Vinyl dye might work better. Maybe it's just your hairdryer, but mine works OK as long as there's some tinfoil underneat the workpiece to reflect the heat back. I prefer using a lighter, though.
I use a heat gun a bit like this: http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=2747
There are different types of heatshrink, the low temp one shrinks at 85 degrees while the normal one shrinks at 125 degrees, maybe you have the low temp one? I wouldn't want to use a hairdryer on my silky locks if it could shrink the high temp one. A lighter works but it will leave sooty stains that are almost impossible to remove on white heatshrink. Moriquendi
Do you know, Moriquendi, every time I disagree with you I end up learning something new. You can avoid sooty stains with the correct lighter, though. The flame is very clean burning. I freebased hotglue on a spoon (don't ask...) and the bottom didn't blacken at all.
Thanks Neil. thanks Moriquendi, yea sorry was being lazy before Thanks Javerh, yea I already have a cheap one, not black and decker but should do the trick! Yea i used a lighter on UV green *pukes* heatshrink when braiding my current cables and they did stain, no way doing that with white heatshrink! And trying to shrink round a whole cable with a lighter would take ages anyway! The reason I was using UV green was because I have the nVidia edition CM stacker and the XFX tri sli board both having that green styling, which now really makes me sick Yea actually i have a wind proof lighter that might do the trick, but then again doing this for long cables will take ages, i will stick to the heatgun.
I try to be informative rather than just tell someone they're wrong, glad its appreciated =) Maximus, it's a pet hate of mine. Moriquendi
Ok, here I come. The idea of the white heatshrink al long of the cable sounds plausible. Anyway, my sugestion is, primer. It wont fall off, I accidentaly sroked over some fan cable and is yellow even today. With primer it should etch even better.
does vinyl dye work on sata cables? Not sure if you can go from such a dark color to white, but vinyl dye generally colors the plastic material itself so it won't crack when you bend the cable.
Most dyes I've seen are good for making light coloured items darker, but not the otherway around ( bleaching essentially.. ).
Got new case Thanks for all the replies guys, I'm going to try the heatshrink root but I am unsure how I will feel about the heatshrink overlapping part of the sata connector. Maybe at least could do this for the visible part of the sata cable which runs into the motherboard. If I'm not happy with this then I will try the paint root that some of you have suggested, in which case I will remove the sata connectors, paint the cables and replace the connectors. Does anyone know where I can get sata data connectors from? I have tried Performance PCs but I couldn't find any, maybe I am just being blind? Got my new case: Fractal Define R2, very nice and smaller than my CM Stacker, thank God. I was being dominated by that case for too long, now I am the Master. Oh and my new Titan Fenrir, not the Xmas one as I am sticking with BW theme And below is most of the stuff in. The highlighted areas is where I want to change the cables and/or connectors to white and do a bit more tidying! Finally as I was taking my old case apart check out the DUST!! 2 years of non-cleaning and this will happen, I'm sure my temps increased by at least 10c. You can see the negative airflow space from the Freezer 7 Pro! Finally if anyone is interested I am selling my CM Stacker 830 nVidia Edition on eBay, plus the Freezer 7 Pro (which I have cleaned, don't worry). Will post my progress on this thread as I don't want to start a project log as this is just a very very small project and not that interesting Plus I'm a noobie and would like to get advice from all you knowledgeable people out there
You won't find SATA connectors unless you look at component suppliers - Farnell/Conrad/Digikey or someone. It's completely unnecessary though, just mask the connectors off with tape.
