How to Add LED Lights to a Gaming PC Case

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posted on 10 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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If you've always wanted to add some illumination to your killer gaming rig, we can show you how. By far, this is arguably the easiest and safest way to do so. As always, you're doing this at your own risk. We aren't held responsible for anything that may happen to your property. Practice caution and safety at all times. Scroll down to step 1 to begin.

Things You Should Know

Clean the inside of your case thoroughly to ensure the LED light strip sticks well.
Be aware of where to cut your LED strip lights—some strips can only be cut after every three LEDs.
Check to see if your LED light strip has a pair of wires to connect the power to; if it doesn't, you'll have to solder two wires to the positive and negative terminals.

Take out your Case's left side panel and clean it. Carefully unscrew the rear screws that hold your PC's side panel on to the main case. Slide it back and take it out. Assess the inside of the panel and see which parts you want to stick the LED strips on. Once you've chosen the part, get some tissue paper and wet it with alcohol. Rub the surfaces of the inside panel to remove dust, oil, or any other substances that will prevent a great stick.

Cut out the LED strips and secure them in place. Measure out and cut the strips to size. Most strips allow you to cut only every after 3 LEDs, so keep that in mind. Peel the back of the strips and lay them into the panel.

Connect the strips in a parallel. Measure and cut the wire to connect the strips in a series. Add a little allowance, as you will have to use wire stripper to take the insulator off the ends of the wires. Using the soldering gun, connect the wires to the strips. Make sure that the diodes (+/ -) are correctly connected. Most wires are color coded so you are less likely to make the mistake of connecting the positive diodes to the negatives. White or Black is positive and whatever else color should be the negative. Use the hot glue to secure the wires to keep them from moving around in the case.

Splice the LED strips into the MOLEX connector. The first end of the flexible LED strips should come with a pair of wires to connect power to. If not, then solder two wires to the positive and negative terminals. Grab your MOLEX connector. The Yellow wire is 12V, and the black is ground. Choose a connector you want to use as the place where you splice the connection. The connector end where the two branches meet is what you plug into the power supply. Use the wire stripper to split the black and yellow wire. Solder the black wire (ground) from your MOLEX connector to one wire from your strip assembly. Do the same for the other wire. Secure the connections by using some electrical tape.

Plug in the MOLEX connector to a vacant male MOLEX connector from your power supply. Locate a vacant male connector from your power supply to connect to your strip assembly. When you power your computer on, it should light up.