Question about mod on PSU

[Buzzdog]

I am not sure if this is the right forum or not. I have a Antec True Power 550 PSU. The mods that I want to do are, blue led's inside the case, easy enough. But the real question I have, I have considered shortening the length of the wires. My case is not real large and I hate all of the extra length. I would cut them to length, then soder and heatshrink them. I would also put braided lines over them for show. I doubt it would hurt much, just wanting some input from others before I start to hack on it.

Thanks in adavace,

Buzzdog

 

[johnny5c]

You'll have no problems as long as you solder all the wires. I had to add 6" of wire to one of my molex leads so I could move my harddrives to the bottom of my case. A good trick is to space the splices out so you won't have a big clump of heatshrink in one place inside of you braided covers.

 

[Buzzdog]

That is what I was thinking, I will go through the pain of doing it to all of my connectors so I can end the braided steel with heatshrinks. Also so I can have all molex connectors to length. Call me anal, but I hate a rats nest of wires in my case. Plus it will be a nice weekend project. Just waiting for my motherboard to come in so I can make sure I do not under cut anything.

 

[Amino]

I'm not sure if shortening or lengthening wires is a very good idea. If you think of electricity in a wire like water in a hose, sending a certain amount of water, under a specific amount of pressure through one length of hose is going to be different from sending that same amount under the same pressure through a different length.

I haven't taken magnetics and electronics yet (UT Austin) but I'm pretty sure the same concept applies. However, since with computer, components only suck up what they necessarily need, you SHOULD be ok, but if it were me, I wouldn't take any chances. Your voltages might get messed up if you overclock, and you spelled Klipsch wrong in your sig .

To solve the problem of a "rat's nest" of wires, what I do is just tuck everything that I don't use behind the motherboard plate, and if cables that I AM using are long enough, I do the same thing. Anything that you can't use this strategy with should be wrapped in 3/4" (or smaller) cable tubing. It looks nice under a blue cold cathode. Also, you can try hiding stuff between or under your drives (not HDDs though for saftey's sake, since they're open at the bottom) but possibly an extra floppy power connector that's jutting out from one of your CD drive plugs.

 

[gahdzila]

I don't think it would be a problem.

My only issue would be this: an Antec TruePower 550 watt PSU should last you a LONG time. Unless you have the greatest computer case ever, that PSU will probably be useful to you longer than your computer case...and what if you buy a huge full tower case one day? You'll have to do all of that soldering again just to get the wires from your PSU to reach your mobo.

I'd follow Amino's suggestions, and get creative with some cable ties, wire tucking, and cable split-loom.

 

[Veland]

I'm all for shortening the power lines!

I've got the Epox 8K7a+ and Enermax 350W that suffers badly from low 5V. But after shortening the ATX connector about 20cm (enermax has some loooong wires!) my 5V increased from 4.95 idle to 5.10 idle and got more stable. Especially for low voltage/high amp draw the length (and resistance) of the wires is a problem.

But make sure you do a clean job getting both good electrical contact and a solid connection "stress wise"

 

[Buzzdog]

My only issue would be this: an Antec TruePower 550 watt PSU should last you a LONG time. Unless you have the greatest computer case ever, that PSU will probably be useful to you longer than your computer case

Well the case is from Directron, but it is basically the 3 window Kingwin case. Having the window on the other side is why I do not want to tuck the wires behind the tray as they would be seen from that side also. As for the longevity of this case, it is the top housing for my system in progress. I purchased a 2nd non window case identical to the top case. I have cut it down to size to house a topless prometia. The inspiration for this case cooling system is the Prom Li case. So I do plan on having this case cooling combination for several years, it is not a small investment. This is why I want to clean it up as much as possible.

But make sure you do a clean job getting both good electrical contact and a solid connection "stress wise"

I have about 10 years experience installing electronics (custom stereos and alarms ) in cars. There are not many environments more hostile to electrical connections then a car. I am more the confindent that the connections that I make will be durable and high quality. As already suggested, I was planning on staggering the splices as to not create a bundle of heatshrink and soldered connections in one spot. All wire lengths will remain the same when finished. The finishing touch will be to "loom" all of the wires in braided steel. This will match my rounded cables. I am figuring that this project will be a nice diversion for a weekend. I will also check the power leads before and after with a multi meter to see what if any changes take place with the voltage. This will not be an accurate test since it will be hard to see what the draw is under load but should give an idea if resistors will be needed if the voltages do increase too much.

This is 90% for cosmetics, but if I can get a slight increase in voltage without having to mod the rails then I see that as a benefit, just as long as the increase is not overboard. 10% of course will be increased air flow inside of the case. My finished system will have minimal airflow. The CPU will be cooled via prometia. I will have water for chipset/video/hard drives.

Thanks for all of the replies.

Buzzdog