Not to be a dick about it, but to be honest, nothing is going to look as clean and nice as sleeved cables. I really think you should still consider it. I know its a butt load of work to do, but man nice white sleeve like the mdpc-x stuff has made me drool in almost every build I've seen it in. You would also get the props from those who know what a pain it is to sleeve that many cables. I really like the R2, it seems like a perfect blank canvas for cool mods. I also love black/white combos, so I will definitely keep an eye on this. One suggestion apart from the cables: go heavy on the white. The human eye is naturally attracted to white (it's lazy, noJK), and I always feel like the black and white themed cases I see around are more like black with a hint of white. Go all out, and it will stand out more. White is an easy color to paint over anyways, so you can always go back to black if something turns out really ghastly. And also, white bladed fans=pure cool. Good luck, hope it turns out well. Have Fun, -SPNKR
Thanks SPNKR!! Yea I really wanted to sleeve the sata cables in the first place but the current sata cables I have are flat and not rounded. I thought maybe this would lead to some nasty looking bulges in the sleeving? The sleeving that you suggest; "mdpc-x", what is this? Is it rubberised and not semi-trasparent like normal sleeving? I really wanted to get my hands on some of that. I have some fans (golf ball transparent ones) which have this nice sleeving on which isn't transparent and is a little rubbery, I would love to know if it has a specific name so I can search for it. UPDATE: Just ordereed an ATX, 8-Pin and 2x 6-Pin (NZXT) extender cables from Kustom PC site, all individually sleeved in white mmmm nice (pics to follow) I previously ordered the ATX and 8-Pin in black (NZXT) but realised that they just blend in with the black interior of the case and go invisible So these ones should add some extra contrast as SPNKR suggest Oh and I will be putting these cables on ebay sometime this week if anyone wants these on the cheap? EDIT: SPNKR just googled mdpc-x, your are awesome man! thank you so much for this link, this sleeving just made me wet my pants, and I am at work which is not good!! And they have white sata sleeving (flat), can't thank you enough! Forget heatshrinking the whole cable or painting it, I'm going mdpc-x people, check out the site it is awesome!!! http://en.mdpc-x.com/mdpc-sleeve/sleeve.htm
Question I had a major issue with my Sata power connectors from my PSU. The Define R2 mounts the HDs in the logical position, however for some reason the modular cable I got with my CM 1000 PSU the connectors are upsidedown! So I have to twist them around for them to fit into the HDs. Obviously there is a twisitng issue with this meaning the cable is putting extra pressure on the HD sata socket. What I wanted to ask, and I think I asked this in another thread was; can the wires be taken out of the PSU connector as this is a different connector from standard sata or molex. It may still use molex pins which I am hoping in which case I can take out the wires are replace the whole sata power cable. This would be great as I can measure the distance between HD and DVD drives and cut the cables appropriately and individually sleeve them in white Relating to this can anyone suggest me a source where I can by Sata power wires? I have never sleeved or created a power cable wire before ssooo EDIT: Just wanted to post some pics of the extender cables that are currently in the post to me. Looks like I will have to change the heatshrink on these though and possibly the connector if I can get my hands on white connectors? Or is that just going overkill on the white, what do you think? Oh and the white sata sleeving I will order tonight (thanks SPNKR)! uuummmmm
mock-ups As a follow on from JaccoW's idea to paint the top of the HSF, and thinking this would look good for my B/W theme, here are are a few very quick mock-ups of what the Titan Fenrir might look like if painted. I prefer the black with white logo, but maybe the white would look better overall in the case, what do you think? Fenrir logo re-draw Black with white logo White with black logo So the idea is to create a stencil from the logo redraw. I was also thinking about painting the shapes on the lower left and right of the Fenrir either black or white depending on overal colour. Oh and another question, what would look better Matt or Gloss?
If that works that would look awesome. And I too am pondering matte or gloss. I think I prefer the black with white logo over the white one, but it could be refreshingly different.
I'm leaning more on the side of Matte for the black at the moment because it will attract less finger prints and I will probably be stroking it with glee after it is dry LOL
Yeah I know man, that stuff is sick! especially the white, it looks sooooo good. I had nearly the same reaction when I first saw it. If you want some more eye candy of it, look at This Thread. Credit to Agressions for the awesome shots in his build. I think he has some high res shots somewhere in there too, if you dig. Those extenders also look beautiful, I actually kind of like the black heatshrink, since white is the dominant color on that part. Either way though is fine in my opinion. If you are going to have the inside of the case black, I would go with the white dominant heatsink. Remember, the contrast between black and white is what generates the visual interest, and the eye is naturally attracted to white, especially if it is surrounded by black. Either way though, thats a pretty cool logo and it will look nice. As for the matte or gloss, I would go with gloss white and matte black. Since you seem to really be going for the black/white thing, matte blacks look much deeper since they don't have white reflections, and again the contrast of the glossy white would look neat. No guarantees though, whatever you do, try it out first to see if you like it. Anyways, good luck, and I can't wait to see more gorgeous white sleeve. Have Fun! -SPNKR
