Cable Sleeving Sizes

[nvidiaintelftw]

I seriously cannot decide which size cable sleeving to get for my new fan controller and my front panel connectors. I am thinking 1/4 and 1/8th

 

[stahlhart]

I seriously cannot decide which size cable sleeving to get for my new fan controller and my front panel connectors. I am thinking 1/4 and 1/8th

It depends on who you get your sleeving from. I can tell you that for the high-density sleeving from Performance PCs (what I'm using for my build), the measurement is more the inside diameter than the outside. The 1/8" will do case fans, power supply leads (if you sleeve them individually) and case LED/switch lines. 1/4" will work for USB/audio cables, round SATA cables, etc.

I would highly recommend the Performance PCs sleeving as it's very cloth-like, and you can stretch it taut on the wiring and it will contract around what it's sleeving. The cheaper stuff, like you get on pre-sleeved cables, is stiffer, more "plasticky" and more difficult to work with, and unravels much more easily.

You'll need to heatshrink the sleeving ends to keep the fraying under control. Here, remember to upsize the tubing for the sleeving it's for -- in other words, get 1/4" heatshrink for 1/8" sleeving, etc. It's measured un-shrunk.

 

[stahlhart]

One other tip -- when you are sleeving, add a couple of inches of sleeve to the length of the wire(s). Since you'll be snaking it on by pushing rather than pulling, it will tend to compress, so that by the time you've got it on completely it will probably end up being shorter and you'll have excess wire at one end. If you pull it back, you might recover some of the original length, but it's easier just to start with some extra and cut off a little excess rather than come up short and try to stretch it further.

 

[nvidiaintelftw]

i was going to get mine from Sidewinders but its like the same thing at performance-pcs. For the fornt panel connectors like hdd led, power, reset, power led,etc i was going to bundle those in one cable so id probably get a 1/4 cable for that then 1/8 for the fans

 

[stahlhart]

You should be able to bundle all of the case pairs into one sleeve -- only possible challenge I see is that if it's too much to stuff in one sleeve when they're twisted -- but if you straightened all of the wires out, you'd have to keep the white ones sorted out (assuming your wire pairs are orange/white, red/white, blue/white and green/white like they are in my case). But then I've got a 1/4" sleeve holding a dual USB line, so mabye it will all fit okay.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I need to get some sleeve from MDPC-X

 

[Lightflash]

I need to get some sleeve from MDPC-X

Very expensive, but you will def. get what you paid for and then some. Great service from Nils for the modding community now that he is including more products. Just be sure to order everything you need in one go or it can get high on the shipping costs.

 

[stahlhart]

I need to get some sleeve from MDPC-X

Whoa. That stuff is nice looking.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Very expensive, but you will def. get what you paid for and then some. Great service from Nils for the modding community now that he is including more products. Just be sure to order everything you need in one go or it can get high on the shipping costs.

That's why I haven't placed my order yet .

I just rebuilt my server and it should be (hopefully finally) stable for a while outside of HD changes. I also have my desktop fairly well done as well for the time being, and don't think that will change either anytime soon. Just need to figure out what I want and how much I need. Color choices might be the most difficult thing so far actually

Oh, and I'm torn on how I want to sleeve still (single sleeve everything or what), and what other things I want to get from there.

 

[Lightflash]

That's why I haven't placed my order yet .

I just rebuilt my server and it should be (hopefully finally) stable for a while outside of HD changes. I also have my desktop fairly well done as well for the time being, and don't think that will change either anytime soon. Just need to figure out what I want and how much I need. Color choices might be the most difficult thing so far actually

Oh, and I'm torn on how I want to sleeve still (single sleeve everything or what), and what other things I want to get from there.

Yeah I spent a lot of time figuring out the best color for my build to needing to replace my motherboard and needing to get a different color to match my current motherboard. I am working on just doing a few modular cables in different colors just in case of changing out parts.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Yeah I spent a lot of time figuring out the best color for my build to needing to replace my motherboard and needing to get a different color to match my current motherboard. I am working on just doing a few modular cables in different colors just in case of changing out parts.

I'm debating about just ordering a lot of a few colors and then doing it with my current system, and when I upgrade I will have enough for a different color scheme if I decide to change it up.

I also plan to take apart my case again and get some nice paint on the inside along with doing my server that I just finally got around to building (Lian Li A04 case which I plan on putting up a thread showing it off once it's entirely done).

 

[Lightflash]

Nils is also good about including a few meters of a random color, I got a blue and white strand for myself.