# Case LEDs



## Octopuss (Feb 27, 2019)

Does anyone know what the hell happened to green/red power/HDD case LEDs? I can't even rememeber what was the last time I saw non-blue LEDs - probably late 90's.
#firstworldproblems


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## Jetster (Feb 27, 2019)

I think they left with the Beige cases


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## Wavetrex (Feb 27, 2019)

Sometimes I wonder why they don't put RGB in the Power and HDD leds ?


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## rtwjunkie (Feb 27, 2019)

The white Fractal Design R4 has red power LED button.  That might be the only one I have seen for awhile.


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## Octopuss (Feb 27, 2019)

It just doesn't make any sense.
I'm sick of the damn blue light


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## sneekypeet (Feb 27, 2019)

Typically they are just an LED hot-glued into the front I/O panel, and could easily be changed.

While I do see many in blue, white seems more popular, and I would assume the color has changed for aesthetic reasons. Also red promotes anger while blue is supposedly calming.


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 27, 2019)

With those LEDs of the 90s. They were often plain white LEDs  behind a small peice of colored plastic. As technology progressed LEDs started coming out in what ever colour you can think of.

Theres nothing stopping you from using a colored marker on an LED though. Ive seen someone use a blue or red marker on white LEDs when they couldnt get the colours they wanted from the store. its just a simple way to get it done.


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## Octopuss (Feb 27, 2019)

Green power LED makes a lot more sense though 
If there is some psychology involved in global LED colour movement, this world is fucked


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## sneekypeet (Feb 27, 2019)

Octopuss said:


> Green power LED makes a lot more sense though
> If there is some psychology involved in global LED colour movement, this world is fucked



Just wondering, is this a philosophical discussion, or do you have plans to make a move to a new chassis and desire this?

I think Nanoxia cases still have green LEDs.


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## Octopuss (Feb 27, 2019)

It's pure complaining 
I've recently built a home server and the LEDs are just annoying the hell out of me, and I remembered the late 90's or early 2000's.


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## sneekypeet (Feb 27, 2019)

Octopuss said:


> I've recently built a home server and the LEDs are just annoying the hell out of me



May I ask which chassis? Maybe there is a simple way like Freedom was getting at earlier to mod it so you aren't as annoyed by it.

Reason I ask as things like this exist.. https://www.ebay.com/p/4in1-PC-Powe...or-Computer/631889283?iid=142232821294&chn=ps

Just take the lights and glue them into your I/O...if they are the same sort of LEDs used.


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## Octopuss (Feb 27, 2019)

Bitfenix Phenom M.
I'm also quite baffled why they made the power LED SO powerful. I can literally see it from the bedroom through matt glass in the doors lighting up the entire corner of the living room. I think I'll just unplug the damn cable


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## sneekypeet (Feb 27, 2019)

Octopuss said:


> Bitfenix Phenom M.
> I'm also quite baffled why they made the power LED SO powerful. I can literally see it from the bedroom through matt glass in the doors lighting up the entire corner of the living room. I think I'll just unplug the damn cable



Shit, I just looked at my older review images, and it appears the lights are built into the switches 
Not even sure its worth pulling the screws from the back of the I/O panel to look. Without some soldering, I doubt it can be easily changed. Unplugging it is the cheapest solution


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## Jetster (Feb 28, 2019)

I hate the blue too. It's like a piercing blue saber cutting into my brain


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## flmatter (Feb 28, 2019)

small piece of electrical tape does the job just fine


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## biffzinker (Feb 28, 2019)

flmatter said:


> small piece of electrical tape does the job just fine


Also works for cameras.


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## John Naylor (Feb 28, 2019)

My most desired function / feature for any LED ... the OFF switch.  When Phanteks came out w/ the Luxe, I thought, OK... that 'accent" ont e case is not too blingie blingie and it comes with an OFF button, it was a yippie moment when reaized it also came with a  control function that allowed you to turn off or color cordinate all the case LEDs ... then immediately wondered ... why not the indicator LED's too ?

Fortunately doesn't matter to me, I use an L shaped desk and when seated in front of the KB drawer on the return, I, looking at the case window where i can see the MoBo LCD and starrt up test LEDs thru the window if so inclined.  Would love to see the day where a MoBo Socket was provided such that all System LEDs could be output to an LCD screen located in 5.25" drive bays or the side of the HD cage if window panel provided a view of.  And yes must have feauture ... off button.   But also a channel button for optional inputs say for TV card, sound equalizer, whatever,


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## Jetster (Mar 3, 2019)

Just noticed CoolerMaster stil uses red leds.


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## Vario (Mar 3, 2019)

I don't plug in any of the LEDs on my case.  Just annoys me.  I just connect the power and reset switch headers and leave the power and HDD LEDs and the speaker unconnected.

