Maybe a wierd question but...

[frysad]

There must be some drawaback to this, I guess I just need someone to point out what it is though. I am thinking about streamlining the cabling in a couple of systems I am building. The most obvious thing to do first is to use round IDE and Floppy cables but I always hate the way the power supply leads end up.

So... what is the drawback of cutting all the leads out of the supply except one, and then chaining all the connectors from the one lead?

This would allow me to use shrink tubing on the one (now long) power supply lead with connectors emerging at various intervals.

Is there some issue that would arise from everything emanating form the single lead? or... is there an issue that may arise from having a longer than normal run, especially at the last connector on the chain?

obviously, I would leave the motherboard connectors alone, I am only talking about the power to the drives/fans.

 

[Theslowone]

I have actually seen cheap power supplies do this, depending what you are running would depend if it would represent a problem or not. Each lead can only carry so much amps, the longer the run the less the amps it can carry. I don't know how big of problem this is whith computers, but that is a common thing working with electricity. I don't think I would try this with a huge power supply with a lot of cd roms and hd in a case though. This is just from general knowledge, it may be fine, but I wouldn't trust it.

 

[toshiba3020]

I liked a power supply I saw in an Itanium server. It had no cords coming out of it. If you needed a cord for the mobo,fan,cdrom, etc, you plugged it into the power supply and the drive. Only had the ammount of cables you need, none you didnt.

 

[frysad]

gonna bump this back up to the top in hopes of some more input.

Come on, somebody's got to have the definitive answer.. Please?

 

[frysad]

Bump...

Ok one more cast since it is now a weekday. hopefully someone will jump in with the straight dope before it falls down into the netherworld.

If no one responds I'll have to experiment myself in order to find the answer. Please help, you might be saving the life of brand new power supply.

 

[fast_eddie]

I agree with Theslowone about current draw from only one set of wires. You have made no mention about how many and what type of devices you intend to install. How much current do you want to draw thru what size wire? At a minimum if you only want one set of wires exiting the PS to the drives, you would probably need to open the PS and tear out the existing wires; you would have to replace them with larger gauge wires to handle the additional load the wires that you eliminate would have carried! Then you would be faced with how to solder (say, for instance) a 14 awg wire into a PS circuit board trace hole that you had just pulled an 18 awg wire out of; break out your drill to make the hole larger! I wouldn't even consider doing what you are proposing! And I have probably 'burnt' more electrical stuff with 'experimentation' than you ever worked on ! To put it easier - the results wouldn't be worth the effort and time to figure out how to do it correctly & safely!

 

[pbrain]

It's very possible to run all your devices in the computer through one daisy chained power cable, as long as the wire is a low enough gauge. If you have the knowledge and are willing to play around with the PSU, you could replace the wires that connect the first few devices to the PSU. This would require you to find out how many amps all your devices pull, and to know what gauge can support that amperage. For safety reasons and to allow margin of error, you shouldn't let the load go past 50-75% the wires capacity. Pulling too much power on too thin a wire can end up in disastrous results.

 

[RU482]

FYI. I'm going on the assumption that PS wires are 18AWG. 18AWG is good for ~6amps...and for short distances, probably more. I still wouldn't do it, personally...2 sets maybe, not 1

 

[frysad]

Wow, thanks for the information, I was surprised to come back to this thread and find so many replies. I had just about given it up for dead.

fast_eddie: I guarantee you have burnt more electrical stuff than I have even played with. I did burn up a motherboard and cpu together once ! Like you, I won't even consider opening my power supply and attempting to solder a new(thinker) wire in there either. to answer the question as to what components are going to be in the system, there really isn't much to it. It is the system on my webpage which can be accessed from the link in my sig if you are interested.

I am getting the point though, and I am now trying to think of different methods of achieving the same result. For instance, I could use 2 leads and shrink tube them together so that they look like one.

 

[RobK]

I did this in my home theater PC. Of course, only to a hard drive and a DVD drive, but it works fine. (no floppy necessary).

 

[Crucial]

I am going to use TommyTape to wrap my power supply cables. It comes in many colors and sticks only to itself. I used it to round my own IDE cables and it worked great.

Edit: Not affiliated with TommyTape in any way blah... blah... foo....