Down to Business

Now before we officially start this operation, I am going to give you some words of caution. This is not an overly difficult mod, but due to all the different variables involved it is possible to damage your computer or injure yourself while you attempt this project. This article is to be used only as a guideline for those people who are willfully risking altering their PC with full knowledge that damage or injury can result if this mod is performed incorrectly, and neither Gruntville nor myself will accept any responsibility or liability for damages incurred while trying this mod. In addition, this mod will viod the warranty of your PSU.
A. Preparing the PSU
The first thing you need to do is to remove your PSU from inside your case and find yourself a relatively clean work space (work areas with last week’s pizza leftovers and empty bottles of Bawl’s or Mountain Dew do not generally constitute clean working environments). For my sleeving project, I started with a Raidmax 500Watt PSU, yellow UV reactive nylon sleeving, and purple heat shrink tubing. I ordered my sleeving (2.00 per foot) and heat shrink wrap (1.50 per foot) from FrozenCPU, but there are several other modding stores that also carry the materials in stock. My personal preference is to take the top off of the PSU and to have the sleeves end just inside the PSU housing.
 

Unfortunately this comes with another warning. The inside of your PSU has capacitors which can hold a dangerous charge and you can be shocked even with it unplugged. If you are not sure how to safely handle or work inside the PSU then I would advise you to skip this part and simply end the sleeving as close to the PSU as possible.
The PSU will have several bundles of wires coming off it that each end in their own molex connector. Each of these wires supplies your components with a particular voltage or ground. For the most part, these wires are not interchangeable and each one should go back to the same spot it came from on the molex to make sure your components aren’t damaged by supplying them with the wrong voltages. The easiest way not to get mixed up is to do one molex at a time and to make yourself a drawing of the molex and its respective wires before you take it apart. With this in mind, the next sections will deal with removing each particular molex and sleeving the wiring for it.
B. 20 Pin Main Power Lead for the Motherboard

The 20 Pin lead represents the single largest wiring group. You need to start it by making a detailed drawing of the molex that will show you what wire came out of each slot.

If you use my drawing then be sure to carefully check that the wire colors from your PSU are in the same spots. Each wire is held inside this kind of molex by two thin metal tabs.
 
Now the ideal tool for removing these pins is a Molex Extractor Tool that you can get at action-electronics (which is also where you can get all types of molex parts and accessories).
However, If you don’t want to spend the extra money then you can get by with some small staples or generally anything that is stiff and very thin (even larger staples will not work as they are too thick to put one on each side of the pin). I didn’t have too much trouble using the staples, but I plan on using the Extractor tool for any future projects.
I pushed a bent staple onto each side of the pin to depress the tabs while gently pulling the wire out from behind to remove it.
 

Be sure the staples go in far enough to depress the tabs before you start pulling on the wire. You will notice that as you remove the wires that several of them are the same color. I used the different colored Sharpie markers to individually label these wires so I could put them back in the right spot (for example: I removed the first black wire from the top row and labeled it on the metal pin with a blue “I”, the second black wire on top with a blue “II”, and so forth. Then I used the same system with a green marker for the bottom row of wires, and I noted all this on my molex drawing.). Once all the wires are removed, tape the ends together with the scotch tape and remove any wire ties that may be on the lead.
 

You will need about 12- 20 inches of the ½” sleeving (depending on your particular PSU) and two 1 inch long pieces of the heat shrink wrap. This is the only group of wires on your PSU that should need the ½” sleeving. Put the sleeving next to the wires to measure how much you will need and then cut it about 1 inch shorter than the length of the wire that you want covered. The sleeving cuts easily with scissors, but it frays on the ends. To cut the sleeving without fraying use a "hot knife" which is available at your local hobby shop.

To stop the ends from fraying, take a lighter and lightly melt the newly cut end for a couple of seconds to help protect the sleeving from coming apart.

The sleeving will be snug going on since this is about the maximum amount of wires that the ½” sleeving can cover, but you can work it onto the wires with a little effort. The following gif shows the technique I used to help work the sleeving over the wires.

After the sleeving is in place, then slip the two pieces of ½” heat shrink wrap on.

Unwrap the scotch tape and use your drawing to place all the wires back into the molex. Place one piece of shrink wrap halfway over each end of the sleeving, and then use a hairdryer to apply heat evenly over the shrink wrap for about 1 minute to secure the sleeving (the shrink wrap will start to show the details of the sleeving and wiring under it as it becomes tight).
 
 
Next >>>> Page 5
CONTENTS
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Definitions
Page 3: Materials
Page 4: Getting Down to Business
Page 5: Getting Down to Business (cont)
Page 6: Getting Down to Business (cont)
Page 7: Conclusion


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