i have a fairly small case and my power supply has quite long wires, and a bunch of stuff i don't need (aux plugs, etc). i want to cut off the old wires, and put on new wires, all black, custom length, and i don't want to sleeve them. what would i need to do this. mainly, how would i go about getting the wires out of the plug into my motherboard, and what type of wire would i need to buy to replace it with. thanks
In most, if not all, PSUs, the wires are soldered to the PCB. You should probably cut the wires so the ends are within the PSU casing. Then attach black wires to those wires. Keeping track of the wires will be EXTREMELY difficult. In many cases, switching one wire will result in dead hardware. Your best option would probably be to use accordingly colored heatshrink to attach the pins to the wires. A less permanant solution would be electric tape. Be EXTREMELY careful not to switch ANY wires.
Be careful when you get into the PSU, there is line power in there. You will need a soldering iron to disconnect the wires inside the PSU. Those are heavy gauge wires, and they are probably close together, so 80W would be minimum. Take notes about what wire goes where and start unsoldering. Since your case is small look for high flex cable with a decent cross section (18AWG or bigger) like Belden 1810A ( http://bwccat.belden.com/ecat/jsp/I...efined&P4=undefined&P5=undefined&P6=undefined enter 1810A as search term ) The Belden type even saves you some cleaning up because it comes as a cord. You may find this or something similar it as speaker cable in local stores. For putting on new Molex connectors on this site. There are many threads about that. Edit: ... and listen to the BigMac friend, who got in ahead of me again.
I did this with an Aspire 500 watt psu, black wires, same thing you want to do. It looked badass but in the ende, I just didn't trust my soldering skills (there were some pretty funky looking joints) and I ended up just getting rid of it. Bottom line, practice on something else before you turn a usable piece of hardware into scrap.
yeah your gonna have a fun time keeping track of all those wires especially because they are all black. it is possible though. I was thinking about this idea myself, but when it took me like 15-25 minutes just to cut down my 4 pin atx cable down to size and resolder everything I dont think ill be doing that for the entire psu
What i would do: 1. measure the length needed for each wire. 2. cut, crimp and sort all the black wires ready before hand.' 3. open the power supply and lay out all the wires. 4. cut one wire at the time inside the supply, solder the ends and put heatshrink over the joint. Replacing one wire at the time will minimize risk of mixup.
Its really not a big deal sortin the wires as long as you draw out a diagram before you start desoldering the original wires. In the PSU I modded, all the black, red, and yellow wires all had theier own section clearly outlined and labeled on the pcb. Just make sure you label where the orang, blue, purple, green, grey, and white wires go, and you will be fine. I also recommend wearing pants and maybe a long sleeved shirt and gloves when you do it. As careful as I was, I still managed to catch a few molten fragments of solder on various arms and legs. When you buy the pins to crimp fot the ATX plug, buy extra, you will mess up a few, its a given. This could look really great, and I plan on doing it again when I have more time and experience, so take your time, be careful, and good luck!
While most of the same color wires come from the same place, many supplies have at least one orange wire that goes to a sensor position in the supply, and i'm not sure if that has to have a specific position on the motherboard. Allso, it is way easier to keep track of everything if you replace one wire at a time since there is no way to mix anything up then. How did you manage to splatter solder over yourself doing that kind of work?
thanks everybody most of the stuff in here is stuff i was already thinking of (one wire at a time, cut wires in the psu and solder black wire to short end inside the psu), but it's good to hear it from somebody else. colored heatshrink is a great idea to stop me from screwing up, and i will def. test on an old computer before i put it in my good machine. all i was really trying to get was what type of wire i needed. while i dont want to use the 1810a wire (i really want to see the 20 individual wires running to my motherboard) i think i got the info i needed -- i can use speaker wire, or most other types of wire that i can get at my hardware store, and i don't need to buy special power supply wire
