Project Light & Water

R.C.Anderson · 5 Feb 2012 at 17:22

Here you go:

Lights on

DSC_3624 by RCAnderson, on Flickr

Lights off

DSC_3620 by RCAnderson, on Flickr

Was hard to get a picture with the lights on, the window is too shiny

stueng · 5 Feb 2012 at 18:11

oh sorry I wanted pics with the right pannel off to see how you mounted the LEDs

Tealc · 5 Feb 2012 at 18:11

RCA said:
Wondering if it's worth the hassle of getting some kitchen foil, coving it with cling film (so it's not conductive) and putting it behind the LEDs to try and reflect more light out.

In a word no.

The LEDs you have chosen are standard lens types and therefore throw most of their light straight out front, in this case within a 30 degree cone.

To illustrate here's a very quick and dirty example of the difference using a different style of LED can make.

A flat topped 5mm LED.

A standard lens 5mm

The standard shaped lens bends the light and throws most of it out front, a bit like a car headlight, creating a very bright spot. The flat top has a more even light effect. SMD LEDs light up in a very similar way, perhaps even more even as the package has an even lesser effect on it.

At first I lit my case with a string of standard 5mms and I found it hard to get things lit up properly. Next I threw in a £3 30cm SMD LED strip and it made such a difference.

R.C.Anderson · 5 Feb 2012 at 19:45

stueng said:
oh sorry I wanted pics with the right pannel off to see how you mounted the LEDs

Ah, my bad... I'll try to get one for you know, be warned though, it's not pretty

Tealc: Ye,a wasn't really expecting it to do a lot, it's just something else I could do to keep me busy

EDIT: BTW, they're 3mm LEDs, as I wanted some extra space

R.C.Anderson · 5 Feb 2012 at 19:58

Here we go.

DSC_3625 by RCAnderson, on Flickr

As you can see, not pretty, but works well

Tealc · 5 Feb 2012 at 23:29

Liking the mess behind that motherboard. Considering the haphazard way they are positioned the effect is quite decent. The distance from the LED to the edge also allows time for the cone of light to spread a bit so that's a bonus.

How have you got all those wires hooked up though. Seems a lot of them.

R.C.Anderson · 6 Feb 2012 at 00:44

Haphazard?

The idea was mainly to have a fairly even ring all the way round, which seemed to work

As for the wires, each series bank of 5 LEDs is wired in parallel with each other (after about 10-15cm of wire (I wasn't sure how long I would need them when I soldered them)) into a molex connector to provide the 12V from the PSU

rjk · 6 Feb 2012 at 08:28

The more I look at your build, the more I really like the colour of the coolant.

RogerMesenseless · 20 Oct 2012 at 21:03

Looks awesome in the dark

Thanks for sharing!

Rooster212 · 21 Oct 2012 at 15:06

This is a great build - great pictures too. Love the build and the way you have used the space behind the motherboard! I want to do that to my motherboard with a strip of LED's but I don't have the space in a 650D really, and i might get a new motherboard soon anyway.

Staffy50 · 23 Jan 2014 at 15:30

Late, but mate i love that behind mobo LED effect, may have a look at doing something similar.

Silent_Scone · 23 Jan 2014 at 15:32

Very nice

CharlieRich · 23 Jan 2014 at 23:17

Loving those LEDs, wish I had the skillz haha

R.C.Anderson · 24 Jan 2014 at 05:41

Thanks guys, actually in the middle of a slight upgrade (6950 is out, and got a pair of 7970s now) Along with a change of coolant (more red, less pinky-purple), and possibly a bit of general case lighting

I need to either get more braided cables, or braid some myself, as I ended up removing the 24 pin mobo cable, and the PCI-E power cables, as there was an issue with them (I'm assuming the pins weren't fitting properly) causing my PC to crash at random times.

I'll get some photos up when I get it done/when I have time!

colinmcr · 27 Jan 2014 at 22:26

Loving the lighting effects mate, nice work.

hakank68 · 27 Jan 2014 at 23:35

may i ask which cable extensions youre using

R.C.Anderson · 28 Jan 2014 at 08:12

hakank68 said:
may i ask which cable extensions youre using

They were actually bought off ToxicTBag from the MM if I remember correctly, and the bags didn't have any manufacturer name on them, so I'm not sure! Unfortunately I had some problems with the extensions though, as I was getting regular PC crashes (I thought it was my PSU originally), but when I removed the extensions all was fine again. I'm assuming at least one of the pins isn't quite the right size, so isn't making a proper contact, but I haven't had the time to have a proper look yet.

hakank68 · 30 Jan 2014 at 12:16

thanks anyways

, they just seem to look a lot better than the bitfenix ones, a lot like corsair's braided cables.