so today I was shopping around for a new computer case, since the full-tower I’ve had since 1998 is starting to get both crusty and rusty, and I could use a power supply upgrade anyway. I know it has been a fad to add windows and lights to your computer, but I didn’t realize that they were so popular retailly! More than half of the barebones cases I saw online came with lights…not just built into the case, but in the fans, power supply, even the extra PCI slots! The case I went with is limited to just two vertical strips along the front corners, and hopefully I’ll be able to detach them if they drive me crazy.
Two questions:
what is the point? There can’t be THAT many disco-crazed computer geeks out there, so there must be a deeper meaning.
How much power do these lights use up, and do the cases typically have switches/software to turn them on/off? Since my computer doubles as a file/web server, I keep it on 24/7, and I really don’t want the lights keeping me up at night.
I think looking for deeper meaning behind neon case lights is akin to trying to find cultural significance behind “go-faster stripes” on cars, I would say it is a safe bet to assume they are there for decoration and no other reason.
The few references to power usage from these neon strips have indicated the usage is very low, though this was taken from product descriptions by the manufacturer. As for turning them off, they have to be plugged in somewhere right? I would imagine opening the case will reveal where the lights are plugged in and they can simply be unplugged.
P.S. I’m surprised you couldn’t find a plain grey case, there seem to be plenty out there to chose from.
There is a HUGE community of computer users that are so fed up with most “off the shelf” cases looking so crappy that they started to take it upon themselves to mod the cases to look nice. Obviouisly, what is nice is in the eye of the beholder. One of the things that was popular was to use neon lgihts for cars (sicne they run off of 12 volts) and stick them in a PC. Well, eventually someone decided to make lights FOR PC’s, and voila, you now have the sheer massive area of computer that is “pre-mods.” This includes fans, power supplies, cases, etc… that have lights, windows, and any one of a number of additions to them to make them “stand out,” although most end up looking very similar. Lights actually CAN make a PC look good in the right hands, but most peopel who use them jsut go overboard and assuem that having five red, green, blue, and UV lights all in one case is a good idea.
Not that much power. They use an inverterm which takes the 12 V rail from a power suply and ups it to 100 or 200 V, somewhere in that range, but with a VERY low current, to power CCFL’s, or cold cathode flourescent lights. The other lgiht option in use are LED’s, which also use very little power. However, I wouldn’t advocate using many lights if you have a low wattage (less than 250 W) power supply, just to be safe. But then you don’t seem like you want to have the lights anyways, so you shoudl be fine. And I have never seen a set of lights (aside from ones on fans) that couldn’t be turned off.
I’m also suprised you couldn’t find plain old cases. Where did you look? Personally, I think the best case out there in terms of looks vs. functionality vs. price are the Chieftec Dragon series. Here’s a link.
You can but them from Tigerdirect.com, and I think newegg.com as well. They come in several colors from stadnard beige, to a nice black, to a bit more garish ones like neon yellow and green. You can get it with or withuot a window or front door. I like the doro on the front, as it hides the opticakl and floppy drives, which might not match the case. Againm jsut aestetics. If you don’t want to have to open a door to put in a CD, then get one w/ out a door.
I don’t think the real quality vendors have bought into it, at least not entirely across their product lines. Of course, I haven’t been case-shopping in a few years, and don’t intend to. Addtronics was the vendor I settled on the last time.
like pretty much ALL of my computer hardware shopping, I ended up back on newegg.com (they ship from Edison, and since I’m in NYC, it’s everything is free 2nd day shipping at ground costs ). They DO have their share of boring grey cases, but my other major concern was ventilation, and apparently neon lights and multiple fan ports go together. Those Chieftiec cases don’t have any side or top fan ports on them.
If you get the model with a window on the side then it will have a side port. And top fan ports are practically useless. I know that the idea is that hot air will get trapped up there because it rises, but a few points:
The power supply is right there. Most nowadays have an intake fan on the front which will uck in that hot air.
Even if your PS doesn’t have an intake, a top fan might still be useless. If you have, let’s say, two intake fans on the front, one on the side, and two exhaust fans on the back, the airflow will already go from front and down to up and back. Adding a top exhaust might only make the airflow worse, thus making the case hotter.
Lastly, who cares? What is at the top of the case? An optical drive or two. Those don’t get all that hot and can operate in hot temps as well, so really, even if hot air does build up there, it really won’t affect system performance as long as it doesn’t raise the overall ambient case temp, which it probably won’t.
And you can always just buy a 3" holesaw and make your hown exhaust hole.
This is a quality vendor that I can recommend from personal experience, and one look at their page tells you that they, and obviously many of their customers, HAVE bought into it. They do have some normal-looking cases, but they are in the minority, and usually don’t have the same useful features as the elaborate tricked-out looking cases.
I think that shopping for PC cases is going to become much like shopping for sneakers…(Heh, some of those cases actually resemble some sneakers I’ve seen)
As long as the roll-your-own crowd is dominated by gamers, the DIY cases are goona be designed to appeal to 15-25 year-old male aesthetics. Which is to say too much flash, and rampant specsmanship on functionally irrelevant features.
Hey! I’m 46 and a gamer, the last 5 cases I’ve bought have had a window or lights or both. OK the last one only had a couple blue LEDs, but I modded it and added a 120mm blue LED fan on the back. I casts a soft blue light on the wall behind it.
Oh and the windows and lights are there to show off your expensive hardware at lan partys.
Are there any cases that have at least one out of all those big, bright, flashing lights hooked up to the hard drive so that I can easily see drive activity without squinting at a tiny, dim led that sometimes looks like it is lit even when it isn’t?
Yeah, no kidding! That’s about my top complaint with cases these days. If I want a case that comes with a big honkin’ HDD status light, the whole frickin’ case has to look like a circus. But if I want a conservative case, the LED status lights are frickin’ tiny! I remember when my old AT case had LED’s that would light up the sky. Why is this not a priority for case manufactures? Seriously, these things are hard to read, they’re too small.
I ended up going with this case. I like it (and even like the bubbly tubes which glow blue, and YES it has an on/off switch), except that it came with fans with blue LED’s in them, which CAN’T tunr off (or if they can, I haven’t figured out how). I’m going to have to either replace them, or do some electronical surgery on them. Otherwise, I am happy with it. Having three case fans (as well as a CPU & video card fan) is MUCH quieter than having a 12 inch vornado pointed at an open case
Yeah, you probably can’t without demolishing the LED.
If it’s like the ones I’ve seen, the LED is powered by the fan turning rather than the fan’s power. With the power off, blow some compressed air through the fan and I’ll bet the LED lights up.
). They DO have their share of boring grey cases, but my other major concern was ventilation, and apparently neon lights and multiple fan ports go together. Those Chieftiec cases don’t have any side or top fan ports on them.
