Light tube's or LED's?

[Caspian3920]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm planning to buy some lights to put in my case, but I have a few questions:

1. Wich one is brighter? The "tube's" or the LED light's?

2. Are the tube's very fragile?

(the colour I'm planning to buy is blue)

 

What I mean with light tube's: http://tinyurl.com/kgysjjb

[AMD Lover]

LED's

[s3ns3]

5050 led

[AddonCustoms]

LEDs all the way.

[NewAndreas]

5050 led

<3

[nsyedhasan]

I would get LED strips instead because they are just really very easy to work with.

[Yummychickenblue]

I think the tubes look better.

[chaozbandit]

LEDs are a more flexible solution and are brighter but do cost a bit more. Cathodes are harder to place, but provide more even lighting. Having used both solutions, I hands down prefer my current LED setup.

[ElegantMess]

If you're interested, I'll link you a video I did of some sound activated LED's that I did a MOD with to one of my cases. This should give you an idea of something you can do with it. It did come out REALLY cool, and is definitely bright enough, but you can control them however you want. These I did with a sound controller, so if you just skip to like 6:00 minutes into the video that's where the light show start :-)

Elegant Mess

This will show the finished product at 6:00 minutes in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPzYlxI6W38

 

This is the actual install video of how I did it if you have any questions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvvFxpaYcxw

[Socratic]

Pros for LED's;

• Flexibility, could probably bend round corners but I haven't tried.
• Lower power consumption
• Give a much truer colour
• Can be cut to any length
• Low heat
• Can be fastened with ties or straps between the lights without losing emitted light

Cons for LED's 

• Focused light, mostly shining in one direction with a reduced glow 90+ degree spread either side

Pros for Cathodes

• "360" degree of lighting
• Makes for better UV lighting
• Much brighter in general
• Look better when displayed IMO

Cons for Cathodes

• Not true colours with Red which is usually Pink, can't comment on other colours as I do not own any or have read any reviews
• Heat dissipation from Inverter is a lot

Cost wise, well you don't want to skimp on cathodes, Logisys and Bitspower are recommended brands, Xenta are not. LED's you can buy cheap and bountiful and get decent quality from ebay. I have very cheap, like £1 a strip and I am happy.

 

Forgot to mention, cathodes aren't too fragile that you will break them just from handling them. I've even thrown one a good few feet that landed on another cathode.

[coen113]

please use imgur links instead of tinyurl/bit.ly ones