The Sleeper

[Rob Williams]

Craig, I swear... I want to visit you someday and just watch you work, haha. Of course, if I did that, I'd probably be too overwhelmed and never want to tackle modding anything myself, ever ;-)

I know I'm super-late on posting here, but I have a couple of things to comment on, on older posts.

I am amazed that you managed to get those "holders" or cylinders off of those PSU cables so easily. Is that a standard kind of tool you used? I have had so many cables where I wanted to get things like that off but was out of luck with things like pliers... I'd just end up making it look like crap, not manage to get it off, haha.

Were you planning on routing them under the mobo? Wish I could do that with my 4 Pin extra power connector for my mobo but the stupid thing is too short.... (bottom mounted PSU its awesome yet sucks....)

That is one of my biggest pet peeves... short motherboard cables. A lot of people have bottom-mounted PSU's nowadays, and if you're using a full-tower, you'll be lucky if you can even get it plugged in. In the HAF X we use for our GPU testing, and Corsair's HX1000, things came so close, that I swore that if the cable was 1 or 2 mm shorter, I would have had to plug it in over the motherboard rather than hide it in behind.

Plastic is one of those materials that stresses me out severely, because it is not nearly as forgiving as metal. You get after it with a rotary tool, you have to know *every* place you are going to put that tool. One small mis-step, and the plastic just burns away... GAWD! I hate that feeling.

Is it anything like dropping your last and most delicious piece of pizza on the grass?! I am kidding of course... nothing is worse than that. It IS frustrating as hell when you realize you just did something that's pretty-well impossible to repair. Like deleting that all-important folder...

And to assist with the load of fans that I will have in there, I have enlisted the help of a Kaze Master PRO 6 channel fan controller.

What a sweet choice... it looks like a CD player in a high-end car rather than a fan controller, haha. Tempted to get something like that for my own PC.

How much clearance between the drives and the fans? About 5 mm, With this air flowing over them, I wonder if I could cool a Raptor that was not in a heatsink? That is not in the works, it is just me thinking out loud...

God man, what a fantastic design. That bracket was a great idea, too... I had no idea you could just pick up something like that.

After sleeving the wire and using heatshrink on the ends to hold the sleeving in place, here was what I was left with:

That is... AMAZING. I am sure the work is tedious as hell, but wow, the effect is incredible. It's amazing how something so simple as sleeving can make such a stark difference. Out of curiosity though, how did you get the cables out of their plastic containers? In my experience, even the large Molex cables don't come out of the connectors too easily. I couldn't imagine extracting the small fan one.

The "amazing" applies to the phone jack idea as well... that is unbelievably creative. I wouldn't have ever thought to see something like that used for a purpose like this.

Pull a pin... and crimp that thing on.... YAY ME!

If there's ever a hip-hop song dedicated to you, that line has to be in there. It's catchy.

That chrome pump is mad awesome... was it simple to pull off, or did you just make it look simple? It looks so much better than the original... no comparison.

 

[Optix]

If there's ever a hip-hop song dedicated to you, that line has to be in there. It's catchy.

Bravo, Rob.

I needed a chuckle right now. Stuck at work with a headache.

 

[Tech-Daddy]

Craig, I swear... I want to visit you someday and just watch you work, haha. Of course, if I did that, I'd probably be too overwhelmed and never want to tackle modding anything myself, ever ;-)

Trust me... I'm a completely disorganized mess. I'm kinda like a mad scientist! But if you are ever down this way, I'd love to have you over!

I am amazed that you managed to get those "holders" or cylinders off of those PSU cables so easily. Is that a standard kind of tool you used? I have had so many cables where I wanted to get things like that off but was out of luck with things like pliers... I'd just end up making it look like crap, not manage to get it off, haha.

Hehehe, yeah, those things were a serious pain in the a$$. I believe that I used my wire dikes to dig a channel thru the plastic surrounding collar. I pulled the dikes through the plastic long way, with the wires, until I could see the individual wires. Then I wedged a standard head screw driver into the slit and started forcing it open. The plastic (on the Antec ones at least) is reinforced with metal collars around the wires. If you place your cuts right, you should be able to break the plastic housing, pull that off, and that will leave the metal clips around the wires.

That is one of my biggest pet peeves... short motherboard cables. A lot of people have bottom-mounted PSU's nowadays, and if you're using a full-tower, you'll be lucky if you can even get it plugged in. In the HAF X we use for our GPU testing, and Corsair's HX1000, things came so close, that I swore that if the cable was 1 or 2 mm shorter, I would have had to plug it in over the motherboard rather than hide it in behind.

Yeah, they are dancing a wierd line here. The case manufacturers are giving us places to hide cables, but what chaps me is when they give you holes, but no space behind the mobo tray. These cables are not flat, especially the pre-sleeved cables You have to put a cover on the back of that computer.... give me a little extra breathing room please? Most people are not going to resleeve their PSU (which will allow you some measure of cable flattening). So you end up with a 24 wire thick, round cylinder of cable that is nearly impossible to flatten, and then you cant put the back panel on without bribing your friend to site on the case, so that you can put the screws in the back of the panel and attach it to the frame!! *smack*

Is it anything like dropping your last and most delicious piece of pizza on the grass?! I am kidding of course... nothing is worse than that. It IS frustrating as hell when you realize you just did something that's pretty-well impossible to repair. Like deleting that all-important folder...

You've dropped your pizza too??!?

What a sweet choice... it looks like a CD player in a high-end car rather than a fan controller, haha. Tempted to get something like that for my own PC.

It is a neat piece of kit. I was kinda like a dog with a car after I bought it, cuz then I realized that, "Oh crap! There are 6 fan cables that I need to do something with! "
*headsmack* Hence the 1/4 inch jacks.... it will look cool when I find the time to get back on this mod again! I'm currently in the final leg of the Modders-Inc "Hot rod mod off", which is where I have been spending all of my time the past several weeks. Very sorry for the lack of updates.

You can read up about it here on page 36:
http://www.computerpoweruser.com/Images/SmartComputing/DigitalIssues/CPU_1010/pageflip.html

God man, what a fantastic design. That bracket was a great idea, too... I had no idea you could just pick up something like that.

I was looking around for some sort of a hard drive bracket, and I stumbled into them over on xoxide.com, ordered them.... and then was notified that they did not have them any more. So I found the guy that actually makes them and I ping'ed him on the bracket I was looking for. He does not sell directly to the public, but he forwarded me to www.performance-pcs.com they have 2 different styles - horizontal and vertical orientation. I ordered my bracket from them, and recieved the incorrect version of the bracket (the one I needed has the little runners across the bottom that allows a drive to be mounted in the center. I ended up paypal'ing him money, and he shipped me what I needed to make the brackets compete. Nice guy and a great design! I really like it.

That is... AMAZING. I am sure the work is tedious as hell, but wow, the effect is incredible. It's amazing how something so simple as sleeving can make such a stark difference. Out of curiosity though, how did you get the cables out of their plastic containers? In my experience, even the large Molex cables don't come out of the connectors too easily. I couldn't imagine extracting the small fan one.

There are tools that are pictured in the thread (I think it was when I first started sleeving the pump line...). You use those to push the molex pins out of the plastic molex housing. Takes practice, but eventually you start figuring out where the tool needs to be and what it feels like when you are pushing the pin properly. I've broken my share of pins, hence why I keep a crimper and a set of all of the pins... It's more tedious than anything. Hardest thing for me to remember is to not seal the cables before I put them into the Molex. Have you ever tried to "guess" which one was red, yellow, or black.... when they are ALL black??!?! It's not fun, I'll tell ya!

The "amazing" applies to the phone jack idea as well... that is unbelievably creative. I wouldn't have ever thought to see something like that used for a purpose like this.

I've seen them used before, but not so indepth as I plan on incorporating them. There was a modder out of Australia (Defyant) that showed me the technique. My only problem is that I *hate* to solder. I am a hack at soldering. Might enjoy it more if I actually knew what I was doing, but I'm a "mad scientist" type of guy.... If I dont know it, I will figure out enough of it to get me through my issue. Makes for some colorful commentary around my house sometimes!

