Anybody looking to deck their computer out with lights would also want as many effects as possible too, of course. Enter the Lightbus, which uses four control channels to generate 625 different blinking effects. The channels can be set up individually, although they are not freely programmable.

As a special feature, the controller offers linking with the soundcard and hard drive LEDs. Hard drive data access is detected via the HDD connection on the motherboard. An adapter is provided to translate audio signals into optical ones by looping through the sound signal. Once you select the sound button, the little lights flash according to the sound level. The audio and hard drive signals can be assigned to any of the four channels. The four knobs allow dimming of the output channels, so that the LEDs or fans react to the Lightbus in different ways. It's too bad the effects can't be set via software, but Sunbeam is working on this and has already provided us with a predotype of an internal USB version.

Lightbus controller retail box

625 lighting effects can be generated

Four lighting outputs

Knob and button controls

The Lightbus controller predotype is intended to match wits with the T-Balancer