(22) Switch mess	(23) On the floor

    It was now time to do some wire cutting. All wires that were connected to the motherboard header could be removed, except one ground wire and the green wire. The P4 board connectors could be removed as well. It was simply a matter of following the wire from the connector to the PSU's PCB, and cutting it off as close to the base of the wire as possible, to avoid shorts. Once all the wire chopping was done, what was left is the four 4-pin Molex connectors, and the Berg connector (attached to a 4-pin).

 

(24) That looks better	(25) 4-pin to Berg removed

     I used the same 1mm flathead screwdriver to remove the head of the 4-pin Molex that was attached to the Berg connector. A few snips later and the Berg was gone, leaving four 4-pin Molex connectors.

Wire connection:

    There was still the matter of the green wire to ground wire connection. I decided to do this internally by having the two wires directly attached to each other. I first trimmed the wires from their previous length, stripped the ends, wrapped them together tightly, and wound a small amount of electrical tape around it.

 

(26) Previous length	(27) Wires attached

     The wire mess was tamed, and I put the power supply back together to make sure my green wire to ground wire attachment worked fine, which it did.

 

(28) Looking slimmer

   There was only one other type of connector I wanted on the test unit besides the 4-pin Molex, and that was a three pin connector. I grabbed a 3-pin to 4-pin adapter I had lying around, and integrated it into the wiring.

 

(29) 3-pin to 4-pin

    Now I needed a solid design for how I would have the connectors coming from the power supply. I could have been lazy and just had the connectors coming out of the back of the power supply like they were originally, but I wanted this unit to be compact and all-in-one. After turning over the power supply in my hands and drawing out a few different ideas, I came across one that seemed almost too perfect.

 

(30) See how I did it?

    I took the Molex head off the wiring, and put each individual wire through a square hole in the venting along the back of the power supply. Then I reattached the Molex connector head on the other side of the venting, keeping the connector somewhat in place, as well as lined up, with no cutting! Proceeding along, I did this for all four 4-pin Molex connectors. I also had the 3-pin connector protruding in a similar fashion.

 

(31) Lined up	(32) Final layout

    While the connectors were pretty taught against the back panel after being attached, I used a thin line of Krazy Glue along the insides to have them perfectly and permanently lined up along the back of the power supply. I have attached and removed fans from these connectors, and they have not budged a centimeter.

 

(33) Two testing fans	(34) Powered up

    At this point, the mod was completed. I had my testing station, and it is on top of my work area today, now a valuable testing tool. No longer will I have to attach fans to other computers to test them, nor will I have to have a computer setup solely for testing purposes. A total cost of $7, and an investment of four hours paid off.

 

(35) Fans attached	(36) Testing in progress

    If you have any questions, comments, or "attaboy"'s for this mod or my other reviews, feel free to drop me a line. This mod project was linked two days in advance on our forums, so check them out and maybe register and say hi, as I have a few other mod projects in the works right now :).

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