Viceman666, I wish I had a better and more definitive answer lol. What’s your setup like?
You can look at my grow journal im using 4x304 board samsung lm561 LED.. ordered directly from alibaba (haters gonna hate lol) but very happy so far and cost me half the price of "real" quantum boards.. they are running at about 520w (as per my killawatt) at the moment with not potentiometer. I would stay away of the kind or advanced platinum.. althought I think they used to be the top LED.. that was over 5 years ago.. recent years brought the more efficient LED (samsung lm561c) or COB for example.. im not saying they are bad lights you can grow with anything.. so maybe youre overthinking it (like I did before I bought my light lol)
Tbh I’m not comfortable with diy especially if it’s electrics even if there is a guide I would rather it were done professionally. I also need to take into consideration of where I am buying from as I would prefer a retailer in UK. I am mostly leaning towards optic 8 or 2 optic 6’s(for more spread as long as there is no over kill) in regards to hlg I am finding optics 8 to be slightly better ever so slightly but I may be wrong
No need to have a dedicated veg light in a higher CCT. Quantum Boards and COBs veg amazingly well at 3000k or 3500k. Plenty of blue light in the spectrum. Take some time to look around here on the forum - you'll see most of us veg and flower under the same spectrum. The old "blue light for veg, red light for flower" paradigm has been mostly abandoned. If you're going to run two tents, it would be far better to have the flexibility to veg or flower in either tent. I have been nothing but happy and impressed with the veg capability of my 3000k boards.
The Optic 8 looks like a solid option as long as you're not paying more for it than you would for the HLG-600. As @Viceman666 said, the Optic 6 appears to be outdated, so personally, I'd take that out of consideration. And I would definitely not spend any money on Kind or Advanced - they're inefficient and behind the times.
Build a frame and put some quantum board 132's on it....no heat sink needed....then get ready for frost !!!
quantum board 132 or 120...no heat sink !!
Glad its not me wasting money on old tech !!!
Against the recommendation of so many experienced LED growers here? Why?
Sounds like a troll loll
I am unable to get the HLG 550 or 600 from a reputable company. Only an email is listed for UK source. Which I don’t believe to be reliable. So I need to look at the next best thing and what is available to me and has warranty. In light of this what would you guys say?
Yeah strangely I saw them today a video on youtube.. there is no details on the LED beside the fact that they are made by phillips... overall from the stats I saw they are about 25-30% less efficient then lm561c.. i like the fact that each light is driven by its own driver and you can easily position them the way you want.. overall they seem to be better than blurple just not on par with the "new" LED imo
Products using the LM561C (Samsung strips, Quantum Boards, knock-off Quantum Boards), or COBs such as those found in the fixtures already recommended to you (Cree CXB, Bridgelux Vero, Citizen, or Luminus). Bridgelux EB Series Gen 2 are also a viable option, but I'm not aware of any pre-built fixtures using them (they're a DIY option, which I understand you're not interested in).
If it was me, I would build something like this:
My opinion: