Super Basic Case Front I/O Mod

[MalevolentSpoon]

So, let's say a guy had a super cheapo Rosewill mATX case, with a power button backlit by a blue LED. And he had the problem that he was gonna put a Red Team build in it, and the blue light right up front would harsh his vibes. #FirstWorldPCProblems

 

If said guy wanted to just change that LED from blue to a soft white, on a scale of 1-10 how difficult would that be to DIY modify?

 

On a similar note, what about swapping out the kinda ugly pink/green front audio ports to the more typical silver?

[Oshino Shinobu]

Kind of depends on the case (or really, the power button and LED). It would be easier to just replace the entire power button in most situations. 

 

EDIT: If you went with an anti-vandal switch, it would likely look nicer too 

 

[emosun]

5 minutes ago, MalevolentSpoon said:

If said guy wanted to just change that LED from blue to a soft white, on a scale of 1-10 how difficult would that be to DIY modify?

depends on what led it is

 

6 minutes ago, MalevolentSpoon said:

On a similar note, what about swapping out the kinda ugly pink/green front audio ports to the more typical silver?

for that just stick a sharpie in the port and presto now it's black

[mariushm]

42 minutes ago, MalevolentSpoon said:

So, let's say a guy had a super cheapo Rosewill mATX case, with a power button backlit by a blue LED. And he had the problem that he was gonna put a Red Team build in it, and the blue light right up front would harsh his vibes. #FirstWorldPCProblems

 

If said guy wanted to just change that LED from blue to a soft white, on a scale of 1-10 how difficult would that be to DIY modify?

 

On a similar note, what about swapping out the kinda ugly pink/green front audio ports to the more typical silver?

I would say it depends on your soldering skills and how that led is attached to the case.  If it's on a circuit board that can be unscrewed, then it's easy. If the led is glued or on a tiny circuit board that's riveted or held in place by some melted plastic, then it would be harder.

Anyway, once you gain access to the actual led, you'd just have to desolder the led which is typically easy. THrough hole or surface mount, the led would be easy to take off. Placing another one in place can be a bit harder if you have crappy soldering iron and solder... through hole (regular led with leads is easy), surface mount leds can be more of a pain.

Typically, it's just a simple led without any resistor or anything to control the amount of light produced, because the chipset gives a limited amount of energy to the led in the first place, so there's no risk of burning up the led due to too much current from chipset. So no need to remove or change anything else usually. 

You may want to be more careful about what led you buy, in particular the view angle ... one with very narrow angle will be like laser pointer making light maybe all the way to the other wall in your room at night, so you probably want one with 110 degree or higher view angle and / or matte glass, so that the light will be even and spread and diffuse.

 

 

Oh just realized it's a button with a blue led. That could be a problem. The led could be inside the plastic of the button and they could use some epoxy or some sort of filler material for rigidity, in which case it would be hard to replace the led. You may have to replace the whole button in that case. Can't say for sure until you actually check the button with your eyes.