CableMods New PET Sleeving - (Lots of Photos)

[W-L]

Hey everyone so I have another popular modding item to bring to the table, CableMod’s new lineup of PET (plastic) sleeved cables. This goes over my first impressions of the product, and in-depth look at the wiring and materials. Note this set of sleeved cables was provided to me by CableMod as a gift and sample, so here is my thanks to them, thanks again to @CableMod.

 

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Initial Impressions 

     The items came nicely packed in a sleek black box, inside a cable bag with all the sleeved cables individually wrapped. The series that I requested were to be compatible with the AX series of PSU’s from Corsair (AX760) with a custom designed tri-tone color of black, white, and silver.

 

    The sleeving material is a new one for CableMod and one of my personal favorites being a PET (plastic) type woven sleeving, compared to their current paracord type material. While paracord naturally has a tight weave and doesn’t show any color of the wiring through the sleeve one of the qualities of a good PET sleeving is a nice a tight weave without any color bleeding or showing through the material. With that comes good workmanship where the sleeve has to be pull very tightly along the length of the wire without any slack between the two. With the new materials I must say there is no color bleed through the sleeve that I can see and is an excellent job, more on the PET materials later.

 

     It is very nice to see that even with all the connectors populated on the PSU they provide extra cables which allow for different configurations depending on the requirements of each system.

 

 

Finer Details and In-depth Look

     The cables are nice and thin even with the sleeving maintaining great flexibility which is great as it doesn’t add too much extra bulk. Initially that threw me off a bit as the wire looked a little small but from doing some very careful surgery I do see they are using the proper 18AWG, UL1007 rated wire. Excellent to see that as that is the industry standard and great for sleeving since they use nice thin insulation on the wires.

Spoiler

     And all back together as if that never happened. With that I took a quick look into the dimensions of the sleeved wires and did a quick comparison to some custom sleeving I personally did. Some of you may be wondering why this is relevant, but it is important in terms of added bulk and space, where one thicker wire isn’t a big deal but with 24 (ATX) of them together can add up and take up more room for cable management. For my custom sleeving I purchase regular 18AWG hookup wire as it was readily available and easy to get a hold of which had the thicker insulating jacket making the finished diameter a bit larger.

Spoiler

Top: Custom Cables

 Bottom: CableMod Cables

 

     One thing I did notice while I had the sleeving off was the color coordination of the base wire to light colored sleeving as that helps to prevent color bleed of the wire through the sleeve. The wires used were white even on the black sleeve, while ideally it would have been nice to see them color matched to the sleeving (black), the sleecing itself was done very well and pulled tightly making it have no potential color bleed, therefore it made no difference in reality. A minor detail but just something that caught my attention.

     Looking at the crimp terminals and connectors, it is nice to see that the sleeve is crimped very firmly in place with the terminals making it close to impossible for the sleeve to ever come off. Similarly with double wires for the PCI-E, Molex and Sata they are all done very cleanly and all tapered nicely to fit inside the connectors. These are usually the most difficult to do well in terms of sleeving since they are not very forgiving if there are errors and can be very noticeable.

Spoiler

     All in all I have to say these are very well made sleeved cables with great attention to detail. One minor thing I did want to mention is, I did notice that there was one or two spots where some fraying did occur near the connectors and terminals. While only being an extra strand or two they can easily be removed or clean off.

 

    Overall though I must say I am very impressed with the work that CableMod has done and with the addition of this new lineup giving more options to the customers. Their sleeved cables do come with a one year warranty if there are any issues that can potentially come up. I do look forward to seeing what new things CableMod plans to come out with in the future with their ever expanding line of products.

     As of right now CableMod offers the option to make custom cables to different lengths, colors, and designs with CableMod’s new Configurator for your own sleeving. Currently the new PET material is not out but should be available at around mid-May of 2016 from talking with CableMod. 

[pagani123]

Nice review! What is the diffrence between the paracord and pet? I was just about to buy some cable mod cables but I think I might wait the black pet looks much richer than the paracord.

[Bananasplit_00]

looks great  cool review

[Enderman]

I think it would look cool if instead of using sleeving people used low gauge silicon cables which come in different colours

I dont think I've seen that done yet...

[Curufinwe_wins]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

I think it would look cool if instead of using sleeving people used low gauge silicon cables which come in different colours

I dont think I've seen that done yet...

I mean flat ribbon cable sets are that in all black...

