PSU Sleeving and Modulation Tips

Hey guys,

Just finished modulating and Sleeving my PSU. Just some tips i thought of while doing this.

-Plan in it out, taking sleeving off is HARD.

-Wrap the pins in electrical tape while sleeving, the little clips on them get caught in the sleeving.

-When using a molex pin extractor, slide it over the pin, and GENTLY press on it while pivoting it around the pin, this will ensure that both clips on the pin get pushed through. I broke like 2 pins before I figured out this one.

-1/4in sleeving covered all the power cabels, and the P4 connecter.

-1/8 will do the floppy power connector and most anything that has 2 wires.

-Dont get the crappy heatshrink you get at radio shack. Go to homedepot or a hobbyshop and get the rubbery type stuff, it srinks alot smaller.

-When modulating, mark the wires that go together when you have 2 of the same color, once cut, theres almost no way to tell which is which.

-I had a 4 - 5 inch wire from the PSU outlet to where I cut.

-Only take the covering off the wire about 3/8-1/2 inch form the end. To much and the pins wont go on correctly.

-I used the crimper to take the covering off the wire, instead of pulling on the wire, take needle nose pliers and grip the wire directly under the crimpers and pry them up against the crimpers. This puts minimal stress on the wires.

-Modulating the PSU was easier to me than sleeving it. Prepare yourself but dont be intimidated.

-Have all your tools out and ready, it sucks to have to get up.

-Dont concentrate to hard, my tounge hurts from knawing on it.

-Take breaks, your hands will start to cramp up.


These are all i can think of and if anyone has anything to add please do so. Hope this helps atleast a few people.

When you measure the sleeving always add a bit extra to the length as when it expands it decreases in length.. I always figure and extra 10% (10" between molex connectors mean you cut the sleeve 11").

I'd love to see pics of the results
Nice guide

PICS!!!!!!!

Help out a old man here, please...
What exactly is "modulation"?

Modulation is taking the wires from the PSU you dont need and cutting them about 4 inches from the PSU outlet. Then you add a connector on each end, so if you ever need that set of wires fro your computer, you can hook it back up, but if you dont all you have is a little 4 inch peice of cable hanging there, instead of 4 feet.

Jabtek, thanks you hit the nail on the head.

Ill have pics up when i get home from school today.

Before...


After...

The results look great, now its time to do the other wires

no, im done. The old style ATX connectors wires have been modulated, and im going to have to use split loom as i couldnt get the sleeving over the ATX connector.

The 2 cables in those pics that arent sleeved arent because i didnt want to waste sleeving on wires that arent going to be in my case.

Da revival o' dis thread:

Hey all... I'm looking at sleeving my psu soon and have some rather newbish questions to ask.

First off: what tools are required for this job?

Is it a necessity to remove the PSU from the chasis in order to sleeve the wiring?

How pliable is the sleeving? Will it stretch over the molex leads? If not, what is the easiest way to remove them and put them back on?

I'm pretty sure that's it for now. I AM newb @ this so I'm sure I'll have more questions.

Thanks guys!

Very nice looking and ver good tips , i just sleeved mine yesterday. took a whille but it was worth it in the end it looks sweet. im gonig to take some pics later ont for the case mod gallery

Re: Da revival o' dis thread:

YellowDart said:

Hey all... I'm looking at sleeving my psu soon and have some rather newbish questions to ask.

First off: what tools are required for this job?

Is it a necessity to remove the PSU from the chasis in order to sleeve the wiring?

How pliable is the sleeving? Will it stretch over the molex leads? If not, what is the easiest way to remove them and put them back on?

I'm pretty sure that's it for now. I AM newb @ this so I'm sure I'll have more questions.

Thanks guys!

Click to expand...

Just a molex remover, but you can use anything round and hollow that will fit inside the molex and compress the pins.

I only removed the PSU to make it easier, if you dont need to take it out, dont.

Its very flexible, but can only open up so wide, you have to take of the connectors. I put a peice of tape on one of the black wires, keeping in on the same one each time, All you do is snap the pins back into the molexes when you have the sleeving on.

Ask more questions if you need to, or if i didnt make sense.

Re: Re: Da revival o' dis thread:

DOHCrazy said:

Its very flexible, but can only open up so wide, you have to take of the connectors. I put a peice of tape on one of the black wires, keeping in on the same one each time, All you do is snap the pins back into the molexes when you have the sleeving on.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Just to clarify:

You can just pull the molex cable lead (white connector) off, and the 4 pins inside will stay intact? Or is there some special technique that I'm not aware of to take them off?

Dart, there are 2 lock wings on each wire in the molex connector..I use a standard size paper clip, unfolded to push the 2 wings in (flush). You will need to bend the wings back out to there original position to get them to lock back in..

Where are the wings positioned??? Inside the white plastic casing??? Or are they on the exterior??? Does anybody have any pics?

Good tips

I did my first computers PSU and it came out ok, but I learned alot about how to do it. So when I did my 2nd computers PSU and case wires it came out alot better.

Then the pile of **** broke a few months later and I had to get a new one... and said the hell with this new one its not worth the trouble But now I might, since they look so nice when they are done right.

The only trouble I had was with the mobo power connector. I could get the stuff over it but not a heatsink that would shrink down to a small enough size without taking all the pins out. So I cut the heatsink put it around the wires then superclued the cut ends together and faced them in the direction that you cant see. Then I heated the heatshrink and it shrunk down pretty good, just did not put as much heat on the area with the glue.

Nice tips, and nicely done!!

Might it be easier, however, to use the type of cable sleeving that simply spirals around the cables? (cable spiral tubing / spiral wrap) such as here:

http://www.panduit.com/products/Pro...d=1170&title=Spiral+Wrap+–+Polyethylene

or this:

http://www.ses-sterling.com/pages/e_SectionA/A05/A05_01.pdf

I remember my dad used those for his old computer system years ago, and they worked quite well. -- Paul

That stuff works, but isnt the same as mesh sleeving.

YellowDart, just take a look at one of the connectors, youll see what we mean.

Dart, look into the connecter with the wires away from you...around the outer part of each pin...See the 2 locks? Bend them flush, and pull out the wire..Before you reinsert the pins stick the paper into the center of it and push the locks back out to the original position..You gonna play hell on the ATX mobo conn. Took my 3 hours to do that one.. I used to have the black spiral wire wrap on it, like macklin01 linked to..It's of the utmost importance to mark the wires to go back EXACTLY as they came out..You smell smoke...no thats the toast..

It's takes a lot of time to sleeve the PSU; well worth the time. The hardest part was sleeving the Motherboard Plug. You can't really use a regular precision screw driver to get the pins off. So I modified a watch screw driver to remove the pins - make sure to make a diagram so you know which pins go where.