Antec 1200 Quad gpu folding rig

[jfenwick]

Ok, since the cutting is essentially done here is the sleeving plan I'm in mid process of. Essentially I want to re-sleeve each cable individually with black 1/8” sleeving:

0.125 (1/8") PET Cable Sleeving [PET1/8] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come

I've done some minor re-sleeving before but this is the first major job of an entire psu, here is the plan:
- Re-sleeve the 4 6pin pcie connectors
- Re-sleeve the 4pin mobo power supply
- Re-sleeve the 24 pin mobo supply
- Re-sleeve the 4pin molex motherboard power supply
- Re-wire a 6 pin pcie adapter from the 8pin mobo supply to a longer length that will fit behind the mobo.
- Re-wire the 3rd 4pin standard molex to supply the fan terminal block
- Remove excess housings on the SATA and standard Molex cables
- Re-sleeve/wire the SATA power cables to length for the DVD drive and HDD, leave a little slack for a potential second drive device and HDD.

Some is done, but a lot still to go…haven't touched the 24 pin yet which is my scary one Should be fun, just wish it wasn't a $100+ psu I was doing this on for the first time.

Anyways, screw up off of the day:

Wasn't planning on opening up the top fan but had no choice careful with your screws! One small slip can turn into a big headache.

 

[philbar71]

it was hard getting the top panel off of my antec twelve hundred. took me about an hour just to figure out how.

and yes i found the screw ;p

 

[jfenwick]

Yeah, I figured it out relatively quickly but it was still a pain in the butt considering I was just trying to get a screw out....my computer time is limited and is frustrating when you're wasting it doing stuff like that. This project has already gone on much longer than I wanted but life is too busy. Hopefully I'll have some sleeving photos up soon.

 

[kmote]

I've dropped a screw into a brand new PSU before. Didn't want to open it up and invalidate the warrenty and I didn't want to just ignore it incase the screw was shorting something out. I eventually managed to get it out without opening the PSU but it took hours (the PSU was using two 80mm fans in push/pull so it was a very tricky business)

 

[jfenwick]

Lol, nice.

Ok, so I finished the 6pins for the GPUs:

But ran into a problem on the 24 pin power supply mid sleeving, the PC P&C 24 pin is a stubborn little fella and all the twisting and pulling broke the pins on my extraction tool, i was using the top one in this photo:

Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come

Luckly I have a back up:

Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come

Which turned out to be a piece of junk and broke on the 3rd pin I tried to pull, not cool. Here is the damage:

I was not happy, stuck in mid mod....so a google search came up with a few DIY extractor ideas, one was to cut slivers of an old floppy aluminum slide and use it, but mid way through I tossed that idea and tried something of my own. Figured I'd straighten out a paperclip, sand it down and fold it in half and see if that works:

Used a belt sander to sand down the two ends:

The result works better than either tool, lol, should have just done this from the start rather than buying the tools. Anyways, I'm back on track now, will post some more sleeved pics soon.

 

[philbar71]

those 6-pins look good. i think i might do the same for mine.

 

[jfenwick]

Yeah, I'm really liking this look of each wire sleeved individually, the main 24 pin looks awesome. I just axed one of the molex supplies for the terminal block:

That's one of the last sleeving chores, almost time to start putting it together....running out of time too, have my comprehensive exam next week that I really should be studying for instead of doing this stuff

My one concern right now (one concern, two complications) is that all these wires getting sleeved individually is really adding to the amount of material running from the psu, I'm not sure all this added thickness to the wires will fit back in the original hole in the cover. The PC P&C psu does have a black trim around the hole which if removed will give me more room, I'm just not sure its enough. All this extra wiring also has to fit behind the mobo and although the 1200 has decent clearance there is a lot more wire here than was originally planned. Could get ugly trying to put that side panel on....would really suck if it no longer fits.

 

[toxicity_27]

I'm a big fan of individually sleeved wires. You did a **** of a nice job.

 

[philbar71]

well my side panel did not really fit either. i had to force it. so now there is a bulge where the cables stick out.

but one thing you could do for the PSU cover is take a dremel and cut out the hole on the cover right?

 

[patonb]

Hey, check this guys reversal/flop
YouTube - Invisible Hard Drive Cables (Antec 1200 HDD Reverse Mount)

So clean!