[pagani123]

Just now, Enderman said:

I think it would look cool if instead of using sleeving people used low gauge silicon cables which come in different colours

I dont think I've seen that done yet...

The issue I see with using the silicon cables is it has the natural plastic sheen to it where as this pet in this weave deflects the light so you dont get that sheen . Also you loose the detailed pattern. 

[Enderman]

Just now, Curufinwe_wins said:

I mean flat ribbon cable sets are that in all black...

no, those are low gauge wires and they are plastic, not silicon

this is the stuff im talking about

 

Just now, Maybach123 said:

The issue I see with using the silicon cables is it has the natural plastic sheen to it where as this pet in this weave deflects the light so you dont get that sheen . Also you loose the detailed pattern. 

the braided pattern is what I dont really like imo
Maybe im just getting tired of all the braided cables having the same pattern

[W-L]

12 minutes ago, Maybach123 said:

Nice review! What is the diffrence between the paracord and pet? I was just about to buy some cable mod cables but I think I might wait the black pet looks much richer than the paracord.

The main difference between paracord and PET (plastic) is the weave and material look, the paracord stuff is much finer and fabric like where PET tends to be coarser but still quite smooth. It just mainly depends on what you like in terms of looks and style. 

 

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

no, those are low gauge wires and they are plastic, not silicon

this is the stuff im talking about

-PIC-

the braided pattern is what I dont really like imo
Maybe im just getting tired of all the braided cables having the same pattern

Silicon wire would be a bit different, may be a little too flexible if you want to train the cables but if they have a very clean matte look without letter that may look quite nice. 

[Curufinwe_wins]

Just now, Enderman said:

no, those are low gauge wires and they are plastic, not silicon

this is the stuff im talking about

 

the braided pattern is what I dont really like imo
Maybe im just getting tired of all the braided cables having the same pattern

Silicone, but the point remains. Actually there is very very little practical difference between the flat black cables used by certain OEMs now and a pure silicone set of cables (outside of the coloration, and you seem to want thicker coatings, which would look cool admittedly.)

 

My biggest issue with non-braided cables is I just CANNOT stand lettering on my cables (or striping), you'd have to make sure to get a source that didn't label the silicone.

 

 

(BTW the process of getting them to stick together in a ribbon is as simple as heating and pressing them lightly during assembly.)

[theninja35]

These are the $100 sets, right? I am thinking about getting one for my birthday if they stay at $100 or lower.

 

If they don't, then I'll just buy four cables which equate to about $100.

[Enderman]

4 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Silicone, but the point remains. Actually there is very very little practical difference between the flat black cables used by certain OEMs now and a pure silicone set of cables (outside of the coloration, and you seem to want thicker coatings, which would look cool admittedly.)

 

My biggest issue with non-braided cables is I just CANNOT stand lettering on my cables (or striping), you'd have to make sure to get a source that didn't label the silicone.

 

(BTW the process of getting them to stick together in a ribbon is as simple as heating and pressing them lightly during assembly.)

For some reason I really like thick wires...lol

I think it looks really good, and the silicone makes it have very natural bends

Spoiler

 

i currently use paracord sleeved white wires in my PC, they look good, but I think thick unlsleeved flexible wires would look better

maybe some time I will try to make custom PSU cables with 14 or 12 gauge wire

[Curufinwe_wins]

5 minutes ago, Enderman said:

For some reason I really like thick wires...lol

I think it looks really good, and the silicone makes it have very natural bends

i currently use paracord sleeved white wires in my PC, they look good, but I think thick unlsleeved flexible wires would look better

maybe some time I will try to make custom PSU cables with 14 or 12 gauge wire

I agree it does look good. I actually think I'd see a huge improvement if I just took the time to weave my extensions together properly (so it looked like a perfect 16x2 cable set), but god damn I can't do it in place and I hate trying to stick my hand around my watercooling parts. Perhaps the next time I empty my loop I'll do it.

[CableMod]

very good review and super nice pictures - thanks for the feedback - we will for sure look into the fraying thing.

[W-L]

23 hours ago, theninja35 said:

These are the $100 sets, right? I am thinking about getting one for my birthday if they stay at $100 or lower.

If they don't, then I'll just buy four cables which equate to about $100.

For the full kits they approx around $100USD, just be sure to double check which ones are compatible for your PSU, the PET sleeved ones should be coming out soon. 

http://www.performance-pcs.com/brand--cablemod

[FuzzyYellow]

great review! great photography skills as well.