How would you chop wires off a non-modular PSU?

LePhuronn · 17 Jul 2018 at 11:08

Greetings.

For an upcoming mod project I'm looking at modding a non-modular PSU to tidy up the cables. Shortening the ones I want to keep is easy enough, however what would you suggest for the wires I want to remove? I'll only need 1 SATA and 1 4-pin Molex so there's an entire 2nd strand of Molex and a floppy connector I'll want to remove.

I was thinking of cutting the wires back to inside the PSU housing, dousing the cut ends in a bit of hot glue and then heatshrinking individually.

What say you?

Hotwired · 17 Jul 2018 at 11:22

I did something like that.

Opened up the psu for a very small and cramped case to remove worthless power wires including as you said, a floppy connector. Snipped the zipties bundling the wires, followed the ones I wanted out back to the board, cut them off there, re-ziptied the bundle and closed it up again.

Don't see any value in leaving a pigtail of wire inside the case really.

pastymuncher · 17 Jul 2018 at 13:11

I did this once on a ancient psu that I was using to power just the watercooling stuff and did similar to Hotwired. Snipped the cable ties, followed the wires back that I didn't need and then desoldered them at the pcb. Worked a treat and the psu never let me down.

LePhuronn · 17 Jul 2018 at 13:25

Thanks to you both. I was thinking about desoldering the wires but I'm pretty rubbish with that sort of thing - you should see the mess I've made recently just trying to get 2 wires on an LED strip

bremen1874 · 17 Jul 2018 at 13:31

LePhuronn said:
I was thinking of cutting the wires back to inside the PSU housing, dousing the cut ends in a bit of hot glue and then heatshrinking individually.

What say you?

No concerns about warranty?

LePhuronn · 17 Jul 2018 at 13:43

bremen1874 said:
No concerns about warranty?

It's a long time out of warranty. Still a solid unit though, given it a check over and there are no issues. Will double-check the internals when I break it open.

mattyfez · 22 Jul 2018 at 14:59

You could just cut the wires off where they exit the PSU and insulate them with electrical tape or rubber solution glue or something if they are in danger of shorting.

A bit ghetto, but easier than desoldering inside the PSU

LePhuronn · 23 Jul 2018 at 13:11

Yeah, as I said I'm cack-handed when it comes to soldering so I won't be going going down the desolder route, however much I'd like to. I'm chopping a new hole in the PSU case too to slightly change the cable routing, so I'll just go down the chop and insulate route, but try and get them tucked inside the PSU housing.