Braiding psu cables

Leprechaun312 · 24 Apr 2013 at 10:54

Hi i am thinking of braiding my psu cables and doing a bit of a cable tidy, i was wondering about paracord as it is SO much cheaper than the mdpcx stuff.

1. do i need heatwrap with paracord?
2. will the paracord fit correctly back into the psu connectors
3. will 100ft be enough for 2 psus? or should i get a few colours and habe some extra left over

Kei · 24 Apr 2013 at 12:00

You do not "need" to use heatshrink on paracord as you can melt the end and roll it between your fingers which locks it to the pin. It can be a tight fit back into the ATX connector if there is more than a single wire in there. The pale blue on the left and the last of the green on the far right have two wires inside and were quite a squeeze getting the pins back into the connector. All the others were easy.

Plain molex plugs are very easy. SATA plugs would probably need to have heatshrink.

Using heatshrink or expandable sleeves with a tool is slightly easier and can be just as neat provided you are careful with the lengths.

I don't think 100ft will be enough. It depends on the length of the cables and just how many you are going to be sleeving. I had 150ft for one psu and i used up about half and i didn't bother with any of the hardwired molexes or sata cables. I reckon if you are doing the lot, you'd probably need nearer 300ft. (mdpc doesn't mean million dollar PC for nothing

) You will need some masking tape to wrap up the pins in order to pull them through the paracord without them snagging inside. I used 3M 3434 tape and thoroughly wrapped the pins. I also got a long length of 22 gauge tinned copper wire and created a "puller" with a hook on the end which i used to pull more difficult cables through. Make sure your hands are smooth too as rough skin can actually pick at the nylon fibres. You will need a very sharp knife or cutters to cut the paracord cleanly, else it'll fray at the cut. Use a lighter to melt the ends after cutting to make sure it can't fray. There are very good guides on you tube that show you how to do this better than i can describe. (LutroO customs being one i know of)

I'd say get a few different colours as there is little point in going with custom sleeving and doing it all in a single colour. You are best off doing something that you can't buy premade when putting in all that effort.

twera · 24 Apr 2013 at 12:04

Kei - Your photos even helped me. I have a question but I don't want to storm in on this topic. I'm sleeving my 6+2pin connector like these:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/pcie6plus2.jpg

I don't know how to sleeve this? Literally 2 pins going into 1 slot so once paracord is on, it won't fit back into the atx connector.

opstrat · 24 Apr 2013 at 12:12

if you really wanted to make a good job of that 6+2 i would replace the wire re crimp it into a 8 slot plug.

either that or get an extension cable, hide the original somewhere at the back and re braid the extension.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-176-BX&groupid=1929&catid=2221

Kei · 24 Apr 2013 at 12:17

It's not possible to sleeve it without using heatshrink. My coraisr supply is the same and i'll be buying an 8 pin extension to sleeve instead. (not a 6->8 pin extension) I had found a dirt cheap unbraided extension but forgot to bookmark it. An akasa flexa V8 would do the job.

Leprechaun312 · 24 Apr 2013 at 12:30

ok that has given me some thoughts Ty for Tue lengthy reply and the photos are great I'm at school atm so wwont be home for about an hour but I have a few more questions about the sata power cables

BuToNz · 24 Apr 2013 at 12:41

IMO if you can get away with it it's much better to just do extensions. Less hassle and worry about warranty etc. There is a good deal of info over at the Overclock.net forums in the sleeving section (Clicky) I think most people order about 100feet for 1 PSU so you'd want double that.

A few examples of the extensions I've done:

twera · 24 Apr 2013 at 13:18

Well I'd rather make my own. My 2x6pin, 1x4pin and 24pin will cost the £8 and maybe half a day of work. for the same price bitfenix can sell me 1x8pin connector.

The other reason I dont want extension is because I'm running my build in a prodigy, space is already tight without additional extensions everywhere.

