Question PC LED strip recommendations

Axel Scotte

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Nov 18, 2016
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PH-FF-RGBP.jpg

I purchased some Phanteks Halo frames like the ones above for my PC. I keep them on blue all the time and after 8-12 months the blue light starts to die and going green. The 2 year warranty is up so I can no longer ask the manufacturer to swap them out. Does anyone have recommendations for LED strips that I can purchase, whose blue light doesn't die out? I tend to keep my PCs for a long time (~10 years) so something that lasts many, many years.

Are these good?
 
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aigomorla

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I do not think anything made in china can last 10+ yrs in general.
Most of those RGB strips are made in china, unless you want to pay a ridiculous amount of money that says its made in USA, but actually sourced in china, and box'd in the USA.

Your better off buying something in regards to having to think about replacing it after a few years.

I do not even have server fans which lasted 10 yrs of constant usage, as dust will eventually win, and you will eventually clog the bearings on the fan with dust, which then leads to the fan failing.
 

Axel Scotte

Member
Nov 18, 2016
25
2
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I do not think anything made in china can last 10+ yrs in general.
Most of those RGB strips are made in china, unless you want to pay a ridiculous amount of money that says its made in USA, but actually sourced in china, and box'd in the USA.

Your better off buying something in regards to having to think about replacing it after a few years.

I do not even have server fans which lasted 10 yrs of constant usage, as dust will eventually win, and you will eventually clog the bearings on the fan with dust, which then leads to the fan failing.

A few years is better than 8-12 months. Do you have recommendations for those LED strips?

My last PC with fans lasted 10 years. 6 years for the one before that.
 

aigomorla

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Do you have recommendations for those LED strips?

I really don't because as it boils down to it, its probably all made in Shenzhen, regardless of what company it is.
I would go heavily on what has the most feedback on amazon, and go from there, as well as look at the vendor and see if the vendor has any negative feedback.
 

mindless1

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Without getting too technical, all you have to do is pick a strip that runs off 12V and examine it for # of LEDs in series and the current limiting resistor value, then do a series LED calculation to determine what value of resistor you add, in series, to drop current more. It can be placed on just the positive or negative power feed to all, no need to put resistors in series with every LED series-set.

They won't be "as" bright but will last multiple times as long.
 

mindless1

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I do not even have server fans which lasted 10 yrs of constant usage, as dust will eventually win, and you will eventually clog the bearings on the fan with dust, which then leads to the fan failing.

?? Might be they're higher RPM than what I've been using but all my dual ball bearing fans running 24/7, have lasted well over 10 years. They're mostly Sanyo San Ace 120mm and NMB 80mm. Granted, filtered intake so have to clean that every few years.

Heh, those NMB fans... bought a case of 80 for $40 back in 2001. It was a deal in the Hot Deals forum, maybe I started it, but with the forum changes, can't find that topic now. Dead link: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=641124&STARTPAGE=1
 

aigomorla

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?? Might be they're higher RPM than what I've been using but all my dual ball bearing fans running 24/7, have lasted well over 10 years. They're mostly Sanyo San Ace 120mm

they are sanyo denki san aces 80mm and 120mm.
and yes they were on full blast.

The 120 were mounted on a large radiator i used with a central reservior that was basically a 20 gallon tank recirculating to a 120x9 radiator.
That had 9 san aces mounted on it, and fed 3 servers using koolance's pci-e by pass, and DDC's mounted at the rear outside.

I don't use that setup anymore as its just too much of a hassle.
Id also didn't like how even tho i water cooled the processors, i still needed the 80mm sanaces which were LOUD, so it didn't really fix anything noise wise.

But maybe because my san aces were sitting next to a window blowing out as i did not want the hot air from the water to be dump'd into the room.
 
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