Poll:Do you have a lighted case?

[baleedit]

I picked medium. When I ordered my case fans, the cheapest ones were blue. I was planning on cutting the led wires, but it looks really good in an all aluminum case. If I still had a steel case, I would have definitely said lights are for kids. But now I only order blue lighted fans.

Pimpin ain't easy, especially as an old geek/nerd.

 

[HRslammR]

i def don't anymore. once i started sleeping in the same room as my comp and watching movies i became to prefer darkness. i'm starting to get to a silence preference too. might be looking into that in a bit

 

[Hauki]

I chose medium.
My case (Antec 900) runs with white & blue fan leds and a single 12" white ccfl recessed into the aluminum over the acrylic panel.
Looks great imo, and not too over the top

All case surfaces were painted black as well.

 

[Greg-O]

Seeing how I sleep in the same room as my computer I do not have any case lights or anything. The blue power light on the front of the case gets annoying by it self, so if i was to even invest in a case with lighting it definatly will have to have switches to turn them on and off and most likely will be off most of the time.

also another factor is that my case does not have any windows in it so there really is no point in it, as well I do not plan on putting one in anytime soon either...

 

[Droc]

Piles of lights are for posers in many situations.
In the end, its all about practical use.
If ya game for long hours at night, its a pain in the ass to have a pile of lights to one side...cant be good for the eyes.

 

[k427]

cool to see pictures of them but id hate to have one, too distracting. even disabled the activity and power light.

 

[m3ta1head]

My motherboard has blue LEDs, but they can be turned off in BIOS. I keep them on-inside a black, non windowed case, you hardly see them anyway, and they sort of add a nice touch.

I also have 2 white cathodes that I only turn on at LANs.

 

[illuminate]

I chose medium, i have3 LED fans, and then a blue led hub mounted in my case on teh front..

 

[dR.Jester]

I have (2) 12'' LED meteor lights on the top that beam blue down on the components. Two green CCFL's on the bottom and all my fans are lit up. My RAM also have lights on them.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w171/I-AM-J3ST3R/8800/DSC03323.jpg

 

[Garr3T]

Iights can be really annoying if over used. Can make the case look really gimmicky. I have one blue CC on the bottom, hidden so you can see the tube just the glow, and one UV CC behind all the bays, also so that you can just see the glow. My vid card, heatsink and case fans have blue led's on them, but nothing too obtrusive. It all plays together nicely to make a clean case.

Also a crap wiring job can blow any light job.

 

[Drudenhaus]

OCZ ram cooler has two 60mm LED fans (I'm seriously thinking of removing the LEDs or replacing the fans) and the Sunbeam fan power distributor has a LED for each 3 pin fan connector on it (also debating removing those). I'm not a fan of lights

 

[Down8]

My HTPC is Dark Knight status, since it would be distracting during movie/TV time.

Zero lights/LEDs. I went to the extreme of removing the power/HDD activity LEDs from the front of the case . The thing is completely blacked-out.

The one downside is that it can be hard to tell sometimes if the system is starting up correctly without any visual cues.

You mean you unplugged them, like brom42, right? I hope you didn't destroy something that was so simple to fix (and also not 'extreme')....

 

[anime4u]

It seems so far most pollsters prefer to work in the dark. I wonder if darkness will ultimately prevail!

 

[AmberClad]

You mean you unplugged them, like brom42, right? I hope you didn't destroy something that was so simple to fix (and also not 'extreme')....

I didn't smash them with a hammer, if that what you're asking . I just pulled out from their socket in the case's front face plate, along with the wiring. They're still perfectly serviceable if at some point I want to reinstall them, which I do from time to time, but I always end up going back to the no-frills look.

So in most cases, the only case wire I have connected is the power wire. (Yes, I'm neurotic about cable/wire tidiness )

 

[anamnesis]

Every cathode or LED product I've ever bought has substituted build quality for cheap sizzle. I've learned the hard way that both reliability and quiet performance doesn't come dressed in blue and green. I grew tired of replacing LED fans or lights every few months because they'd wear out, slowly dimming over time, or fail altogether. I've been building computers for 15 years, and currently run an Antec P182 with an Antec Phantom 500W PSU, XFX 7950 with passive radiator, a Scythe radiator on the CPU, and four Sony Fluid Dynamic Bearing 120mm fans (8 dBA of noise per fan), two of which quietly pull heat straight up through the CPU & GPU radiators and out the top where it naturally radiates to begin with. I have no added lights, although the Phantom does have some blue LEDs in the back that give a very faint glow. I can barely hear the computer running; it's so quiet that you'd think it was water-cooled. My priority now is to see how quiet and airflow-efficient my build can be, not how brightly I can light it up. In my opinion, the only thing lights do is take up space, consume extra power, make extra noise (the power inverters on some lights do make a noticeable electrical hum) and then eventually break. With very few exceptions, I've learned to instinctively avoid using or recommending just about any product with lights tacked onto it. Most experienced builders probably lose interest in lighting for the same reasons I did, but everyone is welcome to judge for themselves whether it's worth it in the long run.

Experience is the best teacher.