PruritusAni

I'm in the process of tediously sleeving everything on my corsair tx750. I've done the 8pin 12V thing so far, and next up on the list were the vga power cables. Problem is they have the 2 extra pins that complicate life a bit more. So now I'm a bit confused but I think I have 2 options:

1. remove the two extra pins, as my 250 doesn't need them anyways, and sleeve the 6 pins normally, after crimping the pins where necessary.

2. get some female ATX connector pins and sleeve those 2 tiny pins as well.

My inner lazy person wants to do option 1 but I am not sure as to how legitimate the it is. I think it should be OK as the 2 tiny extra pins are black (meaning grounds?) and I don't need them anyway.

A third option would be borne of the merger of the 2 options, removing the pins on 2 vga power cables and keeping them on the other two in case of an upgrade latter down the road needing those 2 pins.

What do you guys think of this?

Takaharu

According to this review the TX750 has four 6+2 pin PCI-E power connectors, which means that two of the 8 pins are can be detached.
If you're re-sleeving everything and only want six pins I'd recommend leaving yourself the ability to use the two extra pins later on in case you upgrade your graphics.

__________________

Judas

imo.. if you detach them and only sleeve the 6 pins.... i think you'll be kicking yourself come the time you may actually need them....

__________________

PruritusAni

Yah I've decided against being lazy, and ordered some connector pins so that everything will be sleeved properly. I just hope I get it all done prior to the semester's beginning.

I'll be posting pics as soon as I'm satisfied with it. Does anyone have any recommendations for a free image webhosting website?

synthesis204

I've always used imageshack.us with no issues.

Photobucket.com is also another good alternative.

Imageshack allows you to host your picture (I've had a picture hosted by them for over 2 years with no issues), while Photobucket requires you to create an account -- however, Photobucket also lets you manage your photos and put them in folders and such. Imageshack is just straight up hosting an image, giving you the link for it.

Tyrsonswood

I use both imageshack and Photobucket........

__________________

PruritusAni

So I’m finally done with this little project, and as promised here are the photos.
First things first: the sleeving to be used in the project arrived


I also got new fans:


And here they are sleeved:


As I’m only running the CPU’s fan from the motherboard all the other fans are being run through these for the optimal balance between cool and noisy.


Next it was time to sleeve the front panel’s connectors:


The SATA cables also got sleeved:


Here are the LEDs and some of the vibration control measures. Pretty much anything that could move or vibrate got some sort of vibration dampening love.


Next up the heatsinks got removed, polished and re-greased, starting with the VGA heatsink:


Here it is mounted back onto the video card:


The CPU got some loving as well. Here it is reflecting a button:





And of course the mandatory equation (Einstein’s equations sans his “biggest blunder”):


Now it was time for the main part of the project to begin: the sleeving of the PSU. First I removed the old sleeving:


This was harder to do that I had expected as Corsair used the glue lined heatshrink making my life particularly difficult. Perhaps I ought to have used something to cover up my bed too, as those little fibers got embedded in the comforter for the long run.

The tools were summoned:


As you can see after a lot of hard work I’m almost done: :P


Now to the subject of this thread: the extra 2 pins got removed from 2 of the VGA power cables and sleeved on the other 2.


After quite a bit more time I was done sleeving:


Now all that remained was to put it all back together:


So after some serious madness here’s how it looked like from behind:


And from the front:





Macro shots:





And now to finish strong: the lights on low setting


highest setting:



Final thoughts:
I need to figure out how people get their sleeved 24 pinners to look as if they are glued together and not 24 independently contorting wires. This is particularly difficult to achieve as 3 of the pins have 2 wires crimped together making any sort of arrangement almost impossible.

While this was an amazing experience, I’m extremely unlikely to do this ever again with a non-modular PSU.

Takaharu

It looks very well done but personally, I'm not a fan of the colours. However, that's purely personal opinion.
You're going to hate yourself when the electrical tape finally comes off

__________________

Tyrsonswood

Don't you hate that about electrical tape...... the old stuff didn't do that, I think UL listings messed with the glue or something.

