advice on cocktail lighting

[rchadd]

i want to have CP lighting like oscars cab

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/cocktail/wiring2.jpg

just wondering how best to do it.

should i use regular lamps or what about those new white led cluster lamps instead, or just a small floruescent lamp behind the plexi?

if i go for lamps/leds can they be wired up to the PC's ATX power supply or would they need their own PSU?

I also have Happ coin door on order at moment, how should the coinslot lamp be wire up as well?

[whammoed]

I would stay away from led's.  They don't have the right look imo.  They don't have the warm glow that incandescent does.  Happs sells some bayonet style sockets with brackets that work really well.  Using the computer power supply will be fine for those lights and the coin door lights.  The attached picture shows the lights and sockets from happs:

[MonitorGuru]

I would NOT recommend running incandescent lights from a computer power supply.

As small and simple as they look, light bulbs require a LOT of power. Compare the heat generated by one of these bulbs against the chips on your motherboard/cards... Bet the lights are warmer than all chips and drives except the CPU!

Midway cocktail tables originally had two separate windings off the primary power transformer, wire runs and fuses to handle the additional wattage required by 2 lights for each player and the front coin door (6 total).

I know there have been threads here before about running second, old, AT power supplies to run the lighting, and keeping your good ATX supply for computer devices only.

Otherwise, go with LED's and limiting resistors. They barely draw any amperage.

You can also go with Cold Cathode Flourescent tubes.  They pull very low power and produce a lot of light and look better than hot spot LED's, but definitely arn't as "warm" as the original bulbs.  But then again they won't discolor the white panel either.  You can find these really cheap online at shops catering to the automotive or computer case people who want all the flash on their possessions.

[whammoed]

This is a good point.  6 12Volt bulbs like the ones I am using will pull almost 2 amps.  (personally i replaced the coin door lights with red leds as it looked just as good, but nothing else looked right behind those windows)  If you have  weak power supply only putting out 8 amps for the +12v this could be a problem.  If you are running a beefy power supply putting out 20 amps on the +12v you will likely be fine.  Using a seperate power supply for lights of course is a fine idea, you can also hack an old dc power supply, perhaps one used for computer speakers or something, provided it is the right volts and puts out enough amps.  I suppose it just depends on the power supply and what your system itself requires.
I would say that if you have anything on your computer running hotter than one of these incandecent bulbs you will likely burn up that component quickly.  This is a metal filament using current to make it glow.  Its almost as good at making heat as it is light. (anyone remember as a kid what their sisters easy bake oven used to bake things?) In fact the ones that come standard in the happs illuminated pushbuttons run so hot they will sometimes melt the button!