If there's ever a hip-hop song dedicated to you, that line has to be in there. It's catchy.

You are a nut! If anyone was to ever write a song about me, I cant think it would be anything more than "OMG! What the hell is he doin.... OMG! It works!"

That chrome pump is mad awesome... was it simple to pull off, or did you just make it look simple? It looks so much better than the original... no comparison.

That pump was the EASIEST thing to do in this mod thus far. It is a kit that I stumbled into over at performance-pcs.com.
Here is the link to their pump accessories from Bitspower (the company that made this particular trinket):
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...39_773&zenid=d484a25c9bf9eaf96d15ab86f0e01120

I purchased the shiny silver one. They have black sparkle (which I would guess is like smoked black chrome), matte black, etc.

My other contest is completed by this next weekend, on the 19th. Final pic submissions need to be in no later than the 19th and the log needs to be completed for judging by then. After I finish up that, Sleeper will start moving once again! Bear with my guys!

As always, I cannot thank you enough for your support and commentary through the build. That said, you all also have the patience of saints while I have been working through this mod, and my real life distractions... Hopefully, I can reward you all with a spectacular, clean, presentable mod that might stroke an idea or 3 in your brains.... and get you to thinking about things for your machines!

-=TD

 

[Rob Williams]

Hehehe, yeah, those things were a serious pain in the a$$. I believe that I used my wire dikes to dig a channel thru the plastic surrounding collar. I pulled the dikes through the plastic long way, with the wires, until I could see the individual wires. Then I wedged a standard head screw driver into the slit and started forcing it open. The plastic (on the Antec ones at least) is reinforced with metal collars around the wires. If you place your cuts right, you should be able to break the plastic housing, pull that off, and that will leave the metal clips around the wires.

Ugh, that sounds like a major pain in the ass. On the other hand, they seem to do their job well, heh.

The case manufacturers are giving us places to hide cables, but what chaps me is when they give you holes, but no space behind the mobo tray.

That's another strange one. On my TJ10, I had an issue where some of the molex connectors that were behind there would cause the entire backside to bulge, and while it wasn't exactly that noticeable, it sure shouldn't have been like that at all. My Antec P182 was like that as well, but since those two chassis, I really haven't found others with that issue. Though I'm sure they exist.

Good point on the 24-pin power cable as well. I haven't had an issue with that cable per se, but when things get tight, some cables can end up overlapping each other, which in effect causes the exact same issue. It's frustrating.

I'm currently in the final leg of the Modders-Inc "Hot rod mod off", which is where I have been spending all of my time the past several weeks. Very sorry for the lack of updates.

Nice plug in that magazine! And you have nothing to be sorry about regarding slow responses. I'm the one who went months without giving one of my own :-/

There are tools that are pictured in the thread (I think it was when I first started sleeving the pump line...).

Doh, I did see those tools but didn't realize they were all you needed. I almost broke Molex connectors before when trying to remove them, and didn't even realize they had little barbs until I saw your picture. That explains why I had such an issue...

Have you ever tried to "guess" which one was red, yellow, or black.... when they are ALL black??!?!

LOL, what a bad situation that'd be

I am a hack at soldering. Might enjoy it more if I actually knew what I was doing, but I'm a "mad scientist" type of guy.... If I dont know it, I will figure out enough of it to get me through my issue.

Well I'm glad you are going with it even though you hate to solder, because the idea is brilliant as far as I'm concerned. The end result should be far nicer to look at than six sets of long fan cables hanging through your chassis. Can't wait to see it.

That pump was the EASIEST thing to do in this mod thus far.

Probably because you are dealing with a rather large object, I guess, and not the pieces you're usually working with that require a magnifying glass, haha. I gotta say, the acrylic parts on that page look rather interesting as well. Expensive though, damn.

Keep up the good work man, and don't stress over slow updates. You have a lot on your plate

 

[Merlin]

I see everyone has been busy

 

[Tech-Daddy]

I see everyone has been busy

Sorry about this Merlin.... it has been a horrendous last couple of months. Real life has been a queen byotch....

Hopefully, this will start to slow down and I'll be able to get my head above water...

-=TD