Gnome: I stole your power distrobution box idea for my sunkist themed rig, sorry (the box itself, and the fish air tubing lines, although I left out the shiny stuff and just twisted the clear speaker wire for an effect). Anyways, does anyone know about any issues with running molex power through three 22 gauge wires? They terminate in 1/8" three conductor plugs. I already ran an optical drive and a fan off of it, but I dont know if the box itself has thick enough lines to support the amperage, that's my question for you guys. The box itself is a radioshack project box with 1/8" jacks drilled and mounted into it, and all wired up with 12 gauge solid core house wire (which my dad says is rated for 30+ amps, no issue there). Leading from the box, is a plug in molex connector, which one molex plugs into, and then goes out to the plugs. My question is; should I just wire the box directly to my power supply with high-amperage plugs and wire? desoldering wires is no issue for me, and I imagine desoldering all of the molex connectors should give me all of the amperage for those lines. one last question, is it okay to ground out against my case, so I might only have to run two wires?
With 'gauge' do you mean AWG (American Wire Gauge) or SWG (Standard Wire Gauge)? The case should already be at ground thanks to the power supply screws, but there is a problem with running devices off it: steel and aluminum have a relatively high resistance compared with copper, and so te resistance might not allow the drive to get the full 12 and 5 v.
I guess it's american? anyways, I tried it out, and it works PERFECTLY (running a molex from the power supply to the box itself) it is powering two optical drives right now, I decided to include a third ground wire instead of using the case. Time to find a way to mod it into my antec. :-D
