Doing serious wire management is a modular power supply worth it?

[FenrirGod]

Ok i am going to be doing a case mod in the next few weeks. Its going to be a 5 Stage mod

1) paint the case
2) Re-work the window side panel
3) Cut and stylize the blank side panel
4) Serious wire management
5) Stealth the drives

ive already decided that im going to upgrade my os drive from IDE (yes i bought it as IDE was being phased out) to a sata drive to lower the wire clutter. ive also decided to swap out my second dvd drive for a sata one (stole that one out of one of my friends old rigs) and some time between now and the release of windows 7 i will be upgrading my graphics cards (2x XFX XXX9800 GTs SLI to 2x GTX 275) with all that being done and the plane side panel being modded (if every thing goes according to plan there will be some cold cathode light back there im gonna be strapped on places to put wires from the psu which means either i get really creative with the wire management or i replace a perfectly working and semi expensive psu for convenience. so my question is, is a modular power supply worth it for this mod?

[Outlaw]

Probably not.

Properly cutting the PSU cables to the length needed and using cable mesh will help clean it up a lot. for the cables you don't need, depending on the case, you can shove on the side of the case behind the motherboard tray. Or you can make a small box for them to sit in to hide them also.

[Airbozo]

Modular PSU's have been great in one of my builds that has no space for extra cables.

On my CM690, I was easily able to hide the extra cables behind the mobo plate.

The main issues with the modular cables is that there is more clutter around the PSU due to the extra connectors and the location of those connectors. Having one bundle coming out of the PSU is convenient.

[Outlaw]

I have a modular PSU in my current case. Even that one still has cable clutter at the top due to the manufacturer running multiple connectors from 1 psu connector. For example: 1 molex connector that goes into the PSU has 2 separate cables that support 3 Sata Power connectors each. I only have 3 HD's in my case. It is nice that what you don't need at all you can simply disconnect. If you are not worried about the cost, it may be worth it. But to simply replace a PSU that is perfectly fine, imo, I wouldn't.

[FenrirGod]

cool thanks for the feed back guys looks like im just gona have to get creative with the cable management.

[SXRguyinMA]

I agree, I've got a modular one and its nice. but I only got it because my old one died adn I got a good deal on this one. otherwise, break out the soldering iron and heat shrink!

[x88x]

Yeah, modulars are better than non-modular if you aren't brave enough to cut your own cables, but imo custom-cut is the best way to go.

[si-skyline]

There is next to no point for a modular power unit. I had one of the HYPER R ones (just blew up) it was great because they cables are quick to swop out. TBH a point agianst them is that I lose things easy. and it was hard pressed to find the sata connectors when I wanted them.

The other good thing is about them is the hole space saver eg. on a psu with what supports quad core. it will have the new 8-pin connector for the CPU, but also will need the old 4-pin connector for dual/single core, Wasted cables. same goes with PCI-E graphic power connectors, if it comes with 4 leads for quad graphics. you may only need one or two, wasted cables. With another PSU I had this was the case and I had to hide a shed load of wires.

Making a custom box with a cool pattern on it what slots onto the PSU gives a good Hiding place for cables.

The old hiding them down the mobo tray works great.

the let them hang there to pull off the Si-Fi theme is also a winner

Also cutting them off close to the end of the power unit. add a connector between is a great way to botch your own modular power unit.

Also one what meny dont do.. add a plexi/metal/mirror to the top and place a small hole in there and feed them between the top of the case and the plexi, If your hardcore and be careful you can add your own hole to the power unit near the top and then you can feed them all directly into the new hiding hole.

There is a TON of things you can do with wires. just have think