So as I mentioned earlier, Jacob from EVGA sent me an entire cable kit in red to check out and use it in my build if I like it. The least I can do is share my thoughts and ask if anyone here has any specific requests as far as pictures and tests go.
I currently have these with me to test out the cables:
Here's what the kit looks like when received:
Once the box is opened, we see 3 bags inside:
Not much to gain from those 2 pictures so let's open them up. Bag 1 has the 20+4 pin ATX cable and 2 4+4 pin EPS cables:
If you have a correctly calibrated monitor, the color of the image below will be exactly how it looks in real life:
Too bad I sold my Corsair red sleeved kit last week, but I do have one 20+4 pin ATX cable in white from Corsair for comparison:
Corsair uses PET sleeving I believe compared to what I have been told is Micro Cord in the EVGA cables. If this is incorrect, please let me know.
Look ma, no heatshrink! These cables look and feel neater in person already. While I can't demonstrate this easily, these cables are also more malleable in that they can be bent easily and they retain the bent shape better than the Corsair cables.
I understand why Corsair went for heatshrink, and I give them props for making the individually sleeved cables available as a kit but the issues of mass production means not everything is perfect. For instance, the heatshrink here is not all uniform in length or application. Some of the heatshrink is actually beginning to come off despite me never having actually used this cable before. This isn't to say everything is perfect in EVGA land.
The Corsair sleeving is thicker, but the inner wiring in both these cases is 16 AWG- so far so good. But a closer look at the wires in each cable show something I haven't really thought about till now:
These are wires in the same 24 pin ATX cable. At first I thought this was a mistake since only 1 wire was thinner than the rest but then I looked at the stock cable and there were many more thinner wires in there. All the thinner wires (18 AWG I believe, will confirm once a local sleever is done taking the cable apart and putting it back together) are actually in one area which is not critical in power delivery. So, if anything, EVGA is actually putting more effort into making these individually sleeved cables better for power delivery. Now whether or not there is a real world difference between 16 and 18 AWG will be found out soon, at least in my case.
On to bag 2 which contains the VGA cables:
2 daisychained 6+2 pin + 6 pin PCI-E VGA cables and 4 6+2 pin PCI-E VGA cables. Here is where I am a bit concerned about:
The wires on the daisy chained 6 pin connector all seem to be 18 AWG. This is plenty enough for most people, but if someone is benching hard and has no other choice but to use daisy chained cables, then this may cause an issue. I will be testing this out real soon. The pro overclockers typically have 1 PSU per GPU and some go even more extreme. 8 Pack, for example, likes to use a 1200W PSU for each 8 pin PCI-E connector being used when benching. So common sense would dictate you just use 1 cable per connector and not go with daisy chained connectors when operating way past TDP of a GPU. But when you have 2-3 GPUs like the EVGA 780 Ti Classified K|ngp|n edition or the MSI R9-290x Lightning, you have an 8+8+6 PCI-E connection on each card:
So while there are enough PCI-E connectors on something like the 1300G2 and 1600G2/P2/T2 for 3 of these cards, the kit here has only 6 cables. EVGA is looking into making supplemental VGA only sleeved cables available for purchase, so please do let them know if this is something you are interested in. They are also considering selling bare-bones PSUs (no stock cables) for a lower price than the regular models. This would be great for anyone wanting any sort of custom cables so once again please do let them know of any interest in this.
Finally on to bag 3 (peripherals):
4 x 3 SATA, 1 x 3 Molex and 1 x 2 Molex + 1 Floppy connector. Funnily all these wires here seem to be the thicker 16 AWG type even though 18 guage would have been plenty. I also think the floppy connector is redundant and should not have been in here but I am sure there will be someone now to prove me wrong.
If there are any errors in what I have written, please don't hesitate in letting me know. I am not by any means an expert in this field and am only looking at this from a consumer's point of view. Also do let me know if there are any particular requests for photos or tests. These were all taken hours ago and the wires are currently being tested as we speak but I will gladly do all I can.