I put electrical tape over my monitor's LED too.

As far as blue, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side


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## hat (Mar 3, 2019)

Vario said:


> I don't plug in any of the LEDs on my case.  Just annoys me.  I just connect the power and reset switch headers and leave the power and HDD LEDs and the speaker unconnected.



Same here. Not even sure what the colors are on mine. I think they're the aforementioned green and red (or is it orange?), though. My case is quite old.


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## Vario (Mar 3, 2019)

hat said:


> Same here. Not even sure what the colors are on mine. I think they're the aforementioned green and red (or is it orange?), though. My case is quite old.



My motherboard has a code display on it so I can tell what it is doing and if the system is hung and non responsive I'll just power cycle it, I don't really give a shit if the HDD is doing anything or not.  If its hung, I am going to power cycle it anyway.  As far as power LED, its clearly either on or off because my fans make a faint audible whir.


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 3, 2019)

Just noticed secondary rig has an Enermax case with a blue power led and a red activity led.  Wonder of wonders, neither of them is obnoxiously bright!


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## Caring1 (Mar 3, 2019)

My Corsair case hase a nice white power switch LED that doesn't burn your retinas out at night, the old X79 motherboard contained within also has a night light function built in to the BIOS, so it isn't as harsh on the eyes.


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## s3thra (Apr 3, 2019)

My ThinkStation at work has a green power light:


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

FreedomEclipse said:


> With those LEDs of the 90s. *They were often plain white LEDs  behind a small peice of colored plastic. *As technology progressed LEDs started coming out in what ever colour you can think of.



No they werent. White LEDs weren't even invented until the late 90's, and when they first came out they were outrageously expensive.  I remember even in the early 2000s they were still $4-5 apiece.  Red, green, and yellow were pennies apiece by comparison.  Whether the case is clear or colored is irrelevant. LEDs output different colors depending on the junction material.  Colored/frosted-clear cases are used for more diffused light, while clear projects a "beam" out the front.



> Theres nothing stopping you from using a colored marker on an LED though. Ive seen someone use a blue or red marker on white LEDs when they couldnt get the colours they wanted from the store. its just a simple way to get it done.



That depends on the LED and the marker or filter.  White LEDs are actually a blue or UV junction with a phosphor coating that emits white (just like a fluorescent bulb).  If you try it with a red marker on a cool white LED, and the coating is thick enough, it won't be bright as you think, since the output spectrum of a cool white is mostly blue with very little red.  That's the same reason you have to be careful when using LEDs in your car dashboard - many stock gauges have color filters to get multiple colors from the incandescent bulb, and if you wanted to make your dash blue, for example, your red markings will be dark/black.


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> No they werent. White LEDs weren't even invented until the late 90's, and when they first came out they were outrageously expensive.  I remember even in the early 2000s they were still $4-5 apiece.  Red, green, and yellow were pennies apiece by comparison.  Whether the case is clear or colored is irrelevant. LEDs output different colors depending on the junction material.  Colored/frosted-clear cases are used for more diffused light, while clear projects a "beam" out the front.










Well each to their own. I know what i saw back in school and when i took apart facias off old IBMs from the late 80s, and HPs, CompaQs and some other unknown brand beige PC cases in the 90s 




taz420nj said:


> That depends on the LED and the marker or filter.  White LEDs are actually a blue or UV junction with a phosphor coating that emits white (just like a fluorescent bulb).  If you try it with a red marker on a cool white LED, and the coating is thick enough, it won't be bright as you think, since the output spectrum of a cool white is mostly blue with very little red.  That's the same reason you have to be careful when using LEDs in your car dashboard - many stock gauges have color filters to get multiple colors from the incandescent bulb, and if you wanted to make your dash blue, for example, your red markings will be dark/black.



I never said that it was a great way to do it. I never said that it would be identical to shop bought ones in the actual colour desired. I never said anything about putting it in car dashboards or recommended in putting it in car dashboards. 

Ive seen someone use the markers to mod white LEDs when they couldnt buy blue LEDs for their Logitech Z-5500 control box. One guy used blue marker on white LEDs. the other guy used red LEDs but of course the colour is never gonna be any REAL substitute for an actual blue or red LED but thats why they call them ghetto mods.

If your that pedantic then find another shop that has the LEDs that you want.

though on a side note, you probably could use them on a car dashboard providing you coat it a few times with the marker applying another layer after letting it dry. 

#GhettoMods


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Well each to their own. I know what i saw back in school and when i took apart facias off old IBMs from the late 80s, and HPs, CompaQs and some other unknown brand beige PC cases in the 90s



Um. No. You didn't. There was no such thing as a white LED in the 1980s. And manufacturers were certainly not using $10/piece white LEDs with a green lens when they could use a $0.06 green LED in the 90s.  "To each their own"???  This isn't an opinion, it's recorded history.  You can't possibly have "seen" something back in school a decade before it was invented.


