Antec 300 and PSU

[ralphf926]

I'm on my 3rd build and have appreciated all the help I have received from this forum. This time I purchased an Antec 300 case where the PSU mounts on the bottom of the case. I'm trying to find a reasonable PSU that has power cables long enough to reach 4pin and 24 pin power connectors on MOBO. Something in 400w - 500w range that will support 3 SATA devices. No SLI or crossfire required. Most PSU's seem to have about 12 - 13" cable lengths but I need about 2" more. I know there are cable extenders but don't want to use them. Any help appreciated.

[zburns]

I am assuming you do not have a PSU? Seems to me you would make a choice to maybe buy a "poorer" power supply if it was the only one to have the longer leads. You should buy a "known high quality PSU" with plenty of wattage for your purpose without an overriding concern for the lead length.

Second, do you really need to extend all cables by 2"; does not make sense! Maybe just one cable by 2" will do the job? Why can you not reroute the one or two cables you need longer and pick up the 2" that way!

All that said, if you really need more length, I would get the best possible PSU, and lengthen the end of the cables that need the extra length; splice in extra lengths of same size and same color wire; requires two soldered splice joints per wire and two layers of "heat shrink tubing over each joint". Does require a solder iron and heat gun (for shrink tubing). Not hard to do even for a novice but you do need some advice if you choose this route.

Theoretically, the plug in extender should work well; however, there are momentary high currents, 24 to 30 amps dc in the 12v portion of the psu so one faulty "plug in" connection is potentially a really serious problem. If I really had to extend the end of a PSU cable, as you are describing (emphasis on "had to"), I would do the solder / splice as I describe above. Done correctly, the soldered splices are as good or better joints that the crimped joints for each plug terminal.

One can argue that the extender plug in cable is no different than the plug in connections from PSU to the individual devices. It is different in that the extender cable puts two plug in connections in play, whereas the normal PSU where it plugs into a device is only "one" plug connection as opposed to "two". So soldered splice (done properly) better than extender!

Sorry, I did not pick up on the fact that you wanted to extend 24 pin connector. The above argument is valid for power supply high current connections. Easy on the 4 pin SATA connections for example. Not sure what to say about the 24 pin connector right now!! I do not like the idea of plug in extension cable here either unless it is a known high quality connection.