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PSU Sleeving - Jonny English Style |
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Introduction
The last time I sleeved a PSU (see here and here), I advocated cutting off the auxiliary connectors if they weren’t needed, and cutting the power looms down (in terms of both the number of connectors and the length of the cables) to the bare minimum required to power the devices. After a recent motherboard upgrade and a new case though, I’ve had a rethink – because of the way I minimized the wiring, I couldn’t use my “old” PSU, even if I’d wanted to. This time around I wanted to keep the PSU the same way it was as it left the factory (apart from the addition of sleeving) to avoid the same situation in the future. Another benefit could be that in the event of PSU failure, I could always strip off the sleeving, and return the PSU under warranty, as I wouldn’t have opened the casing at any point. Let’s have a look at my rig. As you can see, the wiring is a real mess. I’m not saying every PC with an unsleeved PSU will look as bad as this (this is a small case were I’d made no efforts to organise the wiring), but still…
Disclaimer
A few “Don’t”s before you start on a mod like this:
* Don’t count on your warranty being honoured after you’ve modified it;
* Don’t leave the PSU in the case – it needs to be switched off, unplugged and removed;
* Don’t poke around inside the casing unnecessarily – the capacitors used in PSUs can hold a charge for a long time after being switched off
Basically, if you injure yourself, break your PSU or your PC, it’s not our fault.
Requirements
The amount of sleeving and heatshrink tubing you’ll need will obviously depend on the make & model of PSU you’re going to sleeve: the list here is what I used on an Antec SL350 with 45cm (18”) looms.
* heatshrink tubing: 2 metres x 3mm bore; 1.5 metres x 4mm bore; 10cm x 9mm bore; 20cm x 12mm bore & 10cm x 19mm bore;
* braided sleeving: 3.5 metres x 6mm bore; 50cm x 8mm bore; 50cm x 12mm bore;
* insulation tape;
* double sided tape;
* cable ties.
* a variety of pointy implements, e.g. tweezers, flat jewellers’ screwdrivers, headed pins, etc;
* scissors;
* heat source (preferably a hot air gun);
* wire cutters;
* time: 5+ hours.
A lighter or candle can be used for heatshrinking, but I’d definitely recommend a hot air gun: the picture below shows an elderly 1400W Bosch model. Don’t use a hot air gun in this position unless it’s designed to be used this way. This one is – you can’t see it in the picture, but the base is castellated, meaning that the air intake is unimpeded when stood up like this. Remember not to lean over the hot air – unless you want to burn your fringe off.
Getting Started
With the PSU out of the case, remove any cable ties from the loom with a pair of cutters.
Start with the simplest cable: in this case, it’s the fan speed monitoring cable. This might not be present on your PSU, but if it is, it’ll use a standard three-pin fan connector. Removing the contacts from the connector can be achieved by used a pointed implement to push on the exposed retaining tang on the underside of the connector whole pulling on the lead.
Measure how much sleeving you’ll need to reach from the connector to the PSU (add 50mm {2”}if appropriate – see below) then cut that length of sleeving. If it’s nylon/polyester/rayon (or some other man-made fibre), you can use a lighter to slightly melt the ends to help stop unravelling, if not, use a bit of insulation tape. Also cut off 3cm (1.25”) lengths of small and medium bore heatshrink tube.
The sizes of both sleeving & heatshrink is going to depend on what you can get, but I used 6mm sleeving, and 3mm and 9mm heatshrink.
Remove one of the wires, apply small bore heatshrink to the end of it, then slip on the sleeving & remaining heatshrink: you should have something like the pic below.
Refit the wire into the connector (you might have to bend the retaining latch back to it’s original position to get it to hold) ...
... then repeat for the other wire. I didn’t bother using any heatshrink on the second wire as it was blue & fitted in ok with my colour scheme. Doing one wire at a time is important – you shouldn’t find it too hard to remember what went where with the smaller connectors, but for the more complicated ones it’s well worth doing. Remember that getting the pinout wrong will almost certainly damage something when you power up. I like to make sure my sleeving is secure at the ends, so I always wrap the bundle of wires up with insulation tape ...
... apply double sided tape to that ...
... move the sleeving into position & squeeze it on ...
... apply more insulation tape ...
... and more double sided tape ...
... get the heatshrink into position ...
... then shrink it on. Apologies for the quality of some of the pics – the camera I used isn’t really up to taking close-up pictures :(
The PSU End
What I haven’t mentioned so far is what to do at the PSU end of the cables.
You’ve got a few different options here:
1 - Opening up the PSU is a possibility, but only if you don’t mind breaking the warranty seals, and therefore your warranty (which is something I didn’t want to do, this time around).
2 – Do what I did and squeeze the extra 2” of sleeving through the plastic grommet & into the PSU enclosure. This proved to be quite easy on this PSU (an Antec 350SL), but on units with a tighter fit, you may not have that option.
3 – terminate the sleeving just outside the PSU case & wrap with tape & heatshrink, as described above.
