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DO NOT mix and match the cables of different modular power supplies without prior research.
They may fit physically but they are often wired differently, which you will not be able to see since the cables are often wrapped or braided.
The power plugs that go into your mainboard, SATA or Molex devices, fans and so on are standardized. But, while power supply manufacturers likely get the actual plugs that go into the PSU from the same supplier, there is no standard for their wiring, so their pins will not always correspond to the same pin on the standardized plug.
You MAY be able to mix and match between different power supplies of the same brand. Do your homework! Ask the manufacturer's customer service, perhaps check if the company offers manuals that allow you to compare the wiring, or get a multimeter and check if they're using the same patterns yourself. Be very careful that you're getting it right, because just a fraction of a second is enough to destroy something if it's getting too much power or the voltage is too high. If you turn your rig on and then notice something's wrong, it's already too late.
I'm posting this because a friend of mine upgraded his PSU last week and, being a bit lazy, he just exchanged the two units since the cables of his old PSU happened to exactly fit in all the right slots on the new one, even though they were not even the same brand. He turned the PC on, immediately noticed a burning smell and turned it off again - but both of his SSDs were already fried. Everything else still works, luckily, and he has now replaced the old cables with the new ones, but there was damage and the replacement (just one 512GB SSD) will cost him 70€. Had he been less lucky, his entire PC might have been fried.
This is always a no no as you must only use cables that are made for your psu including aftermarket sleeved cables
Does anyone besides cablemod actually sell PSU specific cables?
Problem is that not everyone knows this. The friend I mentioned is very knowledgeable about computers (studies IT and has built and generally screwed with PCs for far longer than I did) and he didn't know about this. Expected the cables to be standardized, which they aren't.
Also, OEM cables can be sleeved too. My EVGA PSU has black sleeved cables, look pretty nice. Not that it has much of an effect in my windowless case (quiet > RGB).
DO NOT mix and match the cables of different modular power supplies
without prior research.You don't even need to do research, even if you bought the same brand the same model, just use the new ones cause sometimes manufacturers make small internal changes to the units as time goes by.Don't be that guy who's so lazy he can't just rewire his PC and kills it.
Edit: Was informed no manufacturer changes internals mid production run.
It’s like why the fuck can’t they have the exact same pin out as the mobos connectors
No reputable brand does that.
There are several cases where cables from another brand will work with your PSU, for example, Bitfenix use Corsair's type 4 pinout for their whisper series so the RMx, RMi, AX1600i, new AX Titanium, CXm, Vengance and TXm are all compatible with the Whisper's cables (and vice versa), the AX1500i/old HX and the other type 3 pinout PSUs are only incompatible on the ATX 24 pin cable.
Yes, I actually luckily learnt this from a seller of custom cables. He told me to bring in my PSU cables, I said, just give me new ones and he said no, it's dangerous.
To me this is like USB, SATA, etc.: there ought to be a standard that all of the PSU makers can follow. Fat chance.
What about after market sleeves, I was thinking on getting some to match my system's color scheme.
You can buy extensions, which you must place on the mother board, and then into the cable from your power supply, not directly into your power supply.
You can remove the pins and rearrange them as per the power supply, but that is a test in patience and has a risk to it
Edit, to clarify, you could plug an extension cable into the psu, but it would need to plug into the psu provided cable anyways to do the conversion from the supplies pinout to the standard atx pinout, then into the motherboard, but this defeats the purpose of getting a sleeved extension, as well as being possible the cable probably won’t even fit the power supplies output plug.