Some love'em, some hate 'em: PC lighting effects. Any computer can be decked out with lights with only a modest amount of effort, no matter what its make or design. The industry offers a variety of different kinds of lighting, such as the popular light-up system fan. There's also the classic cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) light sticks, and basic LED spots that can be placed anywhere in the case.

We scoped around to see what is out there along the lines of lighting effects, and we uncovered a number of interesting solutions. We packed everything into a Plexiglas case by Sharkoon to allow you to get a good look at our results.

These kinds of lighting effects will get you attention anywhere.

The accompanying video is available: Download Total Case (4 MB)

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Projects like these are possible with a Plexiglas showcase

In My View

I had a great time modding with lighting effects . I put everything I could get my hands on into Sharkoon's Plexiglas case. It sounds crazy, but I wanted to see how much stuff I could get in there.

The only thing I didn't think about beforehand was the big mess of cables this would entail. Each pair of cold-cathode light sticks needs its own voltage converter, which takes up a lot of time when installing the cables and units. The much-too-short cables were a hindrance as well.

Plus, getting a lighted fan running was not as simple a matter as I had imagined. Most fans only have a 3-pin plug for the power source. While all motherboards have one, none can hold up with more than 3 fans. The industry has considered this problem, however, and developed simple adapters that attach to the end of a Molex plug from the power supply to make adding lighting easier.

One final thing I learned working with my 'lighthouse': too many lighting effects look cheesy and are a strain on the eyes!