Project: Feeding Frenzy

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Well I have had a lull in the boxes I was building for a friend due to a bad PSU so I have some free time to play around. I have been looking around for some long black SATA cables, but alas this was not to be. Found red, blue, and green. Why no basic black? So here is a pic of what I started out with. Nice translucent candy apple red color :D

SATA_cable_1.jpg



Unfortunately this wasn't going to make it so it was time to go scrounging the local electronic shops to get some nice basic black sleeving material and heatshrink. Here is with the sleeving put on. Yes I did them two at a time to cut down on the case clutter.


SATA_cable_2.jpg



Here is one of the completed assemblies. Notice the evil red glint?

SATA_cable_3.jpg



Well as you know I am also working on lapping all my waterblocks. So the next set of pic's is a work in progress. Here is my Silver Cuplex XT block. Came with a super finish, but it wasn't as flat as I wanted. Here is the way it came to me.


SilberXT_3.jpg



Here is a pic of the inside showing the internal pin array.

SilberXT_4B.jpg



Here is a pic showing the condition after about 20 laps with 800 grit wet and dry sandpaper. You can see that the sandpaper is only touching the outside of the block. The center was concave about .002 of an inch. I was kind of bummed about this till I also saw a post on another forum from someone with the same problem on a Littler River G5. So grin and sand it. ;)


SilverXT_rough_1.jpg



So what do you do with a $265 PCP&C Turbo 510 SLI PSU when you get it? Some people use it, but I decided to mod it seeing how it wasn't exactly what I wanted. So the first thing to do was to ditch all the molex conncectors.


PSU_apart_1.jpg



PSU_apart_2.jpg



Oh yeah I also decided I didn't need the SATA power connectors. snip snip :eek:


PSU_apart_4.jpg



The other molex connectors need to go as well and what could you possibly need a floppy drive connector for?


PSU_apart_3.jpg


So now that I had fun with my dikes it is time to catch some zzzz's. So do you think I just voided my warranty? Think again as when you get a PCP&C supply they expect you to make a lot of custom mods and don't get excited about it so long as you do a good job. Now that everything is cut off I can get busy doing all the custom wiring. Every piece of wire on Feeding Frenzy is totally custom. I either snip snip to size, solder, or make up my own custom cable assemblies. :p
 
TN...you're insane :p how do you plan on getting the ATX pins back in the right sockets? Does it matter whether or not the same exact wire goes into the molex connector socket that it came out of? or is it just a colour thing?
 
DaMiEn said:
TN...you're insane :p how do you plan on getting the ATX pins back in the right sockets? Does it matter whether or not the same exact wire goes into the molex connector socket that it came out of? or is it just a colour thing?

Funny you should mention that as someone recently said I quite often go over the top on modding my computers. Why half-ass it when you can have it your way?

Do you mean that those wires have to go back in the same place? :eek:

No really, you should get a junker PSU and take it apart sometime. All the black wires go to the same header on the board. In fact all the colored wires go to the same place on the circuit board as the other wires of the same color. So did I mention I was color blind? :p
 
Hm, I've seen some gray SATA-cables that was shipped with a motherboard... To bad I live here, I could've checked around at work if we had some spare ones...
 
knaSen said:
Hm, I've seen some gray SATA-cables that was shipped with a motherboard... To bad I live here, I could've checked around at work if we had some spare ones...

No it's too bad I don't live in Stockholm :D I was in Sweden in 1985 on a company business junket visiting production facilities for Seco Snap Tap. Still remember going to some place called Cherry Casino one night and was shocked when they told me that JD on the rocks wasn't normally served and would be quite expensive. Seems the gov't thought it was okay to drink mixed drinks, but on the rocks was not good for you...so it had a higher tax on it. ;)
 
Thats a good idea with the SATA cables, gonna go do that now...Time to hit up home depot :D
 
Well it was late last night and in retrospect it seems I did forget one little itsy bitsy thing. I recently acquired some unusual fan grills in both 80mm and 120mm size. If your an Aqua Computer fan then drool away :D


AC_Grill_1.jpg



Wait to you see what I plan to do with them. Even I am amazed at myself sometimes :eek:
 
knaSen said:
Hm, I've seen some gray SATA-cables that was shipped with a motherboard... To bad I live here, I could've checked around at work if we had some spare ones...

Abit boards came with gray SATA cables. Top Nurse, how long of a cable do you need? I got 4 of these lying around if you want them. I don't know if they are long enough, they are .5 meters long. You'd still have to cover them, but no evil glint.

SATA.jpg
 
brom42 said:
Abit boards came with gray SATA cables. Top Nurse, how long of a cable do you need? I got 4 of these lying around if you want them. I don't know if they are long enough, they are .5 meters long. You'd still have to cover them, but no evil glint.

Thanks for the offer, but I need them at least 40" long. :)
 
ACRyan.com makes a black 1 meter (39.37") SATA cable, and performance-pcs.com sells it sleeved in any color (black also available). I've mentioned these cables in so many threads it sounds like I'm working for them :)

But they are gorgeous cables, the sleeving is excellent.
 
Decided to try a little painting what with everything apart for a while. Used a Dykem product called Mark and Code. It comes in a lot of different colors and is in a pen format. Paints metal or plastic with good coverage.

PSU_Connector_1.jpg



Since this turned out pretty good I have decided to paint some of the MB connectors as well. :D
 
Those AC grills are nice!

Are you finished lapping the silver block? It’s really disappointing to learn it was so out of spec. The sad thing is that I bet my block is worse than yours. Do you think it would be OK if I just globed an extra dose of AS5 on my cpu? :D
 
ShoNuff said:
Those AC grills are nice!

