Cable braiding on a non modular psu

dirtychinchilla · 18 Jul 2011 at 19:40

Hey guys,

Is it possible to braid the cables on a non modular power supply? And if so, I'm guessing that might end the guarantee?

I'm using the BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W PSU.

Cheers,
Jonathon

shamzzz · 18 Jul 2011 at 19:51

you can yeah, but its easier to put heatshrink round the whole bunch at the PSU end, and do each cable separately at the connector end. for example, on the 24 pin power cable, put braid round each cable, and heatshrink each cable individually at the motherboard end, but then just put one massive bit of heatshrink around all 24 cables at the PSU end

dirtychinchilla · 18 Jul 2011 at 19:53

Ok cool I get you. So basically just braid them then heatshrink the **** out of all of them at once at the psu end

Tealc · 18 Jul 2011 at 19:57

Or use extensions. Adds a bit to the cost (and length of your leads) but keeps your warranty. Voltage drop is quite small on an extra 40cm and one extra connection.

dirtychinchilla · 18 Jul 2011 at 19:58

What's the advantage to using extensions? I want to extend the PSU power lead but that's it. Surely braiding wouldn't ruin my warranty as it can be removed?

dirtychinchilla · 18 Jul 2011 at 20:00

Oh and if I were to google this braid to buy, what would it be called? PSU braid isn't helping

dirtychinchilla · 18 Jul 2011 at 23:07

Called cable sleeving right?

dirtychinchilla · 18 Jul 2011 at 23:40

So I've found this cable stuff...could you advise me on how many metres you think I might need?

And also, why do you thing extending the wires would be better? I intend to extend the connectors to the CPU but no others.

Tealc · 18 Jul 2011 at 23:55

It depends on how you wish to go about sleeving.

If you wish to sleeve the whole length from PSU to end of cables then you'll need whatever length the cables are multiplied by the number of cables.

12 Metres for the 24 pin.
8 metres for the graphics (assuming 8 pins).
4 metres for the EPS12V.

Then there's fans and front panel connectors to consider.

30 metres maybe of the 3mm or 4mm type.

You'll need thicker stuff for Sata cables and 13mm heatshrink too.

If you decide to go for only the last 150mm of cables as some people do you will need a lot less. To do this you would remove the existing braid about 100-150mm from the important end, use a big heatshrink to capture the ends and then sleeve from there to the connector.

Extensions such as the Bitfenix Alchemy would giv you the braided cables without needing to do it yourself.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-000-BX&groupid=1929&catid=1898&subcat=

http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/products/premium-modding/alchemy-cables/

They do look quite nice, although I didn't find the Orange quite as shiny as I would have liked. Still if I'd bought the full range instead of just the PCI-E I would have used them and saved me several hours and sore fingers.

The stuff I got off eBay, certainly in the 3mm variety is single weave and the cables underneath are quite visible. There are a few other places though that sell dense weave stuff.