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> Um. No. You didn't. There was no such thing as a white LED in the 1980s. And manufacturers were certainly not using $10/piece white LEDs with a green lens when they could use a $0.06 green LED in the 90s.  "To each their own"???  This isn't an opinion, it's recorded history.  You can't possibly have "seen" something back in school a decade before it was invented.



What's true to you is true to you


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 19, 2019)

The white LED's freedom is referring to may have been blue with phosphor coating, or combined RGB which both produced white.


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## INSTG8R (Apr 19, 2019)

Jetster said:


> I hate the blue too. It's like a piercing blue saber cutting into my brain


See all this blue hate is so weird to me. I can't stand any other colour BUT Blue, the cool unimposing serenity of it. Anything else is just too bright and jarring...


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## 27MaD (Apr 19, 2019)

The case i'm using now is from 2007 and actually it has the green/red LEDs.


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

tigger said:


> The white LED's freedom is referring to may have been blue with phosphor coating, or combined RGB which both produced white.



RGB LEDs didnt exist in the 80s either because blue was another mid 90s invention. And just think about that for a second because that makes even less sense than using a phosphor white.. why would they use an RGB LED (and its associated control circuitry) to output white, then put it behind a red or green filter when it would be much cheaper and easier to just use a red or green LED?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> RGB LEDs didnt exist in the 80s either because blue was another mid 90s invention. And just think about that for a second because that makes even less sense than using a phosphor white.. why would they use an RGB LED (and its associated control circuitry) to output white, then put it behind a red or green filter when it would be much cheaper and easier to just use a red or green LED?



It would have been a tri colour led tuned to emit white, or are you telling me they didn't have that either. Your'e a bit of a LED know it all aren't you, did you come here to imbibe us all with your knowledge of LED technology?

Also I was NOT on about green or red, please reply to the right comment. I was referring to you pooing of Freedom's comment about white leds. I KNOW they would just use green for green or red for red.


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## John Naylor (Apr 19, 2019)

I would love to see systems equipped with small LCDs that go beyond the 2 digit troubleshooting codes.  Beeps (thpo I haven't actiually heard one since the 90s), MoBo LEDs, no more 2 digit displays can remain, but a LCD which worked at the hardware level to display error messages during the boot process, could display BIOS screens, HWiNFO, MSI AB, game options, even TV channels would rock ... mounted in 5.25 bays, side of HD cages with TG side panels, even front of case where side vents are used to provide air flow to front fans, etc


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

tigger said:


> It would have been a tri colour led tuned to emit white, or are you telling me they didn't have that either. Your'e a bit of a LED know it all aren't you, did you come here to imbibe us all with your knowledge of LED technology?
> 
> Also I was NOT on about green or red, please reply to the right comment. I was referring to you pooing of Freedom's comment about white leds. I KNOW they would just use green for green or red for red.


That's exactly what I'm saying, because there were no BLUE LEDs in the 1980s or early 90s, so there OBVIOUSLY would not have been tri color RGB because a crucial part of them (the blue element) was not even invented yet.


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 19, 2019)

s3thra said:


> My ThinkStation at work has a green power light:
> 
> View attachment 120112


I like that. Kinda miss the Amber colored ones too.


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

FreedomEclipse said:


> What's true to you is true to you


I suppose next you'll claim these 1980s computers you worked on in school had USB ports right next to the white LEDS too. Once again, it is not an opinion, it is an indisputable fact. White LEDS did not exist in any form in the time frame you claim to have "seen" them.


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> No they werent. White LEDs weren't even invented until the late 90's


Um, bro, white LEDs were invented shortly after green ones. They were very expensive though which made them unappealing to manufacturers. I had a Panasonic portable cassette player in 1988 that had a white LED power light.


taz420nj said:


> because there were no BLUE LEDs in the 1980s or early 90s


There were, they were just white LED's encased in blue plastic.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> That's exactly what I'm saying, because there were no BLUE LEDs in the 1980s or early 90s, so there OBVIOUSLY would not have been tri color RGB because a crucial part of them (the blue element) was not even invented yet.



