Introduction
Fan grills are useful in both form
and function. They come in a wide array of materials, styles,
colors, shapes, designs, etc. You can get them in just about
any design you like, and if you don't see one that's suits your
fancy, you can even get them custom made, to your specifications.
Thermaltake, has been in the PC cooling arena
since 1999, basically newcomers. Their main products are heat
sinks, CPU cooler, DC Fan, Folded fin, thermal products, and
pc cases. Now they have developed their "Thermaltake (TT)
CoolMod Fan Grill". After speaking with Gavin over at Fleetwood
Computers, he sent us the TT Fan Grill to be reviewed.
 
The TT Fan Grill, is just what the name suggests,
a fan grill, but this is a fan grill with a twist. It has four
LED's installed in its four sides, two red, and two blue. I
say in not on, there are four small holes and the LED's are
securely placed in them.
What's nice about this item is, not only does
it have the four LED's installed in it, but it has the option
of being connected to the motherboard, to show hard drive, and
power activity. In other words, once the PC is on, the Blue
LED's will light up, and once there is hard drive activity the
Red LED's will also light up. When both sets of LED's are on,
the combined LED's give off a purplish glow.
Another thing is that they do not have to be
connected to the motherboard. They can be connected directly
to power via a molex cable provided. Now this is a great feature
for those of you who would rather the LED's be on all the time,
rather than have them blinking.
Here's what we got:
1 - CoolMod Fan Grill
1 - Molex Power Cable
4 - 5mm Bolts
4 - 3mm Bolts
8 - Nuts (for bolts)
4 - Plastic Tubes
There is an installation guide
that comes with the fan grill, and it gives you an excellent
set of instructions on connecting the grill to a fan. Included
were eight (8) bolts of two different lengths, 4 were 3mm long,
and allowed you to attach the fan grill to the fan, and still
be able to secure the fan to the case. The 5mm bolts would pass
straight through the fan, and come out on the other side, attaching
it this way, I am not 100% sure how to do it. In any case installation
is fairly simple.
 
<<This is the fan I would install the fan grill on | This
is the fan grill installed on the fan>>
Now connecting it the power was even easier.
If you wanted to connect it to your motherboard all that needed
to be done was to remove the Power LED and Hard Drive LED Plug,
and replace them with the ones coming from the fan grill..
The one problem I had foreseen with this was
the wires. From the time I opened the package I knew that this
would be a problem. The wires come from the four sides and are
not that easy to hide. Especially if you wanted to mount the
fan grill on the exhaust fan, that would be a very big problem,
especially if you have a window on your side panel.
As you can see the wires are not that easy to hide
Once the power was the LED's lit
up right away. I had my fan grill connected directly to the
power because where my case is, you can't really see what's
going on. Although I tested them out on the motherboard and
they worked great.
These are the wires running across the motherboard
 
<<Blue LED's | Red LED's>>
As you can see the LED's are bright, which is
nice, as you would be able to really see them when they are
on.
This image shows both sets of LED's on
Conclusion
Thermaltake did good with this fan grill. The styling of it
is good. Without the LED's powered it looks very good. The acrylic
that it is made of has a very nice, it has an almost swirling
grill design, and in the center of it there is the Thermaltake
logo etched in it. The LED's look good individually and even
better together. The pictures do this item no justice.
The only downside to this fan grill is the wires,
there are too many. There needs to be some way to be able to
put all these wires together, so that they can be easily hid.
Other than that it's great.
I give the Thermaltake CoolMod fan grill:
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