Looking to Aesthetically Upgrade My PC (Australia)

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Icaraeus

Icaraeus

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So basically, because I want to add a side window for my computer so that I can see how awesome it looks inside (without having to open it up) I've been thinking about making some modifications. I'm not too sure about how exactly to do this, but am interested in how lighting and sleeved cables would turn out. I don't really have a set budget but I'm thinking that any more than $200 would start to become a waste of money as I don't have an unlocked CPU and all that, so buying stuff like liquid CPU coolers (or even watercooling) would be too extreme for my needs. They do look nice though so I don't know whether I should just get a liquid cooler...

I haven't changed much to the inside except recable everything. I also flipped the PSU and re-route both the IO and PSU cables so that my cables could have more stretch, and because of all that talk about the PSU and GPU suffocating for air because apparently fans blowing towards each other can make them die quickly, whatever sense that makes. When I plugged the IO cables into the wrong motherboard slots when I was completely re-doing cables after flipping PSU, I thought I killed my PSU and motherboard - all good after I got some family help luckily but don't intend to do anything to those cables again if I can avoid it.

About the inside, I managed to change it from this (when I first built in February):
sykmLGY.jpg

To this, after a couple times redoing cables, and most recently when I flipped the PSU and rearranged cables again so that my PC could work again:
5Anguag.jpg

Also, I want to try and rotate the storage drive cage 180 degrees so that the cables from my SSD and HDD aren't seen but I'm not sure how to do that even when I took a good look at it so yeah. I'd be able to remove the fan that I have right next to it as well, since I don't really use it and might end up replacing it with different fans.

Basically, what I've come up so far with to buy for my computer is:
ADT3m6t.png

I intend to buy everything from the same store, in this case preferably from PCCaseGear seeing as I've ordered stuff from them before and I don't want to go fishing around Ebay or Amazon or something, also because I'm only a teenager and don't have a credit card yet so I'm technically not the one ordering it, but am going to pay for it.

My decision to buy the side panel window is pretty self-explanatory. I'm not too sure about the different types of internal lighting so after a bit of looking through and researching about cathodes and all those other types, the sleeved LED cables seem to be easy to install. I'm not sure if they would be the best though, if anyone could give me some idea of what the best kind of lighting is that would be great. As for the sleeved PSU cables, I've tried looking into it a little and because I want to go with neutral LED lighting for the case it would match both the case and the lighting. I also need more cable ties as I've exhausted all of the ones that came with my computer parts.

I've been looking at getting 'industrial' black Noctua fans to replace my current ones, specifically the industrial ones because the normal Noctua fans have some weird shade of brown. I'm not sure what the difference is between these are so if anyone could give me an idea that'd be great (I only intend to get 1 or 2 depending if I want to run more than a single fan):

Noctua NF-F12 Industrial PPC 120mm 2000RPM Fan ($32)
Noctua NF-F12 Industrial PPC 120mm 2000RPM IP67 PWM Fan ($35)
Noctua NF-F12 Industrial PPC 120mm 2000RPM PWM Fan ($32)
Noctua NF-F12 Industrial PPC 120mm 3000RPM PWM Fan ($32)

I'm not sure what else to get, but this is what I'm planning. I'd appreciate any help into this sort of stuff (sorry if this thread is a bit of an eyesore).
 
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Nice looking build. If you're wanting to light it up a little without blowing the budget, you could go for LED lit fans to replace the existing ones and maybe add a strip light top and/or bottom. I take your point with the CPU cooling. They look great and you can light them up nicely, but if you have a locked cores CPU it might be overkill... You could go LED sleeved cables too… but as you can see in photo 2 most of your power cables are running back behind where there should be so the effect wouldn't be so great. Neutral / white does look nice in the right case:

Thermaltake White Lumi Colour 12 LED Strip 30cm
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1354_1356&products_id=27897

Corsair Air Series SP120 White LED Fan Twin Pack (you can get the as single fans too)
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_510&products_id=28512
 
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Icaraeus

Icaraeus

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"If you're wanting to light it up a bit without blowing the budget..."

I don't really have a set budget for this, but I don't want to end up spending something like $500+ just for this, if you know what I mean. If there are any options that would end up looking better that are more expensive, I'm interested in what they would be but I don't want to spend too much.

I suppose I could loosen up some of the cables so that the sleeved ones would be more visible so that's not really a problem as long as the cables don't interfere with the airflow of the case.

Thermaltake White Lumi Colour 12 LED Strip 30cm

How do these differentiate from the NZXT sleeved LED cables? Are they brighter or something? Are there more expensive variants that end up looking better but aren't extremely expensive?

Corsair Air Series SP120 White LED Fan Twin Pack

Do these make much noise while running? I was initially interested in the Noctua's as they're reviewed to be extremely quiet but if these fans cool better while staying quiet (2 fans shouldn't be that loud I think, I only ever 1 fan running so I don't know).
 
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The nzxt led cable is a different method from a led strip or bar. Because its on a cable you can work it around & behind different parts of your build. It has led spots alond the cable that you position to light up different areas. Something like the led strip is commonly positioned like a rail along side your window to throw light into the case. Or even along side your mobo.

Not going to comment on the noise difference between models of fans. I'm a bit skeptical on exact db measurements they give anyhow. You've got to imagine from one system to another the acoustics space etc can be so different knowing exactly how much extra noise they will add is a guess at best. If you see one you like, I'd just google it and so long as you don't find anyone saying they sound like a hair dryer you'll be right.

Have a look at the prebuilt systems on PCCaseGear. Many have custom lighting with photos. If you see a setup that is like what you want to achieve, check what they have used in the parts list and change to the colour you want... Could give you a start anyhow.
 
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Icaraeus

Icaraeus

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Would there be a noticeable benefit from 3 fans blowing air through the CPU on top of fans blowing across the GPU, considering I have space for that (2 on the right, 1 on the left, 2 on the top) compared to a single fan running? Just wondering since I've seen builds like these, and it probably wouldn't be any noisier than a single fan considering they'd be the same fans.
 
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