Vantec Cable Sleeving Kit

     Cold cathodes, fan controllers, custom fan grilles, rounded cables, etc, etc, etc... You ever wonder when it will end? Case mods have come a long way in the last few years. What used to be a great way to distinguish your system from other boxes has now become a worldwide movement because almost no case can be left without something custom. Well lets just say that all these modifications that you do to your case, what can you possibly do next? You ever think about your own power supply and the wires that come out of it? By now you should now that any amount of clutter gives you less of a chance of finding that 1-2C drop in temperature for your new case fans or heatsink. Cable clutter used to be typically solved by a quick trip to the local auto parts store for some conduit, but conduit doesn't do too much for those new cold cathode lights, much less let others see how long you struggled to organize the wiring in your system. More recently, cable sleeving became prevalent among case modders, but now you can just go grab a kit and do it yourself! Lets take a look at one of Vantec's newest offering, the Cable Sleeving Kit.

Specifications

Model:
CSK-80-BL, CSK-80-BK,
CSK-80UV-GR, CSK-80UV-RD,
CSK-80UV-YL

Package Includes:
10 ft. - 1/8" sleeving
10 ft. - 1/4" sleeving
5 ft. - 3/8" sleeving
5 ft. - 1/2" sleeving
10 - tie wraps
1 ft. - 9mm Heatshrink Tubing
1 ft. - 20mm Heatshrink Tubing
6 in. - 25mm Heatshrink Tubing

Installation

     I must illustrate exactly how hard installation is on this kit. If you don't know how to remove molex plugs, let someone else do it. It took me at least 4 hours to install this on a Enermax 465V. Keep in mind that your installation may be different, and much easier. Vantec does have installation instructions on their site with good illustrations, but for some reason I could not get any sleeve over any molex of my PSU, so what I ended up doing was using some very small utensils to remove the molex plugs from my PSU so I could slide each sleeve over each strand of wire. If you have faith in your mad modding skillz, by all means go for it, you know I can do it, so let the force by with you.

     Our first victim is a $27 dollar eBay special, the infamous Enermax 465VE that umps out 430W. These are great power supplies, so If you are in the market for a really good PSU and don't have a lot of money to spend, look around and you'll find one for cheap. Notice the jumble of wires here. Yes it looks nasty, and yes, it will look better when we're done.

Our first cable turned out pretty nice. It looks a little burnt from using a lighter instead of a heat gun which I think is a ridiculous purchase to make for just one use.

After a 4 hour sleeve job you bet it's going to look good... Our sample was the UV version of the kit, which looks great with UV cold cathodes

Conclusion

     The Vantec UV Sleeving Kit does what its advertised, but I hope that they will let our readers know that you need to have a lot of patience to install this kit if you have a high performance power supply. Of course you can also purchase a Vantec pre-modded power supply from many retailers on the web, but where is the fun, challenge, and pride in your workmanship in that? There is nothing like doing it yourself, just make sure to label all your wires correctly. This kit is recommended so long as your MAD-MODDING skillz are up for it!