Putting together a mid ATX case

Hey all, Ive been doing research on growing these beauties for quite some time, have collabed with a buddy and have a small number of grows under our belts. Im going to go solo for this small project and have been crusin these forums the past two weeks to get enough info on CFLs and micro grows.

Plan on testing a bag seed pulled from some meds I bought a lil while back; will be using a mix of 23w and 42w cfls, 5000k and 2700k dependent on stage.

Ive seen diff opinions on vert vs. horiz cfls and would like some direct info. For now here are a couple pix of my case. No need to be too stealthy with the fans on the outside, and should be finished with mods this weekend. At the moment there are 4 bulbs with room to place 4 more at the top and a couple on the backside if I go that route as well. 2 intake fans (at bottom and mid level, opposite sides) and 1 exhaust at the top. I would love ideas for light traps as well!

Any questions, ask away, I will gladly share with all of you. Glad to be here!

Nicely done, ive always been fascinated with pc grows myself, im doing sterilite bins, feel free to check it out. Ill keep an eye on yours.

Honestly, the best light trap ive found is just a box made out of cardboard thats painted black on the inside (black for less reflection), ive got them on mine that you can see in my thread, i just have that side of my box pointed against a wall and you cant even tell.

Thanks man, your thread was one Ive been keepin a look at. What Ive got left to do is seal the plugin sockets around the bases, foil tape the rest of the inside, wire the fans, and mount a power strip to the backside. Anyone have an idea on amount of lights? Is it possible to reach an inefficient number in such a small space? With the room in the case, I could fit up to 260w of cfls (between 23w and 42w mixed arrangements) although Ive read 100w is sufficient.

I am using 3x 26w (100w equiv) in my PC grow at the moment. Temps have been stable. The lower I put them, the better temps seem to be. So I am glad they are bigger now. You wanna pack as much as you can in there without getting crazy temps. 3 is my max. 2 was comfortable but even though 3 put my temps up a little bit. I'd rather deal with slightly higher temps and a higher yield than less. The more lights, the bigger the yield. Well as big as you can get in a PC at least. I am shooting for at least an O.

balactus: what is your def of 'stable' temps? What range are you in with those 3 bulbs? Just wondering since Ima be starting with 4-23w bulbs (when wattage is specified it is the CFL, not equivalent). I hope from those small pics you can see where I am aiming to go with the lighting set up. 4x4 with ideas of placing 42w'ers in the front after a number of weeks.

For now I'm going to finish the case and update with every progression. I may make a diagram of the light arrangment and post stage to stage how I am thinking. All in all I suppose the plant will tell me what I can do. See you all soon and I'll be watchin yo' baybees!!! lol

Stable as in they do not fluctuate too much and they remain around decent temps. When lights are off they drop to as low as 69 I saw the other day but cause the AC was blasting so much but normally it stays at 74. Then when lights are on they are anywhere from 79 to 88. I am just happy they do not go up to 90 anymore. 72-77 are perfect temps. 78-85 it will have slowed growth as you go up. And at 90 it will be really slow. And I don't know if you want your lights hanging like that. I guess it would be okay if you propped your babies all the way up there but most of the light in CFLs is coming from the sides not the tips. You can look at my latest pics in my grow journal in my signature.

I'll be checking that out. LOL @ myself, you answered my temp question but it looked as if I didnt know what 'stable' meant haha. Have you seen any difference in results for bulbs laying sideways vs. vertical? I only ask because I feel that in such a small space it may not matter, but as you can see this is the first cfl grow I'm doing and want to be as efficient as possible.

That is true but the initial light coming from the sides will be strongest coming from there rather than bouncing around and losing strength. I am using mylar from a car windshield sun guard and it does a great job with reflection but I have a lot of reflective tape in there though some of which that peels and lets in a little light but I think I fixed that. I personally have not tried growing with hanging lights. I know in a larger set up you can do though because you'll have so many light space. Think of it this way, how much surface area is coming off the tips of the bulbs compared to the sides? There is just much more light coming from the sides either way. I am still wondering how you are planning to hook those lights up to a power source tho.

For now I'm gonna ride with 'em hanging and just prop the container up closer to them. I agree with you on every point about the sides, next case I build I might go around along the top of the case horizontally. For power, I am going to be getting 4 1' extension cords that will run from the plugs on top to a power strip I'm going to install on to the back side of the case. I am going to heavily weigh your input and may add 1 or 2 horizontal fixtures just to be safe lol. I hate wondering 'what if', ya know?

edit: the plug adapters for the bulbs are all oriented so that the polarized plugs are uniform so no 'backwards' cables lol

I'm putting together a PC case right now. How are you wiring and powering your lights? I'm plugging my into a power strip with plug in light bulb sockets, but would like an alternative.

