The top quadrant of my case window extends up above the rail for the power supply on my chieftec style case and it is exposing a tangled mass of the extra power supply wires that are kinda shoved up into the roof of my case. My Question is this, What are some of your thoughts (if any) about what to do with these extra wires? i thought of stuffing them into a couple pieces of split loom and just leting them sit there but then the molex connectors would be exposed n ugly...I also thought about just cutting the bastards off all together. that is a last resort and wanted your opinions before i went hackin on my psu with wire cutters.

Thanks!

Peace, Love, and Dremmels forever!

go to an auto store, or somewhere that sells plastic flex-tubing, for customizing engines and get one that will be big enough to fit the power heads (and matches your color scheme) into and push it over the cables, then shove the tube end in the top left corner of the case, above your cd-rom, or whatever is there, no one should notice the tube goes to nothing, unless you buy a HUGE one or somthing. The result will be a nice matching silicon, or plastic flex tibe that matches your scheme and blends right in.

plastic flex tubing? you mean like wire harnes type split loom stuff? thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it!

Yea, there's many aliases for wire loom. Just go to the auto parts store and grab some black wire tubing stuff . They make all kinds of sizes and you should be able to find a big enough kind to fit the whole molex connector in, or enough to cover a whole side and some of the other side.

go to an electronics supply store. Not the shack, a real store.

Get a project box slightly smaller than a cd drive, stuff 'em in da box, and mount them in an empty drive bay.

Mine are behind my temp gauges. Very nice solution!

On my last rig I cut the wires down to the required length, this is much tidier than leaving them dangling (even if they're wrapped up purty).

Shouldn't be a problem if you do it one wire at a time, solder the joins up & cove with heatshrink. Remember to stagger the joins though, otherwisre you'll have a big lump of joins to try & disguise.

if you really tidy and you know that you wont need them you can open the PS and deslolder them.

My brother got rid of his by opening the PS and stuffing them all in there, now only the wires he needs stick out..

ha you just shoved them in the top. thats what i did and this enermax power supply cord to the atx connector is wayy too long so that too is stuffed in the top. there is no top drive in my case and you cant see any of it through the widow so its all good there are lots of nooks and crannies to hide stuff in.

I am thinking seriously about that tubing idea you have, but is there a way that i can light up the tubing? i think it would look awesome if I stuffed the extra cables in one... and ran the ones I use currently into others and light them up. Sound like a plan?

use clear tubing and run el lighting in with the wires. That will get them glowing.

I ran those suckers behind my motherboard tray and hid them completely. Just my 2 cents.

What is El Lighting? And where would I find it?

EL stands for "Electro Luminesence" lighting. It is a material that glows/lights when an electrical current is applied.

Link

I bundle and tiewrap all the excess and then stuff it at the top of the case and in the empty bay at top as well. Another item that could be used is those sticky pads that you can affix a tie wrap to. This would allow you to hold the bundle in a position away from site.

If you have a top window then it would seem the split loom is your best option.

So, basically since it is additional wires from my power supply the actual EL wouldn't do me any good whatsoever, because they will not be plugged in right?

Kleiner, I'm not clear on your last comment, however the EL wire is plugged in to your PS. I think it's much like a standard cold cathode or neon. in terms or connector.

I just completed my plexiglass case, and now I need to know what to do with the extra cables I don't need. Can I just cut them off? (I'm just talking about the extra motherboard power leads that I don't use)

Would that be an acceptable way to...get rid of them?

thanks,
Camper

It seems kinda extreme..but there is no reason that you could not just cut them off. It makes using them later a little bit tougher!

If you decide that future expansion/flexibility is not an issue...cut 'em off!

Make sure you insulate the cut ends so they are not dancing atop your vid card, or cartwheeling across your chassis.

Quote: I just completed my plexiglass case, and now I need to know what to do with the extra cables I don't need. Can I just cut them off?

Camper, don't cut them, you will ruin a perfectly good PS by doing that. Just bundle them up, use a rubber band or zip strip, and tuck them out of your way. Cutting them means you will have to insulate every one of the open wires. You would probably end up with more of a mess than you started with.

I misunderstood what exactly the EL wire was. I read up a lil' more about em' and now I know exactly what that is, but I dont' think I wanna go down that road... I've come up with new ideas...