Updated 23 May, 2012, 6:39 pm IST

Case Lighting

08 Jul, 2007, 6:00 pm IST | by Gaurav Seth

Looks do matter

Case Lighting

With computers a part of daily life, people are looking for exclusivity. A couple of years back, when it came to computer cases, the only options one had were bland beige boxes which almost looked the same. Then there was a little sigh of relief with the introduction black cases and monitors. Though it was a welcome addition there still wasn’t much variation. Computer components were getting powerful with a great emphasis on graphics cards and processors that facilitated high resolution gaming. More and more games were getting multi-player capable with groups of people playing against each other over a Local Area Network (LAN). This led to a very popular phenomenon called LAN Parties. At LAN parties guys used to get their own computers to a local cyber caf� or at a home of fellow gamer and game against each other. They are also often referred to as BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) parties.

Now as mentioned before, gaming machines are mostly powerful machines with the best components possible to give the best frames rates (FPS) at a high resolution. With so much of horse power and customization under the hood, it's but obvious that one would like to show it off. So guys started cutting off the metal from the side panel and fitted transparent acrylic panels. To lighten up the inside they started mounting LEDs on case fans. This led to the development of a new market of case lighting products like LED fans, CCFL tubes and UV reactive motherboards and a whole lot of aesthetic and utility (like LED based CPU coolers) case lighting products. A few years ago there weren’t any case lighting products available in India and enthusiasts had to import it from outside. Recently, brands like Vantec, Coolermaster and Antec have introduced their case lighting products and there is a fair bit of variety. Let us have a look at the different categories of products available.

Side panel with Acrylic Transparent Window

Antec Nine Hundred

This is the most important part of case lighting. You need a transparent window to show off the stuff inside the chassis. You have pre-made transparent side panel chassis’s like Peace and Antibiotic from Zebronics and Nine Hundred from Antec. But mind you these cases come with LED fans. If you intend on having your own custom design, get a transparent side window made for yourself. Besides, these chassis’s are slightly expensive. To make your own, first take your side panel to a metal cutter and get a shape cut of your choice. Going with a symmetrical rectangular pattern is a safe bet. It shouldn’t cost you more than 50-100 Rupees. Next you need a transparent acrylic sheet to cover the hole. For that, you need to go to a local hardware store. Acrylic sheets to fit a side panel shouldn’t cost more than 200-250 Rupees. The last step is to fit the acrylic sheet to the side panel. Drill holes into the side panel and use rivet head screws to fit the sheet. Rivet head screws look good and are easily available. The whole exercise shouldn’t cost you more than 350-400 rupees.