colinreay

Tool Talk Hey everyone, hope you are having a nice day! IMO, sleeving and custom cables are sort of the dark horse of pc modding - many of the top modders I see on various forums do it themselves, but readily available information about how to do it is not as abundant as I would like (and much of the guides that exist are fairly old.) That being said, there are more options than ever for sleeved cables made by another person/company, but I still do think that custom sleeving is a great if you want to really feel involved when modding your pc (it's also a great sense of accomplishment!) Here's hoping to more future tutorials - by myself or others! I figured I'd share some of my favorite tools for sleeving with you guys, and I'd love to hear what you like to use as well as any questions/comments! Crimper Much to my surprise/bemusement, I found a Molex Service Grade crimper for around $110 including shipping on ebay about a week ago. Not too shabby, considering the crimper is about $300-400 new! I bit the bullet and ordered it. When it arrived, I was amazed to realize these are brand new units, with all of the packaging/manuals. If you guys want to get into sleeving, or already do it and don't have this crimper, I would STRONGLY encourage you to pick this up from the same place I got mine from. Granted, things like the MFC Crimper are half the price, but honestly this crimper just blows them out of the water, and will last you years (it also makes short work of UL1007 16AWG wire, something many cheaper crimpers struggle with.) Crimper(s) Here's a quick crimping demo using the new crimper! Wire Stripper I can't say enough good things about my Capri wire stripper! After using the popular Knipex stripper for about a year, I bought this instead and have enjoyed it infinitely more. There is a little acrylic stop that allows you to strip 3mm lengths easily (what I do when crimping), and it has multiple holes for different wire guages. This prevents the stripper from slipping, something that I had a lot of issues with when using my Knipex. (Wire! Stripper) Other Tools!

Yep, of course I remember you! I'll do some research on mech. keyboards first so I don't have to bore you asking about basic stuff that can be solved by a quick google search, but I'll definitely need your advice in the future!

Thank you sir!

Hey everyone, I hope you are having a great day, and thank you for checking out my build log! I have been working on this project for a while, and actually made a forum post a very long time ago (which has been deleted), but progress has been slow until a week or two ago, and I’m stoked to finally be able to post about it! I’ll first lay out everything I’ve done up to this point, and then update this log regularly as I make progress. Without further ado, let’s go! Background: I’m a highschool student in the Bay Area, and really love PC modding. Apart from a relatively simple and small mod, I haven’t done much - most of my interest is perpetuated by reading/watching other people’s excellent build logs. Hopefully this can be my sort of gateway into the realms of PC modding, and be the first of many projects! Goal: I’m a stickler for clean, understated builds. Don’t get me wrong - I love the builds that go all out as well, but something about that slate, flat appearance really appeals to me. In addition, I love SFF stuff - trying to cram all of your components into as small of a footprint of possible is a challenge (plus materials cost less!) With this build, I’m trying to capture the essence of both, creating as small of a PC case as possible given my current hardware, while maintaining a clean and subdued aesthetic - “monolithic” even (which is where the name came from.) As a side note, this build’s name is completely unrelated to MetallicAcid’s Monolith, which I didn’t know of until this build was underway. As of right now, the build measures in at (273.65 x 112.9 x 264.84mm, 8.18L) excluding the feet, and 8.8L with them included. As it stands now, I believe this is on track to be the smallest M-ATX case built that supports Dual-Slot GPUs (255mm Max), and a fully internal PSU (no DC-ATX Converters.) My intentions aren’t to be the first in the world or anything, I just designed the case around hardware I had (either bought used or donated by friends), and it ended up being pretty small. Materials: The case is made out of a combination of ⅛ and ¼ inch P95 matte acrylic sheets from Tap Plastics. This stuff looks absolutely gorgeous, the way the matte side catches and swallows the ambient light is really something unique. As far as fastening the panels together, I am using Parvum Mod Cubes, in conjunction with various lengths of button head M3 screws, which make the case look pretty industrial/clean IMO. I also used M3 standoffs and nuts to secure the motherboard to the case, and am 3d printing several brackets to mount the GPU and SSD. Parts: Like I stated above, most of my parts either were free from friends, or bought used (on hardwareswap). I’ll list everything I have now, and update it as needed. PC Portion: CPU: AMD A10-7890K (Have) Motherboard: MSI A88XM Gaming (Have) RAM: 2x4GB DDR3 1600 G.Skill Bare Black PCB RAM (Have) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9A (Have) SSD: Intel 320 120GB SSD (Have) GPU: EVGA GTX 750Ti FTW ACX (Have) PCIe Riser: 3M 500mm PCIe x16 Riser (Have) PSU: Seasonic M1U Flex ATX 300w (Have) Case Parts: Laser Cut panels: Tap Plastics P95 Matte Black Acrylic ¼ and ⅛ inch (Have) Window: Tap Plastics Cast Clear Acrylic ⅛ inch (Have) Mod Cubes: 2x Sets Parvum Mod Cubes (Have) Screws: 6/10/16mm Black M3 Button Head Screws from Amazon (Have) Standoffs: 6+6mm Black Nylon M3 Standoffs (Have) Nuts: M3 Nuts Black (Have) M3 Washers: Black 8mm M3 Washers (Have) 3d Printed Parts: Black ABS parts printed with a Zortrax M200 off of 3d Hubs (Shipping) Sleeving Parts: Sleeving: Paracord Planet 550 Paracord Black (Have) Wire: Buywireonline UL1007 16AWG White (Have) Connectors: 24 Pin Female, 18 Pin Female, SATA Crimp connector, PCIe 6 Pin Female, 4+4 Pin EPS/CPU Female (Have) Terminals: MainFrame Female ATX Terminals (Have) The Design: The case has certainly been through several iterations, and I would like to believe that the latest design (the one I am using) has benefitted from things I have learned along the way. My first concept is pretty similar to what I have now, the basic form is still the same, as well as the Parvum Mod Cube fastening method. However, the way the GPU and PSU were mounted at the back was extremely inefficient as well as the weird slotted grill on the right side panel. First Iteration My second design is pretty much what I have now. I tweaked things and changed the placement of the PSU and GPU to create a much smaller and more space efficient case, and changed the right side panel to have a direct grill over the CPU cooler. I explain the different aspects of the case in more detail in the spoiler. Second iteration What I’ve done so far: At the moment of starting this build log, I have laser cut most of the case panels, and am waiting for the 3d printed parts (I can cut the window on Friday.) Here are some photos of the case as it stands right now! Roadmap/Updates: This is as much for me as it is for you guys, which will help me stay on track and culminate my ideas. 3D model the case (Completed) Laser cut the case (In Progress) 3D print mounts/brackets (In Progress) Sleeve/Make custom cables (Planned) LED light the case (Planned) Finish/paint the case (Planned) That’s it guys! Hopefully I’ll have some more posts up soon detailing the issues I’ve had so far, as well as explaining more about how everything works. It would mean the world to me if you followed along, and I’d more more than happy to answer any questions!

