ATX and ESD Cables

[highend-pcdoctor]

Has anyone upgraded their ATX and ESD cables in their music server?

I ordered the cables from Ghent Xu who runs ghentaudio.com

After replacing the stock ESD cable in my music server the sound quality was moved to a higher level. Smoother and more detailed voices, instruments.

He is currently making a custom 24P=>20P ATX cable for me.

I will report on what it does for my system after I receive and install it.

He is also a super guy to deal with, excellent and quick responses to questions.

He definitely does quality work, I am also using his DC33 Oyaide DC 5 volts (Neotech UPOCC 7N Copper 18AWG Hi-End DC(JSSG360)) to power my SSDs from the LPSU.

I will also post some pictures after the ATX cable is installed,

[highend-pcdoctor]

Installed the 20P=>24P ATX power cable today.

Definite improvement is the sound quality.

Sound is smoother with less edgeiness, and also quieter.

Posting a picture of the audio server with the Ghent internal power cables indicated with the red arrows

[rickca]

 

On 5/19/2019 at 2:11 PM, highend-pcdoctor said:

Has anyone upgraded their ATX and ESD cables in their music server?

 

Wow, I definitely want some details about this, please.  I don't see anything about it on the Ghent website.  Also, what power supply are you using with these cables?

[Dutch]

10 hours ago, rickca said:

 

 

Wow, I definitely want some details about this, please.  I don't see anything about it on the Ghent website.  Also, what power supply are you using with these cables?

 

They are on his website, see here: http://ghentaudio.com/part/list-dc.html 

[rickca]

On 5/19/2019 at 2:11 PM, highend-pcdoctor said:

After replacing the stock ESD cable in my music server the sound quality was moved to a higher level.

What is an ESD cable?  Do you maybe mean the EPS12V cable (8-pin)?

Which ASUS motherboard is that?  

[highend-pcdoctor]

13 hours ago, rickca said:

What is an ESD cable?  Do you maybe mean the EPS12V cable (8-pin)?

Which ASUS motherboard is that?  

Sorry, I should have written EPS

Motherboard is the Asus H87M-E

[Chopin75]

I also just started testing a Ghentaudio  ATX cable 24-P for my HDPLEX with its own LPS. Too early to tell the exact improvement.  But at initial impression there is a much reduced digital glare and edginess and somewhat more 3 D sound stage. but hard to say if this could also be effect of my recent upgrade of my RAM. Very stiff cable !! Hard to take out of the socket once plugged on so I doubt I can do much A/B comparison with the older cable. 

[Nenon]

All my ATX and EPS cables are using the Mundorf 15.5awg Silver/Gold wire wrapped in natural unbleached cotton sleeve, and shielded with a triple JSSG360 shielding.

https://www.partsconnexion.com/MUNDORF-72181.html

 

It makes a big difference in my system! Highly recommended. 

 

I buy the connectors / pins and solder them with WBT silver solder. And then I treat every pin with Walker Audio Quantum Silver Contact Treatment with Nanocrystal Technology.

 

I don't need to connect all 20/24 pins. Some of them are unused. Others are just a redundant run of wires (it helps when you use an anemic tiny wire but not needed when you use 15.5 AWG wire; I also feel it is better to have one run of wire to minimise a potential risk of ground loops). I have only four wires actually (+3.3V DC, +5V DC, +12V DC, and Ground (-)). Keeping the wires as short as possible also helps. 

 

[Chopin75]

Hmm, I didn't know that not all.the pins are used, so perhaps in future I would do a limited wire version but how do u figure out what l

Pins are not used? It goes all just to my MB and RAM I believe so maybe a bunch of extra wires are not used. I think the CPU has a separate wire and  I use external supply to SARA drive but that will.change to internal M2 soon

[Nenon]

I am sure I have posted this a few times in various threads here. 

For example, the -12V is not used on modern motherboards. That leaves us with three voltages: 3.3V, 5V, 12V; hence the 4 wires (the fourth is ground - ).

Here is a 20-pin connector pinout:

 

If you use a multimeter and measure the resistance between let's say all the +5V pins, you would notice that most of them are connected together on the motherboard side. Hence, you don't need to run 4 cables for the +5V. As I mentioned in my previous post it helps to have multiple runs of wire if you are using a very thin wire, as you are essentially increasing the overall wire gauge. But with short 15.5 AWG wires, I don't feel the need to run multiple wires and think that it prevents you from creating a potential for ground loops. 

There are three special PINs - #8 (PWR_OK), #9 (+5VSB), #14 (PS_ON#). Those are used by the ATX switching mode power supply to tell the motherboards when the power is stabilized, to provide standby/wake up functionality, etc. I won't go over all the details, but you can look up the ATX specifications on wikipedia.

- If you use a non-ATX linear power supply, those need some special treatment. I connect #8 and #9 to the +5V and don't connect #14 at all. 

- If you use an ATX power supply (including one of those DC to DC converters from HDPlex or PICO ATX), you just need to make sure you have those three wires connected properly. 

 

Take a look at this Innuos server picture for reference or search some of my old posts on the subject.