So this was a limited time case series that did not run long. It was like a poor man's Silverstone - yet still around $200+ at the time. I always wondered how I'd power the VFD/IR when my original power supply died (which it just did a couple weeks ago). It was just one blown cap, but I think I'm going to replace the bad cap it and use it as a bench power supply. Anyways here is my fix using a new power supply.
You need a 430W+ ATX power supply with a 24 or 20+4 power supply (that preferably still has multi coloured wires ).
You may need extra wire (I harvested from my old power supply.)
You need a 3 pin extension connector with the purple,red, and black leads with enough reach from the VFD wire clip to get close to the ATX power input on your Mobo. (I reused the original one)
Heat shrink tubing, Soldering Iron, Solder, Wire Strippers etc.
Ok.
- Cut the purple, a red and a black wire about 10cm up from the ATX clip. Do it in the right order or it may blow (joking - if you believed that, then here is a safety tip : make sure you have everything unplugged for at least 1h, the caps can keep a charge for a while.)
- Strip the wires on each side of those 3 wires (so 6 bare ends).
- Twist all the ends and tin them to your liking.
- Slide your heat shrink on the 3 wires (you can do them one at a time to prevent accidental shrinkage from soldering heat).
- Take the 3pin extension lead that will connect to the VFD and strip and tin those wire ends.
- Solder the 3pin extension to one end of the exposed ATX leads matching all the colours. (If you want you can pretwist these leads and then tin them at the same time).
- Solder both ATX leads together.
- Heat shrink.
- Make all connections and you are back in business.
Some sort of adapter must exist for this but I was wasting so much time looking this likely ended up being a much faster solution. It's all safe - but you will void your warranty probably if it's a new PSU (I used an old one).
These HTPC cases will be wanted once again. In my opinion the front screens are way doper than any modern plexiglass side with LEDs on all the fans type of unit. Also, the remote turn on is a killer feature.