Case Modding

The aesthetics of ‘case modding’ (modifying a PC’s enclosure) offer plenty of scope for debate and plenty of scope for original circuits. In the April 2003 issue of Elektor Electronics we presented a PC temperature indicator; and the circuit shown here falls into the same category.Low current LED indicators are usually fitted in PC enclosures. Although this certainly saves energy, the LEDs do not light particularly brightly. It is not completely straightforward to replace the low-current types with high-brightness types since the latter draw a current of 20 mA rather than 2 mA. This can — whatever people might tell you to the contrary — in some instances lead to excessive load on the LED drivers on the motherboard.