I have one of the early FC Enermax PSUs that I've been running w/ just the 92mm fan for some time now. The only thing I find irksome is that I'm running the PSU in a regular ATX system, and I've got all these P4 auxilliary connectors hanging around. It didn't bother me so much when it was in my big tower case, but now I've got it in a minitower (only about 13.5" tall-- the PSU mounts sideways so that the 92mm fan is facing the motherboard (full ATX MB, not micro)), and having all that extra cabling in there makes working on the components difficult, and I'm sure it doesn't help out airflow either.

So what I wanted to ask is, does anyone know anything about just cutting these extra cables off? Should I try to de-solder them from where they are attached inside the PSU, or should I just snip the cables very short and use heatshrink to cap the ends? Will any of this affect the power output on the other connectors? (I can't imagine why it would.)

Thanks!

Sounds fine to me! Cut'em shorter as far as you want, the heatshrink covering on each wire should be cool...

I just left mine tied up and tucked away out of sight (they are long enough...)

josephclemente,

I agree with Justin_R. One downside of cutting off excess wires / connectors: future use of the P4 connectors. When I have unused wiring or cabling, I always use a zap-strap (ty-wrap) and bundle away. Especially around case fans, CPU HS Fans, etc.

TerryW

Thanks josephclemente and TerryW!

Believe me, I have all the cables off the Enermax cable-tied, but the cables are just so damn long that they start taking up major room. Especially since this system only uses 5 of the 10 available power connectors.

I wound up cutting off the wires a few inches from where the connect into the PCB in the PSU. I bundled the similar voltage wires together and capped them with heatshrink, then tucked them inside the PSU. Originally, I had the 92mm fan running at 5V by running the wire for it outside of the heatsink and connecting it to an adapter hanging off of a 4 pin molex connector. Since I now had 5V wires available inside the PSU, I used one of them to hook up the fan. It might be fun to use the other to create a 5V fan line (for the CPU fan) that comes out of the PSU as though it were standard equipment. I'm not going to bother, but it seems a nice way to get a "professional" finish.

As for the future of the P4 connectors, I left enough wire so that I can reconnect them if I have to. But I don't expect to be replacing this particular system anytime soon, so I'm not sweating it.