bit-tech Looks at CableMod's Custom Cables

The Configurator

All this is well and good, but there are a couple of things that are tricky to do when offering pre-packaged cable sets. Firstly, offering a full range of colours, in particular when they're alternating cable to cable, becomes prohibitive - you're probably not going to sell very many of a particular combination. The same goes for lengths - for small form factor PC fans, the ability to buy shortened cable sets is great, but while the small form factor scene is growing it still represents only a small portion of enthusiasts.


The answer to these questions was the configurator. CableMod allows you to pick from a list of PSU models, including manufacturers that aren't listed in the pre-braided kits sections such as Antec and In Win, and create any number of custom per-colour cables as well as custom lengths. If you only need custom cables cables for your motherboard and graphics card then you can just buy these - handy as most of us usually end up with a bunch of power cables we never use. You can also pick from ModFlex or ModMesh - the latter more closely resembling a true custom braid. In short, you can create a custom length, custom colour cable set with a few clicks of your mouse.


Price-wise, if you leave out those extra, often unneeded PCI-E and SATA cables and just power a single GPU system with an SSD and hard disk, you're looking at $122 for a ModFlex cable set and $134 for a ModMesh cable set. This includes picking any colour combinations you want as well as lengths for each individual cable - even the distances between the connectors in some cases too. That's pretty impressive, although this is pricier than a typical ModFlex-based cable set from the likes of Corsair. The customisation on offer for the extra cash, though, is phenomenal.


To get those uniform bends in your cables, CableMod also offers cable combs for both its ModMesh and ModFlex options - important especially for ModFlex as it's not compatible with most third-party combs on account of its thinness. You can kit out a cable kit with combs like we've opted for here for around $15, although they only come in clear acrylic at the moment.


If we had the choice, ModMesh would be our pick - as you can see above, the cables tend to line up better for a neater look, but if you're dealing with a small form factor build then the ModFlex cables do exactly what their name suggests: offer a lot more flexibility. Overall, though, we're hugely impressed by the service that CableMod offers. While the ModFlex cables have received some scorn from hardcore PSU modders due to the material and resulting cable thickness, the ModMesh is almost identical to the braid you'd buy off the shelf for a custom braiding session.

Add to this the colour options and the ability to specify cable length too and we can highly recommend the configurator if you want some custom cables but don't have the time to braid them yourself. We'd like to thank CableMod for working with us on this article and for supplying the cables.