the process of mounting the fan I had to move a couple of cathodes (which I had stupidly attached on top of the back fan holes) and it turns out that this new configuration is even cooler looking than the last. Now even the colored ports on my mobo glow. After a couple weeks of 'testing' using this paint (including a full week of continuous uptime and some hardcore Doom 3 time) I can fully recommend this paint to anyone interested in modding their case with neon cathodes. I have had no problems with the paint conducting electricity or 'holding in' heat that would otherwise be dissapated.