You are WRONG-
In August 1989, Cree introduced the first commercially available blue LED based on the indirect bandgap semiconductor, silicon carbide (SiC).[42] SiC LEDs had very low efficiency, no more than about 0.03%, but did emit in the blue portion of the visible light spectrum.[_citation needed_] [43]

In the late 1980s, key breakthroughs in GaN epitaxial growth and p-type doping[44] ushered in the modern era of GaN-based optoelectronic devices. Building upon this foundation, Theodore Moustakas at Boston University patented a method for producing high-brightness blue LEDs using a new two-step process in 1991.[45]

Two years later, in 1993, high-brightness blue LEDs were demonstrated by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia Corporation using a gallium nitride growth process similar to Moustakas's.[46][47][48] Both Moustakas and Nakamura were issued separate patents, which confused the issue of who was the original inventor (partly because although Moustakas invented his first, Nakamura filed first).[_citation needed_] This new development revolutionized LED lighting, making high-power blue light sources practical, leading to the development of technologies like Blu-ray, as well as allowing the bright high-resolution screens of modern tablets and phones


Notice, commercially available.
source

Not the know it all you think you are it seems


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> There were, they were just white LED's encased in blue plastic.



Right. Because the blue LEDs that were invented before white LEDs were made from white LEDs.  And Brawndo has what plants crave.



tigger said:


> You are WRONG-
> In August 1989, Cree introduced the first commercially available blue LED based on the indirect bandgap semiconductor, silicon carbide (SiC).[42] SiC LEDs had very low efficiency, no more than about 0.03%, but did emit in the blue portion of the visible light spectrum.[_citation needed_] [43]
> 
> In the late 1980s, key breakthroughs in GaN epitaxial growth and p-type doping[44] ushered in the modern era of GaN-based optoelectronic devices. Building upon this foundation, Theodore Moustakas at Boston University patented a method for producing high-brightness blue LEDs using a new two-step process in 1991.[45]
> ...


So remind me again, did the 80s come before or after 1993?


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> Right. Because the blue LEDs that were invented before white LEDs were made from white LEDs.


Sorry bro, Wikipedia isn't always right. White came first a solid 5 years before blue. I know because I had electronics with them.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> Right. Because the blue LEDs that were invented before white LEDs were made from white LEDs.  And Brawndo has what plants crave.
> 
> 
> So remind me again, did the 80s come before or after 1993?



You said no BLUE LEDs in the 1980s or early 90s, so shut it and admit you are wrong.



taz420nj said:


> So remind me again, did the 80s come before or after 1993?



Remind me again, is 1989 in the 80's??


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

tigger said:


> You said no BLUE LEDs in the 1980s or early 90s, so shut it and admit you are wrong.


Wow, so the "first" one, which was basically a proof of concept more than anything, since they were expensive and uselessly dim, existed for a whole 4 months of the 80s. Plenty of time for them to be adopted into mainstream use by large computer corporations as indicators during the entire decade. Blue LEDS as we know them were not demonstrated until 1993, let alone marketed. And then of course they were prohibitively expensive to use in anything but precision scientific instruments. 


lexluthermiester said:


> Sorry bro, Wikipedia isn't always right. White came first a solid 5 years before blue. I know because I had electronics with them.



No. It didnt.  they were invented in 1997 and based off blue.  Even today there is no junction material that produces white on its own. They are all phosphor which doesnt work without blue or UV.  Cool white LEDs that can "dim to soft" today are two separate elements that are controlled based on voltage to produce the desired color. 
https://www.laserfocusworld.com/art...d-comprises-blue-led-and-inexpensive-dye.html


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## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> Wow, so the "first" one, which was basically a proof of concept more than anything, since they were expensive and uselessly dim, existed for a whole 4 months of the 80s. Plenty of time for them to be adopted into mainstream use by large computer corporations as indicators during the entire decade. Blue LEDS as we know them were not demonstrated until 1993, let alone marketed. And then of course they were prohibitively expensive to use in anything but precision scientific instruments.
> 
> 
> No. It didnt.  they were invented in 1997 and based off blue.  Even today there is no junction material that produces white on its own. They are all phosphor which doesnt work without blue or UV.  Cool white LEDs that can "dim to soft" today are two separate elements that are controlled based on voltage to produce the desired color.
> https://www.laserfocusworld.com/art...d-comprises-blue-led-and-inexpensive-dye.html



it said commercially available, read it, that is not proof of concept at all. Also 1993 is early 90's. Why does it bother you so much about LEDs? Do you just have to be right?


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 19, 2019)

taz420nj said:


> No. It didnt. they were invented in 1997 and based off blue.


Ok, you believe what you want. I was there and I owned the electronics(plural) that contained them.


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## taz420nj (Apr 19, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Ok, you believe what you want. I was there and I owned the electronics(plural) that contained them.


Because Brawndo's got electrolytes.



tigger said:


> it said commercially available, read it, that is not proof of concept at all. Also 1993 is early 90's. Why does it bother you so much about LEDs? Do you just have to be right?


Because flat out lies, such as those being told by freedomeclipse and lexluthermeister annoy the crap out of me.


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## sneekypeet (Apr 19, 2019)

This argument is pointless, and you all need to stop. The history of the LED is not the topic of this thread. One and only warning.


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