Front-panel bay switches

Remove all ads!

I've recently ventured into the realm of PC-modding, and was interested in putting a set of switches in one of my 3.5" front-panel bays. I'd want these switches to be able to turn off the lights within my case, as well as the Musketeer I've got.

I'd be more interested in a pre-packaged solution like the Vantec Nexus NXP-305, but haven't ruled out building my own bay switch. Any ideas or recommendations?

 

Well now...it's about time!

The front of your case is sometimes the only part of the computer you can see...depending on where it's at, so you HAVE to spruce it up!

As for switches for lights: make your own. That way, you can wire as many fans or lights as you want together, and if they don't work, you only have yourself to blame.

For any other front panel displays, I can only recommend ONE...and it's got to be the best on the market:

VL Systems LIS - Premium

Go Do a google search for "VL Systems" to go to their homepage or go to xoxide.com and look for it there. It is a bit pricy, but every thing is when it comes to computers. It does a lot, and it looks good doing it. Some of it's features are:

• 4 channel fan controller (controlls up to 4 deferent fans)
• Various temp displays for various parts inside the computer
• CPU type/speed/load
• Total RAM/current available RAM
• Email check
• Message alarm
• And a really cool icon builder program that lets you make a custom icon.

The Vantec thing is pretty, but useless as the knob is restricting, and most cases already come with front USB/Firewire ports.

 

The LIS is sweet, but with an Audigy2 ZS Pro panel, two DVD drives, and the Musketeer (useless but it looks very cool), I'm all out of 5.25" bays.

The Vantec Nexus NXP-305 is the one with the 3 fan controllers and the 1 light controller that fits in a 3.5" bay.

How hard is it to make a bay switch to control the lights? I'd want at least two LED rocker switches...one to kill the cold-cathodes, the other to kill the Musketeer.

By the way, my case is the Antec P160.

 

Not hard at all. Even if you want a dimmer, still a cinch: just a variable resistor setup. (I did one with a LDR: if day, then no cold cathodes. If night, yes cold cathodes.) Google it if you want to DYI: really basic electronics. The interesting bit would be making the front of the 3.5" bay right. If needed, pull out the bit covering the bay, assemble the stuff on the back of that, drill a hole, put a knob/switch in there and put it back. At least then you'll have no probs with getting the colours to match. Or do the same at the back of the case if you don't really want to show off the control system. If you must, get an analog rheobus and use the basics of that. They use variable resistors. But in the end this all comes down to how confident you are with soldering irons et cetera. How much experience have you got in this area? I mean if you did Electronics in high school, you're probably comfortable with cutting stuff up. But if you've ever done this stuff before, be careful not to get your wires crossed over etc. Apparently you can take photos with a digital camera, print, then do the mod... so you know how to fix it if you stuff up.

 

Just another thought.

If you know what you're doing - which at this point I'm guessing that you do, otherwise you wouldn't by thinking of making your own mod - you can add a little extra light to the front panel itself. I'm not suggesting that you mount a cold cathode light on the front, but instead, you could drill an extra hole right under the hole you drilled for the switches. Then wire up a red/green LED so that it lights up red when the switch is turned off and lights up green when you flip the switch to on.