Question Eliminate power supply wires?

[Jeff H]

I've not seen this question in any of the forums I frequent. Let preface with I'm not an electrical engineer, and I don't know what the issues could be in removing unused power supply wires. So, here's the question: is it possible to remove unused power supply wires, on a non-modular unit? Could one cut and cap unused wires? Would this affect the power supply components?

Jeff

 

[thecoolnessrune]

It's fine to do, and use to be more common in the "old days" with PC Modders before modular power supplies became more of the norm. You can cut them, and to a more extreme end you can open up the PSU and unsolder the wires from the board. Whatever you choose to do, just be very careful to cap off each individual wire with a terminator to prevent shorts. Also note that cables like your ATX Connector still have your signal wire needed to get the power supply to switch on, and if you cut it, you'll still need to find a way to jump that circuit to get the power supply to turn on.

 

[Jeff H]

thecoolnessrune, that's reassuring to know. As I was typing the question, I thought it quite possibly was the dumbest question I'd ever asked on a forum.

I'm getting to do a new build, and got a good deal on an Antec power supply. Only negative is it isn't modular. I thought I could eliminate some of the wires, to tidy things up. Certainly not the 24 wire ATX, or 8 wire cpu, or PCI-E. I guess I'll see how everything fits into the case, before i go to hacking off wires.

 

[sdifox]

Why not just ziptie them? You are going to have to insulate each of the positive wires you cut. That is a lot of work and it ends up looking ugly anyway.

Not to mention you are voiding the warranty.

 

[CU]

I wouldn't want to void the warranty. But, besides just cutting them. You could also try and find a connector to put on the sets you don't need. Essentially making it modular in case you ever need to use it later.

 

[mindless1]

If you have small flush cut pliers, you can clip the wires very close to the PCB (and just below the connector edge though more care is needed for this end) and not have to insulate them, nor have to pull the PSU PCB out to desolder them which is a real PITA for the major rails where they've bundled together several wires and you'll usually need 100W+ of soldering iron to get the job done in a timely fashion.

However I don't like to do it. I don't build for internal beauty, prefer case be out of sight under or behind a desk. Never had a problem with airflow or otherwise by wire-tying cables out of the way.

Who knows what will happen down the road, maybe that system config gets retired or if the PSU has caps fail, I swap in a different PSU to get it up running sooner, then later put new caps in the old PSU and redeploy it elsewhere, where I might want more of the original wires still on it.