Question for Electronic Repair Guys!!!

[Frag Mortuus]

I'm attempting to sleeve my power supply in my PC. Meaning I will strip the factory mesh that covers the groups of individual wires and then cover the individual cables with colored paracord to give them a more custom look. This is purely for aesthetics and nothing more.

However, once I removed the factory covering to reveal the individual wires, I realized that OCZ decided to put capacitors on the component side of each cable. So, not only would this look terrible and defeat the purpose of sleeving, but it would also expose the capacitors to damage since they are no longer bundled and covered by thick heat shrink.

As far as I understand, the capacitors are there to ensure the component being powered receives the proper amount of voltage. If too much is passing through the line, the capacitor captures it and stores it, if too little is being sent a little of that stored power is added back in. I could be wrong, please correct me if I am.

So, what I was thinking of doing is making extensions to go on the end of my factory cables that will come out behind the motherboard tray and plug in to each component. I can sleeve my extensions to give me the desired look I want.

And now for the question: In order to reduce cable clutter, would it hurt anything to shorten the factory cables to just a few inches, leaving the capacitors intact, and then make longer extensions to route to each component?

I can take pictures of the cables with the capacitors if necessary.

Thanks.

[Hobie-wan]

That's going to be an awful lot of work that will create issues if you don't get things all perfectly reconnected. The connector going to the motherboard is 24 wires, plus 4 to 6 for each other plug and such. Covering each individual wire is going to create a huge mass there as well as taking lots of time.

[Frag Mortuus]

That's going to be an awful lot of work that will create issues if you don't get things all perfectly reconnected. The connector going to the motherboard is 24 wires, plus 4 to 6 for each other plug and such. Covering each individual wire is going to create a huge mass there as well as taking lots of time.

I don't mind taking the time. Its just a another part of the hobby for me. Here is what I'm trying to achieve.



However my PSU has capacitors at the end like this:



Which makes it tough to get a nice clean look.

The cables on my PSU are completely modular, meaning I can disconnect them from the actual PSU which makes modding a lot easier.

So, do you think it would pose a problem to shorten the factory cables? I was think about removing the pins from the PSU side of the cable. Cutting the cables and recrimping new molex pins on the end, then snapping them back into the connector. I have all the necessary tools to do so, I'm just worried shortening the cables will somehow mess something up.

What do you think?

[isiolia]

Probably just do the end in heat shrink and then sleeve the rest. Seems similar to what Corsair offers for their accessories.

Or, like you're saying, just use extensions and hide the original cables. Unless you're trying to do something really different, I'd probably just look for something premade though.

[Frag Mortuus]

Probably just do the end in heat shrink and then sleeve the rest. Seems similar to what Corsair offers for their accessories.

Or, like you're saying, just use extensions and hide the original cables. Unless you're trying to do something really different, I'd probably just look for something premade though.

Prefabbed cabled are really expensive. I bought all the material to do my own for $20. Also, I enjoy doing it myself. Also, I don't have to shorten my factory cables, I just wanted to reduce the amount of cable clutter in my case.

[Hobie-wan]

It does look nice in that picture, just think that individual wires with sleeving on them that makes them thicker and not having them tied together in bundles makes more clutter.

But if that's what you want to do, I don't think it will create problems as long as you're careful with the repinning and such.

[Ziggy]

Shorter cable lengths will not have any adverse effects. That is, unless you some how botch the job.

[jp1]

Similar looks can be achieved with the factory length cable if you take some time planning out your routing and get creative. I don't know what type of case you are working with though, that can be a big factor.

Personally I find the look appealing but as I never really see the inside of my pc other than maintenance and upgrades, I don't fuss about too much. I do try to keep things clean for air flow purposes though.

How about a look at what you're working with? You could probably get some more creative suggestions that way.

EDIT: I wouldn't chop up my power supply cables unless I was extremely confident in my abilities. Just saying.

[Frag Mortuus]

I talked to a buddy that does a lot of electronic repairs and know a good bit about this kind of stuff. He seems to think that those capacitors are more for a line filter to reduce interference, rather than to capture extra voltage. He said the PSU should do an adequate job of sending clean power to the cables.

He said the further away from the capacitor is from the component, the better chance you run of picking up interference on the cable. The interference could damage the PC if it was a huge amount, but the likely hood of it being that high is small.

I think I may just create short extensions to plug into each factory cable that I can sleeve and get the look I want.

I have never seen any other company use those caps on their cables. Even doing a Google search doesn't return a lot about it. But the results I do find are all OCZ brand. Oh well.

Thanks Everyone.