What lighting can i get for not much over $350?

[509grower]

Hello i have a few dollars saved up to put towards new equipment and i have been looking into leds and t-5 i have around 350 dollars im wanting to spend at this moment and was wanting some suggestions on what to look into to, i currently am running a 400watt magnetic ballast that i am planning on continuing to run as a veg light. with the leds my concern is 1. the price 2. how much space is covered 3. are they really worth it? Also my flower room is roughly 8x5. Sorry for jumping around on the subjects its 5am and im properly medicated. I have also looked into t-5s have really been leaning towards running 8 t-5s 3000k. I am not wanting to get anymore hid lighting based on the fact that i cannot drill ducting holes in my home sense it is a rental. Sorry if this is a confusing post it is my first, anyways i hope someone can make some recommendations.
Peace and Pot

 

[SativaHaze]

509, T-5's are great for vegging, more than flowering. Reason being they don't get the canopy penetration your 400 watt would. If your were to run T-5 for flowering, I would suggest supplementing them with CFL's hung down between the plants to hit the areas the t-5 won't reach. AS far a LED's I'm over my head, at my age, technology is just getting too far ahead of me lol!

 

[Hosebomber]

You will be very hard pressed to find an LED panel worth getting that can cover even a portion of your grow area for less than $350. HOT5's do very well in growth and flower phases. As JJ Bones stated in another thread, they simply don't get enough credit. High Output T5's cost about $40 for a cheap 2 bulb fixture from your local box home retail store. If you have the knowledge/ability you can usually buy ballast and bulb holders for them and make you own fixture as well. (cost about the same as the 2 bulb fixtures). As for the bulbs, the cheap ones are ~$10 each or you can find some that give a little better spectra at the local fish store (or online) that are more red or blue depending on which phase of growth you are in for ~$30 per bulb.

 

[nibec]

why not build a cheap t5 veg fixture, and use your HID to flower? IMO way better results... and a lot cheaper. you wont hit the 8x5 coverage you may want, but you could always add one or two 250-300 watt grow cfls to get an extra bump in coverage... but they cost more coin than they are worth IMO