Introduction:

You've probably done all the possible mods to your poor case by now. Blowholes, suckholes, plexi, neons, baybus, paintjob, bla, bla....You're pretty happy with what you've achieved so far and the system is also running pretty. you must be thinking, "What else can I do here?" Boy have I got a simple mod idea for ya peeps! I was getting pretty bored with the Green and Amber case LEDs of my HX08, so I decided to change it to a Bright Blue and Red combo! Hey, you've already done every possible mod to your case, so this one is not gonna hurt! Not that much anyway! So let's get to it then, shall we?

First of all, you need to find out how much voltage is your mobo supplying to your case LEDs. My bud Ed Heinrich tells me that his Soyo mobo is measured to give out around 2.0V to his case LEDs. So off I went and got myself an al cheapo DMM. That's a Digital Multi Meter for you who've never heard of that term before! I removed the Case LEDs connectors from the mobo and pitted the test leads of the DMM to the jumpers for the HDD and POWER LEDs on the mobo. Make sure you put the leads to the correct jumpers. Most mobos will have some kind of indication on the PCB. If yours doesn't, get the manual!

After testing the jumpers out, I got an average reading of about 2.1V from each LED jumper. That's fine and dandy for my LEDs! No need for resistors there! The LEDs I'm using has a voltage rating of 1.5V, with a max working voltage of 2.5V. So, 2.1V ain't gonna hurt! If you do not have a DMM and still want to do this, here's what I think. "I think most mobos should, or would, give out the same reading of around the 2.0V region. It could be slightly more, or less. Example, a lot of people use the AOpen HX08 Full Tower, right? But not all use the same mobos. But the stock case LEDs works fine with all the different mobos. Just in case you want to be on the safer side of things, get an LED with a higher voltage rating, say 4V or 5V. It might not be as bright, but at least you won't have a burnt LED!" That's what I think anyway! Correct me if I'm wrong! Please! I don't have many mobos to try on anyway! OK..let's get to the fun stuff!

The DMM measuring the jumper voltage
Click to enlarge

Remove the HDD and POWER LEDs from your case. Some case might have a clip for that, others glued them down. In any case, doing this WILL void the warranty, so do it at your own damn risk! Equipment? Tools? Parts? Well, there's not much of it, just a plier, a soldering iron, some heat shrink tubes and the LEDs themself. Oh yeah, don't forget that pack of smokes! Hey, you'll probably need a break! You will need to cut off the stock LEDs from the connectors first. That's pretty easy to do with the pliers.

Cut off the LED
Click to enlarge

Next, you will need to strip off about 10mm of the protective layer of the wire. You will solder this wires to the LED terminals. Make sure you got the wires connection to the LEDs right, or the LEDs won't light up. Generally, the case LED connector wires will come in two colours. The white wire is the ground, or negative. The other wire, a coloured one, is the positive. The LED themself will have two terminals. One short, and the other one, longer. The short terminal is where you hook up the ground or negative white wire.

LED removed Click to enlarge

Strip off 10mm of protective cover Click to enlarge

Wound the wire around the LED terminal and put the soldering iron to it and solder that baby down! You should get something like this.

Wound the wire on the LED Terminal Click to enlarge

Soldered! Click to enlarge

To give the job a more professional look, heheh!, use the heat shrink tubings over the connection. This will also protect the connection from any possible short-circuiting. Do the same to the other terminal and also the other case LED connector. Once done, you will get something like the picture below!

Slap on the LEDs to the position and hook the connector up to the mobo jumpers. Turn on your system and the new LEDs will light up! I used the Blue one for POWER LED and the Red one for the HDD LED. It sure looks better than the stock green and amber LEDs now! Now you truly have a totally modded case!

Let me know if this has helped you or if you got any Qs! Enjoy!