Conclusion

It took a bit of doing (a bit fiddly and took about 1.5hrs) but I think this was worth it. The cost is minimal: braiding was £1.50+VAT for 3ft, the heat-shrink tubing was only sold in 3ft lengths at £4.99+VAT but I used less than 6 inches of it. I'll definitely more of the braiding to finish the job on the second chain, given that delivery is also free.

The heat gun I got for free because I work for a large well-known power tool company who let me have one on loan until I quit, but it's worth about £20. I expect a hairdryer would be just as effective for this application and probably less likely to melt the braiding.

I plan to do something about the ATX cable as well. It's got too many strands so it'd be far too thick for braiding. I was thinking of either a) splitting it into 3 or 4 sets of strands and braiding each of them or b) using fluorescent or UV cable wrap on it. I expect braiding sets of cables might look quite cool but getting all 20-odd wires back into the right place would be a bit of a challenge. (Update: I ordered some more to do the other chain of power connectors but the ATX connectors can't be removed from the plug as easily as the power ones.)

This wasn't too hard to do. You just have to be careful to get your power connectors back together in order and not melt the braiding or anything else except the heatshrinking tubing. The results are really worth the effort.

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