Etching or engraving???

[Beltar]

I am giving my dad my old computer guts in a new case to make room for the file server I am building (basically a NAS). He is going to put it down at his art studio to use when he is there. I am doing this on a budget cause I am spending most of my money on my PC lol. I have a cheap plan looking case i got from newegg and am going to cut in a window. I would like to some way put the name of his studio on the window and then use cold cathode (most likely was first thinking LED but CC would be easier imo??) to make the name really shine on the window. But here's what I am not sure about...
1.) Thickness of plexy
2.) Engraving / etching / spray on. I found a guy that gave me a rough estimate of $15 to laser engrave the plexy (don't think I will be able to beat the price) but what would look better?
3.) What text to use and how do graphics turn out? I have a couple rough lay outs but I can't decide on the text. I was using kinda thin styles then I thought about it, would thicker be better?

This isn't going to really be seen by a lot of people and is more for function then anything but I thought it would be a nice touch to do this for him. He doesn't know much about computers and always talks about my old and how cool it was cause it had a window and a few lights inside. Any thoughts / suggestions?

[SgtM]

$15 to laser etch it? Dude, you can't beat that, and it will look awesome! Since I'm such an LED freak, I prefer to use them. 5mm would work best, but 3mm would work too. What I would suggest is to use 1/4", and then drill holes in the sides of the plexi so that the LED's sit inside them. When you light everything up, the etched part will glow.

[Beltar]

Yea I kinda figured the $15 would be the way to go. As far as the test though, small or big? Or does it not really matter?

[SgtM]

I can't really tell you that dude. It's your project. Make the text as big or small as you want it to be.

[Lord Ned]

Well, what is the text? Also I like SgtM's idea of using 1/4" and then putting say 4 (or 8) led's in it. That would make an awesome effect.

[Beltar]

I meant what usually looks better? Large wider text or does thinner text usually show up good? The text is the name of this studio. Right now I am going with a thinner text and i think it will show up good but I wasn't sure if I should try to keep away from that and use a wider text. I might go with LEDs really not sure yet, right now I decided to mod my file server case first and get it ready.

[SgtM]

My bad.. well, if you're getting it laser etched, the text should look really good no matter what honestly. Crimson has some pretty fine details in the doom case that were laser etched and they came out awesome. If you were using a dremel, you definitly want to go as wide as possible without looking short and fat simple because they're a little harder to control.

[Drum Thumper]

$15 for laser etching?!?!?!? This guy should look into doing custom orders via the web!

And I agree with SgtM, it's gonna look great regardless of size.

[Beltar]

The $15 was just a rough quote over the phone said he would have to see it first. But I explained it fairly well. Its something he runs out of his house as far as I can tell. When I get it done I will post it here.