Custom Unsleeved Cables!

[rich_27]

Tomorrow my final part gets here and my build enters its final form! Well, until the GPU market stabilises and I potentially swap my 3070 FE for a triple fan non-flow through design that is.

In my wisdom, I've decided to build into a teeny tiny 7.2L DAN A4 v4.1 SFF case, and given I'm 92mm AiO watercooling my CPU it is going to be a very tight squeeze. One thing I've heard a lot about is custom cables and the huge difference they make, specifically unsleeved cables for space as tight as mine.

What I've never seen mentioned before is taking the stock cables and altering them to create perfect length unsleeved cables. As far as I am aware, PSU cables use either 16 or 18 AWG wire (16 for power, 18 for sense/low power) and Molex Mini-Fit Jr. sockets. I'm thinking of either removing and labeling the stock cables and making my own crimped wires to replace them with, or shortening and recrimping the stock wires. Would any of you be able to share some advice or tips, or things I might not have thought about?

I'll be using a Corsair SF600 80+ Platinum PSU and I've just put in an RS components order for the following items:

• A pack of 100 16 AWG Molex Mini-Fit Female Crimp Terminal Contacts: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp-contacts/6706331/
• 20m of Hitachi 1.3 mm² (16 AWG) MLCF Black Hook Up Wire MLCF Series: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/hooku...-wire/6647866/
• A Molex Crimp Extraction Tool: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/inser...tools/2155900/

I went for the Hitachi wire because of it's small outer diameter, plus it's got a nice high core count and good thermal operating range. A crimp tool seemed like a good addition to put me over the £30 free delivery threshold and so I don't have to mess around with paperclips!

I've already got a crimping tool, https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HFQ7Z96/, which - as far as I can tell - should work absolutely fine for crimping 16 AWG wire, I might just need slightly less pressure on the 18 AWG setting.

Any tips/advice would be really appreciated, thanks

[razer121]

Tomorrow my fina -snip- thanks

I've done it, more than once too and for the same reasons as you.

One thing i will say is make sure the power is off and drain those caps if you intend on going into the PSU itself (im just going to say this now i take no responsibility should you attempt what information i provide, its risky and you should know this!)

So anyway, if your intent on doing it without braiding this makes your life a lot easier, i would try find a pin out for you PSU if you cannot find one, make it yourself using a meter. easy enough!

I would advise doing one cable at a time, this way you can double...TRIPLE check they cable is going back to where it belongs, i would get your tools and test on a spare cable, also don't ever expect to sell the PSU afterwards,

Your crimp tool looks to me like it will work, might have to play around with it first like i said mind.

only other advise i will give is to take your time, it will take a while and sometimes you might feel like rushing "just a little bit" and that just spells disaster!

One other thing, make sure you keep checking those cables, remember if you do just one cable wrong thats bye bye PSU and whatever is connect

P.S good luck, share some pictures when your done!

[rich_27]

I've done it, more than once too and for the same reasons as you.

One thing i will say is make sure the power is off and drain those caps if you intend on going into the PSU itself (im just going to say this now i take no responsibility should you attempt what information i provide, its risky and you should know this!)

Very good warning thanks! Did you go into the PSU? For what purpose, if you did? I've got a degree in electronics and I'd still be wary of going inside

So anyway, if your intent on doing it without braiding this makes your life a lot easier, i would try find a pin out for you PSU if you cannot find one, make it yourself using a meter. easy enough!

Regarding braiding, does that refer to sleeving cables with paracord, or interleaving the wires in each group of cables? I've heard nasty things about melting the ends of paracord for sleeving and having to shape the molten plastic with your fingers, but I can imagine working out lengths for interleaved cables is also a nightmare!

I have this pinout diagram: https://pc-mods.com/blogs/psu-pinout...-cables-pinout, which should make life a lot easier! I also found this: https://imgur.com/a/OZbL15S for cable AWG sizes, but I'm thinking of using 16 AWG for all the wires. I haven't figured out how I'm going to handle capacitors if there are any yet!

I would advise doing one cable at a time, this way you can double...TRIPLE check they cable is going back to where it belongs, i would get your tools and test on a spare cable, also don't ever expect to sell the PSU afterwards,

Your crimp tool looks to me like it will work, might have to play around with it first like i said mind.

only other advise i will give is to take your time, it will take a while and sometimes you might feel like rushing "just a little bit" and that just spells disaster!

One other thing, make sure you keep checking those cables, remember if you do just one cable wrong thats bye bye PSU and whatever is connect

Good advise, thanks!

