[djimb]

Originally Posted by bsgospel

*high five* Thanks for sharing! Something in this vein will be my next project. Sorry for hijacking OP. Hope it helped you too!

Don't worry about it! This has all been extremely helpful!

Originally Posted by Killkingkong

The last time I bought cheap cobs (~2-3 years ago) a 10 pack cost me $27 free shipping. The samsung quantum board light strips that fit on a 300mm long heatsink cost $8/each and you can fit 6 of them on there, so only $21 more (before shipping cost) for much much better quality and slight spread than cheap cobs or screw in LEDs. However on digikey you get a price break at 10. so you can get 12 light strips for ~$80 (not including shipping) and build 2 of them for ~$120.

Parts List:
LED: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/samsung-semiconductor-inc/SI-B8U051280US/1510-2282-ND/7562240

Heatsink: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570. l1313&_nkw=300+140+heatsink&_s acat=0

Various Wattage Drivers: https://www.ebay.com/itm/10W-20W-30W-50W-100W-High-Power-LED-Driver-Power-Supply-85-265V-Constant-Current-/192014536760

Thanks for all of that! I spent some time looking at LED strips today and it looks like they're less expensive per watt than the cheap COBs run at ~30% capacity, with better coverage and probably less concentrated heat.

I found 5 meter strips of 5630 (.5 watt, 120/meter, warm white, 300 watt total) and 7020 (.5-1 watt, 60/meter, cool white, 150 watt total) diodes for $8-$9 per roll.

Assuming these are more reliable than the cheap COBs, I could run them at ~50% capacity and have a much better setup. If they run as cool as the quantum boards seem to, I might not even really need heat sinks.

I'll look at more legitimate sources like digikey and mouser too, but I think this is going to be the way to go.

Thanks again everyone!