I'm loving it so far! The strips on the bottom right of the front panel look very nice, as does all of your acrylic work inside. I appreciate how you maintained the style of your motherboard throughout the build!

Happy birthday man! Happy to see you back in action - can't wait for some moar sexy pics!

A build from p0Pe is a build I like!

Now this I have to see to fruition! Subbed for sure! I really want to see how those nice big bends in the aluminum turn out. Sheet metal braking fascinates me.

No, unfortunately don't have the grills, but would to buy some at some point, I think they'd look great on some smaller SFF case like the Raijintek Metis. I vote for Gulf blue as well, I think the Black looks a little too subdued/bland.

Simply stunning Bill. Those overkill grills are truly a work of art, if you don't mind me asking, do you sand down the grills to smoothen out the layer steps from the CNC mill, or do you use another end? It just looks so smooth, really nice!

I'd try 1.3 first, then 1.35 it 1.3 fails, than 1.4.

Interesting. Have you tried resetting the BIOS and then putting it at 4.5?

Wow. Incredibly beautiful! You sir are a master at vinyl cutting!

I would definitely not do that - the pinouts are very likely different - IIRC Corsair has different gen pinouts (Gen2, Gen3, etc.), and the SF series does not coincide with the AX series. If you are interested - here is a beautiful pinout for the SF series. You can use some cable combs to really make the cables as straight as possible. Additionally, you could make some really short cables like this to get all of the weird wire crossing and doubling out of the way, and then use long extensions for a really clean look.

Awesome photos so far man! Those PSU cables though - look like they'd be a straight up nightmare to sleeve

110% worth the wait

What can I even say? This has damn near achieved perfection man, unique and beautiful, can't wait to see more photos!

Your case is the one that stands out IMO. Congrats on finishing third!

This Tech yes city video might be a good place to start. Doesn't address SLI though

Grey label ones should quite good. What I think is the European version is got damn near a 10 from Johnny Guru, it takes more than just a shoddy basic power supply to get anywhere near that.

How big are the jumps in grit of the sandpaper you are using? (Ex. 500, 800, 1000, etc.)

IT LIVES!!!

Congrats man! Build looks great

JR, you've only been watercooling for a year!? Sorry if I misread that, but holy sh**t dude, you are already one of the watercooling gods! Also, if it is okay for me to ask, do you work at Parvum, or just do a lot of projects with them?

Mmmmm... Noctua color coordinated builds are a guilty pleasure for sure to look at.