Making a 20 Pin Molex Extender

The 200 W Power Supply Unit (PSU) was fine for the PowerPC RISC based processor, however for a Pentium motherboard it will need to pack a bigger punch. The motherboard I plan to fit will use a Pentium processor, and it will almost certainly require a 300 W PSU.

The motherboard is fixed on the side hinged panel, and the PSU to the case. The original PSU had long leads with a 20 pin Molex that reached all the way to the motherboard even with the side panel fully opened.

The new 300 W PSU had very short leads hence an extender was required. I remembered spending a weekend with a blowtorch removing components and sockets from dead motherboards for recycling. Hence, I knew I had a 20-pin Molex socket somewhere. I decided to chop a 20-pin wire loom off a dead PSU and simply solder it on the recycled socket, effectively making an extender.

After 25 minutes of working accurately and quickly, I had the extender. Here are some pictures to show how. Twenty wires in total need stripping and soldering, and therefore forty contacts to prepare.

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