Case Wire Cleanup
Review by Joey Keith on 09.03.2002

Have you ever looked inside your case and wondered how you could make that mess of wires more organized? Well here is one way to make your wires look professionally finished while still staying under a $10 budget.

The main bulk of wires inside a case come from the power supply, so let's start there. You are going to need a few materials and a couple of tools to do this mod.

Materials:

• Heat Shrink wrap — sizes 1/4, 1/2, and 1 inch diameter
• Wire loom — size 1/2 inch
• Zip ties (optional)

Tools:

These are not necessary, but make the job easier. You can use the alternatives listed if you do not own the proper tools but would like to keep expense down.

• Heat gun (or a lighter, preferably a long fire place lighter)
• Scissors / knife
• Molex pin extractor (or a small pointed object, with a toothpick sized end)

Green shrink wrap was used to match the color of the case in this article. Shrink wrap is produced in many different colors, so just pick one you like.

Looks messy, blah!

First things first, unplug your power supply from the wall. Then remove it from the case. Beginning with the ATX power connector, take your 1/2 inch wire loom and cut it to the correct length. Make sure it is a little shorter than the actual wire; otherwise the wires will be too tight at the ATX plug side.

Loom sliding on

Next wrap the wires with the loom.

Loom wrapped around wires

Once this is done, cut some one inch shrink wrap to make four (two inch long) strips. Turn the ATX plug sideways as much as possible and slide the shrink wrap over the end and down on the loom.

Slide shrink tube over plug

Once you are done sliding the pieces over the connector, spread them evenly on the loom.

Ready to heat

 NOTE: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT SO PAY ATTENTION!

When heating the shrink wrap you must take your time and heat it slowly, the wire loom is made from plastic and will melt if you hold the heat over one area for too long. Take your time, heat a small area and move to the next piece of shrink wrap after a few seconds. The shrink wrap will shrivel down around the loom and hold all the wires in place. If you do not feel comfortable enough to do this you can always use zip ties in place of the shrink wrap. Shrink wrap is preferred because it just looks cleaner.

WOW it already looks better!

Next we move onto the Molex connectors. This is where a Molex extractor tool comes in handy.

Molex tool

The tool is made to push in the clips that hold the pin in place inside the plastic housing of the connector. You slide the extractor tool around the pin inside the plastic connector and push it out the other side.

Pop out the metal pin

If you don't have a Molex extractor tool you will have to find something small enough to push in the pins and then you can just pull the wire out. Make a drawing of what color wires went into which places on the Molex connector, you don't want to accidentally connect the 12 volt side into the 5 volt side when you are putting it back together. Once all the pins are out it is time to start feeding the shrink wrap around the wires, again making sure to cut the tube a little shorter than the actual wire. Now that all the shrink wrap is in place pop the pins back into the plastic connector in the correct places (this is where the drawing helps you out) and it should look something like this.

More heating

Take your heat gun and shrink all the wrap. No need to worry about melting anything this time (unless you are heating directly over the loom). The finished product should turn out like this. The extra P4 connections were covered in spare shrink wrap and shoved out of the way when the power supply was reinstalled.

All done!

Looks much cleaner doesn't it? And the best part is you don't ruin your warranty! If your power supply goes up in smoke just cut off the shrink wrap and loom and return it, no one ever has to know!

Here is a bit of warning. Do not use shrink wrap over the whole ATX cable. BIG MISTAKE! Once the wrap was shrunk the cable became so stiff it could not be bent to plug it into the motherboard. Here is a picture, looks good but doesn't work very well.

OOPS!

The loom gives the wires inside enough room to bend without too much resistance and still looks good.

Another option you can do if you don't feel comfortable taking apart your Molex connector is simply cover all the wires in loom. They make loom in as many sizes as shrink wrap and the finished product still looks good. They make it in different colors now too.

Well there you have it, an easy to do mod that will not cost a lot of money and dress up any case.

Have fun and be careful.