There is a thread online somewhere that someone used an old power supply and hooked up his lights inside to it so outside it looked like a normal power supply plug in.

anotherjustban said:

I'm putting together a PC case right now. How are you wiring and powering your lights? I'm plugging my into a power strip with plug in light bulb sockets, but would like an alternative.

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Im doing the same with the plug adapters, and running short 1' ext cords to a power strip. Lime balactus pointed out, give yourself the option of raise/lowering the lights unless you plan to prop up like I am going to. Also draw up some twmplates for yoir lighting arrangement...was going to put a strip IN the box but the one i had was too thick haha

I wish I planned my PC grow box better, kind of grabbed the thing I thought I needed and then had to keep adding things to it that I should have added before hand. The power strip is pretty secured in there so I am stick with them in that spot. Raising my pots up to the light when they are small has proved to increase temps. The bigger they are getting and the less books I put under them, the lower and better the temps are getting. I wish I had a bigger space to make the lights adjustable.

I feel like the planning part is aboit taking the time out for it. I had a totally diff view of what I wanted before I actually go to work. Get started while planning, and its easier to have the image in your head make more sense lmao.

Checkin out all the other micro cfl growz is making me hopeful!

@ Fatal - thanks for watching my thread, not very exciting until I get these girls in to soil, but slow and steady wins the race, the temperature drops wont hurt you but I wouldnt go anywhere under 65 F at night, my temps stay around 75-84 or so but I adjust my ac unit precisely. If your growing one plant id say those 4 lights will be enough. Obv the more you can get in while flowering the better since cfls dont give great light penetration, the more the better for flowering but I think youll do fine since pc grows are extremely micro.

@ Another - http://www.menards.com/main/lighting-fans/lighting-hardware-accessories/sockets-adapters/porcelain-socket-w-10-lead-candelabra-base/p-1382447-c-6385.htm , you can use these for your lights and I recommend them. Basically just mount them wherever you want to put your light and simply wire the 2 lines. Big Box stores will sell you a lamp chord that has a 2 prong plug on one end and on the other end its empty, so you simply attach the 2 wires and solder or tape (whichever you prefer, i do both). Then once you plug it in the light turns on, its quite simple to wire. Your white cable is neutral and the black is the hot, the lamp chord will also be marked as to which line is neutral and which is hot for it. + Rep if this helped!

Thanks Ajjax, Im sure the patience will pay off lol. I was finishin up the case lastnight and realized if I had went horizontal w the bulbs along the back, I could have fit 1 more....ah well I can play w that on the next one.

Just gotta grab some ext cords, powerstrip and a spare fan or two. Ill get a pic or two up later tonight or this weekend when its finished. Tryin to decide whether to germ some beans or grab a clone from a buddy.

After some conversation with my grow potna/mentor and actually gettin ideas out, Ive decided to use the case as a cloner/veg station. I plan on germing 5-6 beans next week vegging until I can take a clone from each. Then let 'em root, straight into flower to determine sex. From there I am going to keep the strongest female as a mother in a 36"x36"x60" space under CFLs.

What I want to do is a perp grow, where I can chop, dry, jar, and by the time I crack into that stash be ready to harvest and dry 4-5 oz each time. For this first time around I am going start a mother, take 2-3 clones, and go from there.

Of course, that is where I want to GO, so I am trying to get my all my ducks in a row by taking my time and planning. If you have some input, go ahead and share it. Ive researched and have looked up many of the redundant questions; an inquiry after that will have to do with preference and any factual results that any of you may have had by going a different route with techniques.

Thanks guys, and until the next time; stay high, stay fly

- fatalphenom

I'm curious as to how you can add hydroponics to this build, if you have plans for it. I plan to make a mid tower build myself once I've gotten enough info on it. Also would you know how to make it "more stealth" utilizing internal computer fans?

Ive found several 'dwc' grows done in pc cases on this site but they used small containers. Personally, im going to save a hydro setup for the project coming up which will be 'normal' scale. Ive found that with pc fans, you can pretty much put them anywhere. For my situation i dont need the stealth so the external fans saves some space. This is all for fun with this case.

Im also starting a project that will run along side this; ill do my best to keep up on all w pics and updates

So Ive germed 8 beans which arw now in solo cups. Ive added a twin adapter to one of the sockets and put the cups in the case. I know light isnt necessary at the moment so it is being used to make the case warm for the fragiles lol. After 3 days in the warm case, #8 has broken surface.

Im on my phone and not sure how to uploads pix from this app. Will get a couple up soon