A 9x9x9 cube seemed like a good idea to me. 8x8x8's are a common size, but I wanted to have a central axis. That little detail increased the number of LED's by 217 to a total of 729. One color wouldn't be much fun, so like many, I'm using RGB (red, green, blue) LED's in this one. That means each of the physical 729 LEDs is really 3 individual LEDs bundled together. Each has a wire for the red, green, and blue colors plus one common wire, so a total of 4 wires per LED that will need soldering. That makes for 2916 soldering points just to get the LED's built into their cube framework. Ugh... But the hypnotic, shiny lights have spoken. I must carry on.