Hello great people of RIU....ive been using a mh/hps combo but im looking to upgrade to somthing better.....ive been looking into the cxb3590s but ive seen some people on here mention quantum boards....im looking to diy somthing for a 5x5 and looking for some input/help building a light...
CXB3590 are a waste of money nowdays. At $45 per cob, plus $20-30 per heatsink, you're at $65-75 per COB total. And you'd wanna run at 50w or so.
Samsung F series strips or quantum boards are the way to go. A single 22" single row samsung F series strip PLUS heatsink is $17 or so. And can run up to 50 watts each, and are 177 lumens/w typically.
Check out this thread. 5x5 tent with 900w of strips. His design was WAY overkill, but he pulled 1700+ grams or 1.9g per watt his second grow.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/samsung-f564b-linear-strip-build.953509/
This link has lots of builds, inc for 5x5 with links to parts too
http://ledgardener.com/diy-led-strip-build-designs-samsung-bridgelux/
You could do a 5x5 build for $600-700 easily. With CXB3590 cobs, a decent 5x5 build would cost you around $1300-1500 easily. And wont be as uniform and spread.