"Softly Softly Catchy Monkey" wrote in message
...
hi all.
i've got this old but small pc that i'm trying to "sooop" up and i want to
have the case as empty as poss inside. now the thing is there is a huge
excess of power cables coming from the PSU, taking up space and being a
general mess. does anyone know if these can just be cut away?? if so is
there any specific finishing necessary eg. re-insulating bits and bobs??

all help appreciated.

cheers all.

You can cut them as long as you use a good set of wire cutters but you would
be really silly if you did so. You will get bitten by the "upgrade bug" and
if your current supply is a good large capacity one then you will regret it.
In my box there is enough room for me to tuck the un-used wire harnesses out
of the way above the PSU and between the PSU and the side wall of the box.
Check your box out, maybe you can do the same. Cutting the wires is a
really bad solution if you cut them on the out-side of the PSU. To do it
properly you would want to open up the PSU and detach (cut/unsolder/unscrew)
them from their connection point inside the PSU. If you are not absolutely
100% sure then take the PSU to somebody who is qualified and licensed and
pay them to do the mods.

My comp box started off with 1 HD and 1 CD-ROM and I thought that it was
great, I think I'll cut these extra wires off. "Where are the wire cutters?
OK, can't find them, I'll tuck the wires out of site." And then I saw
"Special - CD Burners - 50% off. I'll get one of them". And then "Damn,
the HD is full but I'm sick of using CDs to access the info, I'll get
another HD." And then at a net game meet "Some scum stole my speakers, I'll
fool them, I'll get a set that mounts in a 5.25 bay." And "My CPU is
getting too hot, I'll add another fan or two." Tough luck if I had cut the
wires off, as it was I had to buy a splitter to get power to the extras.

To tidy up the mess of wiring you could tape up each wire set with
electrical tape or even use some heat-shrink tube or tape. I've done tape
and heat-shrink and though heat-shrink looks great compared to tape it is a
hell of a lot fiddlier as you have to unclip the wires out of the plugs to
get the tubing on the wiring. If you use heat-shrink then don't use to much
heat on the shrink, it gets stiffer the more it shrinks. You can get
heat-shrink from most electronics supply shops and even some electrical
supply shops and it comes in a wide variety of colours.

There are many other methods of wrapping the wire sets, including using some
spiral harness tubing that you can get from a car accessories and parts
shop.