Introduction:

Performance PC's Custom "Modular" Power Supply

   For the hardcore enthusiasts, performance is everything. The fastest and latest peripherals is a must have for those striving to have the best rig around. But all those needs a stable and reliable power house to keep them running smoothly.

   Fortunately, these days there are a lot of PSUs to choose from and most of them are stable and reliable. Names like Enermax, RaidMax, Thermaltake, Vantec and Antec has become synonym with the enthusiast and modding crowd with their excellent line of PSUs.

   Of course, the modding crowd especially not only need their system to run stable and cool but also look cool, so cable management is one of the areas we look into when building our rig. Some of us will simply tuck away those un-used cable into places where you can't see them while others, took the effort to nicely sleeve them up into manageable bundles.

   These all began when Enermax fist introduced their PSU line for the retail market. They had the main ATX power cable covered in expandable sleeving although they left the other cables untouched.

   That sparked the idea bugs in a lot of modders and they began looking for the sleeving that Enermax used to cover the other power lines the same way as the main ATX cable.

   Now if you're looking into doing it yourself, I suggest you check out Dice's Cable Sleeving How-To where he goes into details on how you can sleeve up your PSU cables. In the guide, Dice just sleeved the cables up to the point where it comes out from the main PSU body, not including the extras within the PSU body itself.

   To get the "factory-made" look, you'll have to remove the PSU cover and start to organize the cables properly to be able to do that. Some could do that without fear while others would think twice about that and for that latter group of people, Performance-PCs did the dirty work!

   You can say that Performance-PCs invented the "100% Fully Sleeved PSU" back then with their creation and it has garnered a lot of interest. They surely have come a long way since then and getting a lot of attention and rave reviews and today, they carry on that tradition with yet another addition, aptly named the Ultima Series.

   Most of us knows that Antec makes one of the best, if not the best, PSUs around. I'm not going into details on the PSU itself but rather concentrate on the custom sleeving work that has been done by Performance-PCs on this particular series. If you need to know the details on the PSU, I suggest you check out OCAddiction's Review or ViperLair's Review.

   So Performance-PCs took an already awesome power unit and added their own custom sleeving. But they didn't stop there.... in addition to the custom sleeves, they also made the power lines removable, with the exception of the main ATX power cable. What this means to the end user is that you'll only connect/use the power lines that you need! I think it's a great idea cause you'll be able to minimize cable cluster in your case!

   Here's what the folks at Performance-PCs have to say about their new series of PSUs..

"With the Ultima we start with the finest 550 watt power supply in the industry and then convert all the power lines to removable connectors. It has always been a pet peeve here when building AMD to have the 12V and AUX connectors just shoved in some corner taking up space. With our Mod you simply remove the lines you do not need for your motherboard. You can also change the power lines to the exact number of devices you have in certain area of your case. If you only need two lines of connectors then leave the other one unplugged. Add to that the addition of all low profile right angle Molex connectors and two floppy conversion cables that you can add anywhere on your chain and you have the most versatile power supply setup you can imagine. If you then change back to Intel after a few months, simply plug the extra power connectors back into their sockets."

   OK, enough of the blabber here... let's take a closer look shall we?

The Package:

   Performance-PCs shipped the custom sleeved PSU with the original Antec box, manual and also the Antec PSU cover. Why is the cover is not attached? That's because Performance-PCs added a UV Reactive Acrylic PSU Cover! That adds to the overall custom look to the PSU.

   Just in case you don't like the acrylic cover, you can simply pop the original cover back in. BTW, the PSU is an Antec TruePower 550W Model, one of the top models from Antec right now. You can check out the specs for the PSU from the picture below or go here.

The Socket Connectors:

   Taking a closer look at the main unit, you can clearly see the amount of work that goes into customizing it. The first thing you'll notice is of course the acrylic cover that replaces the metal one that came with the original PSU. The acrylic cover is UV reactive and Performance-PCs replaces the orginal 92mm fan with a Quad Blue LED one.

   They also replaced the 80mm exhaust fan with an Antec Blue UV Fan. On the outside, Performance-PCs converted the power lines to removable connectors with the exception of the main ATX line. The removable connectors are;

• 1 x Fan-Only 3-pin Connector

• 3 x Male Molex Connectors

• 1 x 6-pin AUX Power Connector

• 1 x 4-pin ATX12V Power Connector

   Here's a closer look at the connectors mentioned above. Performance-PCs also included a re-usable cable tie for the main ATX Power cable. These power lines are sleeved with UV Reactive 1/4" Blue Sleeves with Blue Heatshrinks covering the ends and held down by a custom cable holder and attached to the main PSU body by Velcro.