Case Lighting: Old School Cool or not anymore?

[Bindibadgi]

Gonna dump a poll in in a second but anyway think about this first:

Since we've come a long way from the days of first seeing case windows and (Maplin) cathodes on here and a few other modding sites (we'd like to think that we were first, certainly in the UK we were) and now with commercialisation having premodded "tat" is everywhere, has the normal case window + light turned from cool to crap? Remember the Lian 60s or Cooler Master 200/201s with windows and a few cathodes and cable wrap? Is that still old school cool or does it just make you grit your teeth?

[FooSai]

Depends how it's done......
If it's just thrown in then it's just "crap and horrid", standards have risen so much, but even simple "old skool" mods will look good if they are executed well.
You can make a huge impact with a bit thought put into lighting, and decent cable management. If you took some of the extremely talented modders (of which there are plenty) and told them to make a mod using simply a window, lighting and basic cable management you'd probably get some very elegant looking cases out of it

So I'm going to say..... in the right hands my vote lies with "old school cool"

[Cabe64]

^^ Agreed, it all depends on how its done. Its the same with anything really, done correctly it can make a great impact.

[DougEdey]

never been a fan of lighting myself, I don't look at my PC case, I look at my monitor.

[Colossous]

Old school cool done well looks cool as ! Remember the biege case is still waiting in the wings !!!

[FooSai]

Originally Posted by Hugo.B

And remember:
Blue and green
are never seen.


H.B.

Do I have to go find a picture of Dark Blade?

[Bindibadgi]

Originally Posted by Hugo.B

And remember:
Blue and green
are never seen.


H.B.

Macroblack.

[ComputerKing]

Lights Soundreactive... No less than that

[crazybob]

I'm going to buck the trend here and say windows and lights are crap and horrid. I want the case to be elegant and discreet, and since electronics PCBs look cluttered, they've got to be hidden. Even if you've got all PCBs the same color, with all your cables hidden and tastefully color-matched lights, I'll pass.

The mods that impress me are things like the ZapWizard ammo case that got bumped today, or even really well-executed paint jobs. Everyone knows how to cut a hole in a piece of aluminum and put lights and acrylic in. The whole point of modifying the case is to be unique, and that's hardly a unique mod these days.

[Veles]

Yeah I think I'm now of the opinion that the insides of a case should stay hidden, although it used to be cool for the "Ohh so thats what the insides of a PC looks like" coming from friends, but not I think it's much better to have a nicely themed case. Of course, there are some window + lights mods that do still look very, very cool.

[will.]

Very much depends on how its done. The massive holes int he side of a case with black rubber all over the place are crap. When they look like part of the case they are good. With case lighting, i prefer subtle.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

A mod now matter how big or small, complicated or simple has equal value to me. Most of my case mods have been simple and some people would say 'done to death' but i liked them and they made me happy.

For those of us who were in since the begining it will always be Old School Cool!

[edit] On a 'pre-mod though it is usually crap. [/edit]

[Almightyrastus]

Originally Posted by Article

Remember the Lian Li PC60, YY Cube or Cooler Master ATCS 200/1 with a window

You called?

That's what mine is at the moment (201), and that is about it for now. Not really got anything more in mind to do with it now, if anything it would be to get rid of the window and have a plain panel again, however inside stuff is higher on the list.

If done well and neatly then a simple window mod with some lighting and wrapped wires can still look good and up to date, sure modding has moved on a lot since then with people building cases entirely from scratch but I think there is still a place for simple, old styled mods.

[zhangmaster12]

typo: lighing

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well I'm gonna go with old school, as long as it is done properly and not some "pre-made buy it of the shelf" mod. That said my computer lives on the floor with one of those invisible windows (aka side panel taken off)...

[Computer Gremlin]

LED fans are distracting and case windows have outlived their prime. It was neat to see the hardware working away, fans spinning and the faint glow of a blue fan but after a couple months it had to go.

[yakyb]

again if done well it looks good but it easy to make a cheap version that looks sh!te

[specofdust]

Personally I wouldn't because my system stays on at night and I can't stand lights coming from it (the flashing blue HDD activity light is bloody annoying on my P180) - however I've seen modded cases with lights that look very cool. It's obviously totaly dependant on how they're done, but I think people should be giving it a go in mods, because it can really make insides look excellent.

[Darv]

I've got myself a Lian Li PC60 with a window and white lights. I say its old school cool. I still think windows and lights can look good if they are subtle. Not a load of flashing multicoloured lights in a cheap premod case.

Having said that, my next mod won't have any windows, internal lights but that's because it'll be an htpc.

[Firehed]

As long as it's done well/tastefully, old-school can really work well.