Experiments in case lighting
Now that we have main mod of this project buttoned up, we needed to do some testing to determine what type of lighting we would apply to the case it's self. In the pic to the right you can see one of the handles on the case. I thought it would be cool to light them each according to the corresponding colors of the Microsoft logo, I did some testing on this but in the end I abandoned the idea as it looked great from one side of the case and was reversed on the other. I really liked the handle lighting, but as the main focus of this mod is the fact it was a Mac converted to a pc I felt that it distracted to much from the logo I had already created. Now if I had left in the original Mac logos using blue LED's in the handles and in the side panels would have been totally pimp.

I have one of those crazy Led flashlights, so I drove my self down to the local radioshaq to see what LED's they had (personally I don't like to use radio shack for my electronic component needs, there far to over priced... but I wanted to try to get this done today) I got some high bright red, green, blue and yellow. I just dropped them one at a time in to my flashlight and placed it in various places of the case so I could get an idea of the effects I could achieve. Here to the left I was playing with the blue. The interesting thing with the blue LED's is just how bright they are. One led was able to really light the entire side of the case up.

So in the end my trip to radio shack was in vain, after finding my old mag light I decided a white light was definitely the way to go with this project. So I moved the light around and decided on mounting it in the bottom center of the case, it really shows off the P4 and the logo very well. Good bright vivid color also. I would have liked to try the UV LED's with some reactive materials behind the logo to see if I could get it to glow with some cool effects. This lighting was cool in the end, but I think I want to get some EL materials and cut out the colored sections with an appropriate color and make just the logo glow with some accent lighting for the P4 under it. But that's the problem with me.... too many ideas and not enough time.

I choose Sunbeam Technologies LED Laser Beams for the lighting. <Sarcasm> I was surprised to find that there are no lasers involved in any of their products at all... </Sarcasm> I suppose its just the marketing "Cool Factor" that allows them to call anything a "Laser", but they do make a good product. Cheep, easy to install, and they power off your power supply so they are real easy to install and power. Adhesive bottoms, and they swivel to allow you to place them any where, and they have a spotlight and flood lenses for the led as well. There are convenient holes in the case for the power. I did have to cut the power wire to get it into the case as they have the standard 4 pin power adapter on them, but a little heat shrink tubing and there as good as new.

The finished project, I really think it shows off the logo's colors very well. I recently took this to a LAN party with about 50 people, as the lights were dim in the room we were playing in the case really stands out. It's bright, and surprisingly colorful, and confuses people right from the get go. So I would have to say the project was a success. If I had gone all out with blue lighting it would have been more of a naissance to me and other gamers and there for would have lost alot of the cool factor. Now if I can just make the case about 45 Lb Lighter I would be really happy.