P.S good luck, share some pictures when your done!

Will do

[Pob255]

just checked the tom's review of that unit, looks like there's no capacitors in the cables https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/revi...-psu,5936.html which means you shouldn't have any issues there.

If you've not crimped cables before then I'd say practise first.

If you don't have pin removal tools then I'd get a set of those as well.
eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nrpfell-Sma.../dp/B07MH29D45

if you want super clean cables, do a test build (put all the parts in) then plan out the exact cable paths and measure the lengths.
double check the measurements.
add a couple of cm to be safe
measure everything again.
then cut the wire.


down side of custom length cables is that if you ever change hardware you'll probably need to remake the cables.

if you hunt around all the connectors on both psu and component ends are standard plugs following molex (we call the 4pin power ones molex but they are all molex specifications)

EDIT: I think they are all part of the Molex Mega Fit standard but don't quote me on that https://www.molex.com/molex/products...ard_connectors

[razer121]

Very g -snip-ill do

I did indeed go into the PSU, the reason i did was because this was about 10 years ago and it wasn't a fully modular PSU so had extra connectors i did not need.

Braiding, it can be many different ways but i mean it with regards to sleeving with paracord 550, Anyone who tells you that you cannot get a nice finish with paracord or that its a nightmare to work with are wrong, it just takes a little bit more practice to get it right, i usually just use my fingers but that is because I'm lazy, finger tips don't really hurt for me so yea, BUT!

I made some recently with my daughter and used a cm piece of heatshrink at the end, heated it up and bam nice perfectly professional looking cable, it worked really well but a few practice runs are worth doing to work out how long to leave the lighter there for, also its worth taking note that you should let it cool down before you remove the heatshrink to produce a nice clean melted tip.

i personally don't see the point of 16AWG cable and feel its more down to personal preference, i personally use 18AWG which works perfectly, easier to manage too.

[rich_27]

just checked the tom's review of that unit, looks like there's no capacitors in the cables https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/revi...-psu,5936.html which means you shouldn't have any issues there.

Oh awesome, thanks! That's great news!

If you've not crimped cables before then I'd say practise first.

I've crimped a few Molex SL 70066 connectors, but no PSU cabling before! I'll have a play with some of the extra wire first

If you don't have pin removal tools then I'd get a set of those as well.
eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nrpfell-Sma.../dp/B07MH29D45

I have some on the way

if you want super clean cables, do a test build (put all the parts in) then plan out the exact cable paths and measure the lengths.
double check the measurements.
add a couple of cm to be safe
measure everything again.
then cut the wire.


down side of custom length cables is that if you ever change hardware you'll probably need to remake the cables.

I think I need to watch some tutorials on how best to route and how to measure cables for custom cable making. I have a good idea of how I'd go about doing it, but I have no clue if it'd work well!

if you hunt around all the connectors on both psu and component ends are standard plugs following molex (we call the 4pin power ones molex but they are all molex specifications)

EDIT: I think they are all part of the Molex Mega Fit standard but don't quote me on that https://www.molex.com/molex/products...ard_connectors

I believe they are Molex Mini-Fit Jr connectors. I've read through quite a lot of custom cable stuff, like pslatecustom's website, reddit.com/r/PCSleeving, and others now, so hopefully I've ordered the right stuff and it goes without too many hitches!

[Pob255]

ahh yes Molex Mini-Fit Jr do look correct

For custom cable run a test fit is probably the simplest option, strip your case down to give yourself plenty of access, put in the major components, then look and plan where you want the cables to run
use the modular cables that came with the psu, only plug in one end and run the cable where you want it, then mark off the correct length (a bit of tape works well) then take out the cable, lay it flat and measure it.

For sata power connectors I've always preferred the inline types eg https://cpc.farnell.com/startech/pyo...ter/dp/CS29347 looking at the molex website I think these are it https://www.molex.com/molex/products...con/0679260011 although they are down as "Planned for Obsolescence" luckily I have stack of them at home which I scavenged off dead psu's, they are a simple push fit and great if you want multiple drives in a line, not that most people use loads of drives in a stacked cage these days.

Oh and you really want 18-22awg for sata or 4pin molex, that's the standard, you can use 16awg but make sure you get 16awg pins, just best practise but saying that you can probably fit the standard pins on 16awg wire not like you're starting a custom cable manufacturing company.
Then again it's best practise to correctly colour code all your cables but many companies sell components with all black wires these days, so who's to say?