BuToNz · 24 Apr 2013 at 13:28

twera said:
Well I'd rather make my own. My 2x6pin, 1x4pin and 24pin will cost the £8 and maybe half a day of work. for the same price bitfenix can sell me 1x8pin connector.

The other reason I dont want extension is because I'm running my build in a prodigy, space is already tight without additional extensions everywhere.

Was referring to the OP but ok - whatever you want.

Leprechaun312 · 24 Apr 2013 at 13:53

BuToNz said:
IMO if you can get away with it it's much better to just do extensions. Less hassle and worry about warranty etc. There is a good deal of info over at the Overclock.net forums in the sleeving section (Clicky) I think most people order about 100feet for 1 PSU so you'd want double that.

A few examples of the extensions I've done:

and you didnt use heat shrink for that those extensions are just paracord melted slightly at the ends

Leprechaun312 · 24 Apr 2013 at 13:55

my ideas by the way for the paracord
1. would i be able to do the io connectors for the power switch power led hdd led and so could i do them in 1 paracord cable as they are very thin not like the molex/6 pin/sata cables they are all 20 gauge wire

2. the sata power cables are in rows of 3 am i able to paracord them or will i just have to leave them alone

3. does paracord fit sata data cables?

opstrat · 24 Apr 2013 at 13:59

Lutro0 is your man for braiding, mdpc and paracord.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1393518&mpage=1

Leprechaun312 · 24 Apr 2013 at 14:04

opstrat said:
Lutro0 is your man for braiding, mdpc and paracord.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1393518&mpage=1

oh him!!!! i did watch one of his sleeving vids yeah i will check more of his vids out he does some good indepth tutorials

Kei · 24 Apr 2013 at 16:09

Leprechaun312 said:
my ideas by the way for the paracord
1. would i be able to do the io connectors for the power switch power led hdd led and so could i do them in 1 paracord cable as they are very thin not like the molex/6 pin/sata cables they are all 20 gauge wire

2. the sata power cables are in rows of 3 am i able to paracord them or will i just have to leave them alone

3. does paracord fit sata data cables?

1. LED's, switches and fan RPM wires are fine. IO are a maybe. My USB headers were too thick.

2. sata cables are doable provided you can dismantle the connectors. The ones where the cables pass straight through you remove the cover off the back of the connector and you can prise the wires out. The ends may be more complicated. My corsair has removable pins, making it possible. My antec cables do not, meaning i'd have to cut the end connector off and replace it with one that can. Mod/smart & phobya make a lot of the plugs in fancy colours. You may be able to get basic molex parts from an electronics supplier.

3. No chance. If you want these sleeved, you either have to use the big mdpc sleeving or buy pre-sleeved.

Leprechaun312 · 24 Apr 2013 at 16:13

Kei said:
1. LED's, switches and fan RPM wires are fine. IO are a maybe. My USB headers were too thick.

2. sata cables are doable provided you can dismantle the connectors. The ones where the cables pass straight through you remove the cover off the back of the connector and you can prise the wires out. The ends may be more complicated. My corsair has removable pins, making it possible. My antec cables do not, meaning i'd have to cut the end connector off and replace it with one that can. Mod/smart & phobya make a lot of the plugs in fancy colours. You may be able to get basic molex parts from an electronics supplier.

3. No chance. If you want these sleeved, you either have to use the big mdpc sleeving or buy pre-sleeved.

thanks thats a big help btw your sleeving is pretty class also do you only heat wrap the fan connectors and io connectors and leave the psu connectors such as the 24 with no heat wrap

Kei · 24 Apr 2013 at 16:46

Yes, I only used black sleeving on the ends where it's not possible to hide the melted paracord inside a connector. Everything else except for the pump molex was done without heatshrink.

Leprechaun312 · 24 Apr 2013 at 17:36

Kei said:
Yes, I only used black sleeving on the ends where it's not possible to hide the melted paracord inside a connector. Everything else except for the pump molex was done without heatshrink.

thank you thts perfect hopefully will get round to ordereing the paracord next week