The HDPLEX Silicon flexible PCIe riser

[iFreilicht]

I received the HDPLEX Silicon riser (click "Package contents" for more pictures) today and boy what a great riser that is.
This might be the one I've been looking for all this time.

Here are my first impressions:



Short facts:

• Costs about 1/3rd of the 3M riser, about the same as the LiHeat
• Is thinner than any other riser in existence
• Absolutely solid, can be folded and kinked with no performance impact
• No retention clips but higher friction force

 

[CHANG3D]

Nice. Those are some scary "damages" that fortunately did not affect anything.

 

[vipz]

Luckily the puncture seemed to have avoided actual data traces.

Is the 15cm length (as claimed on the product page) long enough for a typical back-to-back build?

 

[Hahutzy]

I received the HDPLEX Silicon riser (click "Package contents" for more pictures) today and boy what a great riser that is.
This might be the one I've been looking for all this time.

Here are my first impressions.

Short facts:

• Costs about 1/3rd of the 3M riser, about the same as the LiHeat
• Is thinner than any other riser in existence
• Absolutely solid, can be folded and kinked with no performance impact
• No retention clips but higher friction force

Thanks for writing up a review of it! The way it can bend and still perform (better?) is pretty amazing.

Luckily the puncture seemed to have avoided actual data traces.

Is the 15cm length (as claimed on the product page) long enough for a typical back-to-back build?

No, 15cm is not enough. You typically need around 25cm or more for back-to-back.

 

[iFreilicht]

Luckily the puncture seemed to have avoided actual data traces.

Is the 15cm length (as claimed on the product page) long enough for a typical back-to-back build?

It's actually a little bit longer than 15cm, about 18, but 15cm is the longest distance you can realistically cross with it, so props to HDPLEX for being conservative with that claim.

Thanks for writing up a review of it! The way it can bend and still perform (better?) is pretty amazing.

No, 15cm is not enough. You typically need around 25cm or more for back-to-back.

I should clarify that the non-bent tests weren't done after a cold restart, but after about 15 minutes of general use, so those results aren't really comparable. The take away is that bending it has no impact at all, though.


Just measured the thickness with a dial caliper. The riser is 0.14mm thin.

 

[Xymos]

iFreilicht is the Riser long enough to mount the GPU and CPU facing the same way?

 

[iFreilicht]

Yes, the distance between the board and the bottom edge of your GPUs PCIe connector in this orientation will be about 150mm, so most GPUs should fit there. HDPLEX has specified this dimension as the length, not the actual length of the ribbon, which is 180mm.

They use this cable for their H5 case, which has exactly the layout you're asking about.

 

[Xymos]

thank you. After using it a few weeks now, do you still think its worth it?

 

[iFreilicht]

Unfortunately, I didn't use it after the initial testing phase anymore, because my current build doesn't support the GPU on that end. I need to use a stiff riser.

I will receive a few pieces for the first Brevis S prototype at the end of the month, so for that I'll be chaining two of these together and test that setup continuously. Then I'll hopefully be able to compare it against the LiHeat riser, too. I'll keep you updated in this thread and in my case thread as well.

 

[mejobloggs_]

I've got one of these

Haven't got around to using it yet though, still in the process of building myself a mitx lego case

 

[Ulti]

Pretty awesome stuff. Shame about the delivery but thank god it still worked fine. Maybe it's what is causing the 50 points decreasing.

 

[iFreilicht]

Pretty awesome stuff. Shame about the delivery but thank god it still worked fine. Maybe it's what is causing the 50 points decreasing.

I actually checked the traces and it just punched through the ground layer on the power delivery side. And because the ground is highly oversized on the riser (as it should be), that's not going to have any noticeable impact.