PSU Mod ?

[Lazerous]

I am currently Modding my PSU. A Tt butterfly 480w PurePower. It's a nice PSU but came with many different colored sleeves on the harnesses and I want just purple and yellow for my colors. In doing this Mod I realized that the three 4 pin power leads each have 3 4p molex connectors and 1 floppy connector. Since I have only 1 floppy drive should I cut the other two off from their perspective leads?

Plus, the new video card I bought (6800GT) needs a 4 pin power in addition to the agp slot. I have read that it's best to give it it's own channel. Is it possible to add an additional 4 pin lead to a PSU dedicated to the card or should I just use 1 of the connectors on an exsisting lead? Should i remove the other two molex connectors or just leave the remaining 2 connectors attacthed? I can buy new molex pins to customize the leads if need be but I would greatly appreciate the advice of those who have done this before.

thanks...

<font color=green>AMD 64 3700+
ASUS K8N-E Deluxe
CORSAIR XMS (1gb) PC-3200
Gigabyte GF 6800gt 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
2_36.7gb Raptors/Raid 0
Tt 480 watt PSU</font color=green>

 

[Lazerous]

No suggestions? Pwetty pwease? rofl....

<font color=green>AMD 64 3700+
ASUS K8N-E Deluxe
CORSAIR XMS (1gb) PC-3200
Gigabyte GF 6800gt 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
2_36.7gb Raptors/Raid 0
Tt 480 watt PSU</font color=green>

 

[fishmahn]

Since I have only 1 floppy drive should I cut the other two off from their perspective leads?

Don't have to, but I can see why you'd want to for looks. If you do, remember to insulate the open ends so you don't short anything out, and if you add any equipment later that may need it you'll have to either get a new PSU or put a new connecter on somehow. If I were doing it, I'd leave it there (but I don't care about case mods), but if I was looking for a clean mod look, I would cut just the end of the connecter off (leaving as much of the length of wires as possible) and hide the excess wire in the sleeve (after insulating the ends with electrical tape of course).

I have read that it's best to give it it's own channel.

Yes, for stability of the voltage to the gpu, its own lead is best.

Is it possible to add an additional 4 pin lead to a PSU dedicated to the card or should I just use 1 of the connectors on an exsisting lead?

I don't think it's possible to add extra leads to most PSUs (unless you want to break open the PSU and void the warranty), so just use one of the existing leads - usually there's plenty of leads on quality PSU's unless you have many, many devices. From your sig you should have plenty of connectors, I would put the 6800GT on one line, the HDDs on one line, and your CD/DVD/burner and floppy on the last.

Should i remove the other two molex connectors or just leave the remaining 2 connectors attacthed?

Same answer as your first question. Leaving them attached is fine, removing them is ok too, as long as you insulate the ends.

Note: I've never done this (as I said, modding cases isn't my thing), but it's just electrical wiring... And I see your point for looks on a modded case - those ugly white molex connectors are an eyesore.

Mike.

 

[Lazerous]

The two raptors have a special power plug for SATA so i can spare the 4 pin molex for something else. I do however have an additional hard drive that is going on the IDE channel so I thought that I would put the IDE HDD, Floppy, DVD-RW and DVD-ROM all on one leg. Is that too much?
I also have a couple HDD coolers but i think i can hook those in series, I doubt they draw much. and then I need to supply power to my fan controller and temp gage. Should be able to get all that on the two leads but then I also have a couple lights in the case. rofl. It just never ends eh?

Perhaps on one of the channels I could exchange the floppy connector for an extra 4 pin molex? would that be doable? I did order some raw pins in case i needed to make a couple extra. Is there a formula for how much each channel will support? Perhaps if I knew that I would be able to make the best decisions on how to split that power up inside.

Any advise is awesome!

<font color=green>AMD 64 3700+
ASUS K8N-E Deluxe
CORSAIR XMS (1gb) PC-3200
Gigabyte GF 6800gt 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
2_36.7gb Raptors/Raid 0
Tt 480 watt PSU</font color=green>

 

[fishmahn]

put the IDE HDD, Floppy, DVD-RW and DVD-ROM all on one leg.

That should be fine.

For the other stuff, I would guess 1 leg could handle all the draw. I think the key thing here is to get clean power to the GPU, so the lights should definitely be on a different channel (unless they're LED - I was assuming they're plasma or cold cathode or similar, which I think tend to cause lots of power spikes), (I'm assuming the HDD coolers are fans, right?) fans should not share the channel with the GPU, but HDDs are less sensitive, and neither should the HDD/floppy/cd/dvd. You probably could put something like your temp gague and maybe fan controller on the channel with the hdd/floppy/etc.

I don't se why you wouldn't be able to replace a floppy with a regular connector as long as all 4 wires are connected, and the same gague. You could also get Y-adapters to give yourself more connector ends if you need them. If the wire to the floppy connector is a smaller gague like some are, then I would be sure to put a lower draw device there, but the hefty wires normally used can handle probably 15 amps (not that each channel can handle all that - just the wires are robust enough). I would think each channel can handle about 1/4 of the total 12v line from the PSU (3 channels, plus an allowance for power to the mobo). Not knowing the actual ratings on your PSU (too lazy to look it up lol) I would hazard a guess that 6 amps (x12v = 72 watts - this is simplified because there's also 5v lines there, but it should be good enough) total per channel is a good limit to aim for as far as load.

Mike.

 

[Lazerous]

Yeah, the HDD coolers are a <A HREF="http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/HDC-502A.htm" target="_new">HSF</A> design (double fans). They aren't super whopper coolers or anything but i think they only draw 2.16 watts. the molex plugs on these are a male/female design so they can be plugged in series so I'm assuming it should be alright to share a plug on a rail with those 2 coolers and something else even.

<A HREF="http://www.thermaltake.com/purepower/W001920.htm" target="_new">Here </A>is the specs on the PSU itself.

I took your advice on the floppy connectors on the other two rails and just cut the plugs off, terminated the wires with et. and then stuffed them into the sleeving along with the other wires in case i need them later. The SATA power connectors are a little bit short on here though. I'm not too happy about that but perhaps I can find some sata power extensions.

It's looking pretty good now. I have everything sleeved (late night last night) except for the 6 pin AUX power rail and the 20 pin ATX power. The ATX power is giving me props. still haven't been able to get the pins loose for the exsisting connector. I bought a tool for this but it was a P-O-S. I then ground down my own with a SS tweezers but the little bastards still wouldn't pop loose, despite the fact that i had the little catched depressed. I'll keep working on it I guess. I also ran out of sleeving(the bigger stuff) but I'll get some more to finish. I sleeved everything! rofl. Even the 3 pin fan extension cables that will go from the fan controller to the fans. Fan cabled are sleeved also. there will be no cable unsleeved! hehehehe

<font color=green>AMD 64 3700+
ASUS K8N-E Deluxe
CORSAIR XMS (1gb) PC-3200
Gigabyte GF 6800gt 256mb
Audigy 2 ZS
2_36.7gb Raptors/Raid 0
Tt 480 watt PSU</font color=green>