The series I5 are very different from the G through I4 series. LEDs were swapped out from Luxeon to Rebels, from 25 LEDs to 30 LEDs per array, fixture housing was redesigned a little, power supplies are "off the shelf" Meanwell power supplies housed in black aluminum boxes. This means you can replace your power supplies much easier and they are the primary power supplies that people use for LED application, not jerry rigged computer power supplies.
This doesn't mean that they had 100% reliability. There are some stories of power supplies going & LED strips burning out prematurely but compared to all the series before, they are much more reliable.
LEDs can be a crapshoot. Heat is the biggest enemy, then there is overdriving also. It's almost there in terms of the hobby application and I'm sure it will get there with reliability within the next year or two.
Honestly, I have an H-series with the original power supplies (knock on wood). I've had LED strips burn out before it's time but that could be from a handful of problems anywhere from uneven application of thermal paste, bad design of aluminum PCB board attachment, possibly overdriven LEDs, yada....yada....yada....
What I was getting at was that I still enjoy my H-series Solaris. Granted it will not sustain SPS but does fine for my fish color and frogspawns and hammers in that tank. Love the 20k look whereas the I5 series is a much brighter fixture with a whiter look. The only problem that I have with the I5 series is that when the changed the LEDs it also seems to the naked eye that they also changed to a slightly more narrow focal lens for the LED. All my tanks are 24" front to back and the I5 series seems to produce a tighter light dispersement vs the H-series fixture.
But you should definitely take Alfie up on checking out his fixture before committing to the Solaris.