Are you finished lapping the silver block? It’s really disappointing to learn it was so out of spec. The sad thing is that I bet my block is worse than yours. Do you think it would be OK if I just globed an extra dose of AS5 on my cpu? :D
no, not really. time for you to bust out the sandpaper!

personally, i like the evil red glint from the SATA cables... dunno if it'll fit your color scheme tho.
i'm invincible!
 
Top Nurse said:
Jumping in car to Home Depot...

How did that trip turn out for ya, i went to my local Home Depot and they had sleeving- but no plexiglass cutters :mad:
 
Getting Ideas...
Must start working on my Quake 4 Stacker Mod!

TN I am loving this Mod...
Keep it coming!
 
rogue_jedi said:
no, not really. time for you to bust out the sandpaper!

personally, i like the evil red glint from the SATA cables... dunno if it'll fit your color scheme tho.

Ditto on the sandpaper ;)

Actually the evil red glint is starting to grow on me and I could tie in the redish glint into some other part of the case. Maybe some blood dripping from the jaws of a shark. :D
 
Dillusion said:
How did that trip turn out for ya, i went to my local Home Depot and they had sleeving- but no plexiglass cutters :mad:

No sleeving material :( But there are about 10 Home Depot's in the surrounding area so...
 
ShoNuff said:
Those AC grills are nice!

Are you finished lapping the silver block? It’s really disappointing to learn it was so out of spec. The sad thing is that I bet my block is worse than yours. Do you think it would be OK if I just globed an extra dose of AS5 on my cpu? :D

Perhaps I will try and take some pics of them in the sunlight as they are made out of stainless steel. I'm not sure if those blocks are out of spec or not as AC would never tell me what their specs were in the first place. :(
 
Parrothead = Jimmy Buffet fan. Sheesh, I'm 15 and I know that :p

Nice work on the ATX connector, do I see an AC logo etched into your A8N-SLI in the near future?
 
ikellensbro said:
Parrothead = Jimmy Buffet fan. Sheesh, I'm 15 and I know that :p

Nice work on the ATX connector, do I see an AC logo etched into your A8N-SLI in the near future?

Who's Jimmy Buffet? I'm a little older than 15 so perhaps that is the reason.

Thanks for the nice words on my minor painting project. No AC logo etched in, but there will be a nice use for them. Think Lights, Stars, Action :p
 
Top Nurse said:
Perhaps I will try and take some pics of them in the sunlight as they are made out of stainless steel. I'm not sure if those blocks are out of spec or not as AC would never tell me what their specs were in the first place. :(

After you hit that block with 800 grit sanpaper and still didn't touch the center...there is no way in %^#* that anybody could say that it is within specs. Again, I think my block may be worse. You may remember our conversation about my concerns over its performance when I first got it. Since I am waiting on parts I may start lapping it this weekend.
 
Top Nurse said:
Who's Jimmy Buffet? I'm a little older than 15 so perhaps that is the reason.

Thanks for the nice words on my minor painting project. No AC logo etched in, but there will be a nice use for them. Think Lights, Stars, Action :p


Are you KIDDING me, Top Nurse??? I'm 33 and I know who he is. He's been around since the 70's for goodness sakes! "Maragitaville". Ever hear that song??
 
Scroatdog said:
Are you KIDDING me, Top Nurse??? I'm 33 and I know who he is. He's been around since the 70's for goodness sakes! "Maragitaville". Ever hear that song??

Oh...I never pay to much attention to musicians names. I do remember drinking margarita's at Hussongs Cantina in Ensenada, Mexico in the 70's listening to the song though. ;)
 
Well here is the SATA cable I made the other day trial fitted to my case.

HD_Cable_1.jpg



Bottoms Up :D

HD_Cable_2.jpg



Here you see the cable coming into the top of the case.


HD_Cable_3.jpg




This is pretty much all you will see when the radiator is installed. However you won't see where the cable comes in as the radiator covers up that part of the cable. In fact the only thing you will see is that black cable coming down to the SATA connector. Nice and clean is the way I like it.

HD_Cable_4.jpg
 
Top Nurse said:

Is there a reason that you are using the SI Raid? The SI controller on the PCI bus and its performance is really hindered because of it. I moved my Raid 1 Seagate 7200.8 drives from the SI raid to the Nvidia raid and saw a significant improvement in speed. I can just imagine how much your raptors are going to be held back. And if you are going to run Raid 5 you should really get a PCI-E Raid card. Not only is Raid 5 slow on that SI controller, but it also sucks up a bunch of CPU time.
 
Well how well does the SI work in single drive mode? If I decide to run RAID I would use an Adaptec PCI card. I already have a Promise S150 SX4, but the radiator gets in the way. :(

My current plans are to use a 74Gb Raptor for my main drive, another 74GB for my data drive, and the third 74Gb drive as a mirror of my data with Folder Clone. Might throw a pair of 36Gb Raptors in on RAID 1 just for grins though.
 
Well, the PCI bus maxes out at 133mb/s, with 100-110mb/s closer to the actual speed you are going to see. That has to be shared among all the PCI devices you are running. On your board the Firewire, SI Raid, and second ethernet port are all on the PCI bus. Each one of them can easily max out the PCI bus on their own. This is not even including any PCI cards you add.

So as long as you only use 1 drive on the SI and don't use the second ethernet port, firewire, or any pci cards, you won't have any speed problems. So you can see the problem. :D

Here is a Link to an article that benchmarked a raptor raid 0 array on different onboard controllers. Look at the difference between the NF3 raid and the SI 3114. You're running the same SI 3114 controller on your board and the NF4 raid performs a little better than NF3. There is a huge speed difference.
 
Okay I'm sold :D Now I have to strip apart the SATA cable I made the other day as it was specifically designed to fit that SI header. :( Oh well such is a modders life. ;)
 
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