__________________

synthesis204

Now that's what a computer inside is supposed to look like.

>_>

__________________
Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure alzheimers, ALS, huntington's, parkinson's disease and cancer:
Fold for HH!

PruritusAni

Haha that's why i only taped it where i can't see it. Either way i usually fully dismantle it every few months so i'd be able to replace any failed electrical tape. As I was adding the finishing touches I thought of the next changes too. They will be involving a Dremel.

Lowfat

You have some serious patience. No way could I ever sleeve a non-modular power supply.

__________________

mcdragon2

wow reminds me that I need to fix my case again now that I have my video card and hard drive back. just need to figure out where I want to ultimately position fans and hard drives

temeteus82

Nice clean look

__________________

PruritusAni

Yah, after this I don't think I could do it again either. It took forever, and there were 2 parts in particular that were extremely heinous:

1) The SATA power cables are a pain to sleeve, as I didn't have replacement pins for them, so the sleeving had to go over the 3 pronged pins which makes the hours go by.

2) Double crimping is awful. The Molex cables, 3 pins on the 24 pin and the 6+2 VGA power guys require crimping 2 wires in the same pin. For someone that lacks surgeon hands it can be a horrendous experience. I think what made it particularly bad was the fact that the connector pins were designed for crimping individual wires. The back prongs that clamp down on the insulation part were too short for 2 18AWG wires to be crammed in there, so I had to resort to all sorts of trickery.

While these 2 problems may not go away entirely on a modular PSU, I imagine it'd be significantly less horrid. Either way it was a learning experience, and I think that my next build will be much better because of it.

Lowfat

I can imagine. You would have to sleeve them backwards. I myself just make mine completely from scratch w/ all black wire since it is so hard to get the sleeving right up to the sata power connectors.

__________________

PruritusAni

That may be the easiest way to do them. If I had some of those pins it would've been a breeze. Just snip the old one right off get the sleeving on there, and just crimp a new guy on. Unfortunately I couldn't find any of those pins anywhere. Perhaps making my own cables is way to go.

Do you know how people get the 24 pin to look all compact and neat? I've seen pictures of it that were maddeningly neat.

Tyrsonswood

I bet those ends don't look that neat once twisted into position when installed in a case and motherboard.

__________________

Judas

honestly didn't know what i was going to think of it... but after seeing individually sleeved cables... quite cool.. specially with the color patern

__________________

PruritusAni

Probably, but i'm sure gonna try like crazy next time. Modular PSU + Lowfat's trick of making my own wires ought to ensure some sort of neatness. If all else fails I'll get crafty with a hot glue gun


Thanks, I quite like the colors myself.
Next build's going to match color-wise even better, as the parts will be picked with a color scheme in mind, instead of the color scheme being imposed on existing hardware.

blibbax

You are an incredibly patient man.

I'm also kinda impressed that the back panel closed with all those wires tucked behind it - I had a similar issue when assembling a PC for a friend with a non-modular Corsair PSU (650W version of that one I think) but in a generic case, was an absoloute nightmare. And I didn't even attempt to sleeve anything :P

EDIT: What's that tiny card in your seventh slot?

__________________

Chaos

that looks awesome, great job

__________________

PruritusAni

Actually putting the back panel back on has been getting easier with every project that's involved this build. Last summer I drilled a bunch of holes in the mobo tray and repainted it. That helped a bit allowing me to spread the cables out a bit. After that I had to apply a bit of pressure while i put the thumbscrews back on.

It turns out the individual sleeving helps even more as the thicker cables can now be spread flat. Combined with the many wire management holes I don't have to apply any force to the panel, it goes on effortlessly as it should.

The little card is the LED controller. It turns the white LEDs on and off and also has 3 brightness settings. I debated hiding it under the video card, but in that configuration the very first LED was pointing directly at the window and I didn't like that so to the bottom it went. Here it is before going in the bottom slot: