Advice re mystery barrels

I'm trying to find out what these barrels / tubes / cylinders are around the end of my pcie cables, whether they are essential to stable operation, and whether or not I would be risking damage by replacing these cables with ones that do not include these objects.

Points of interest:

1. The psu is a Thermaltake Toughpower 1200w w0133 (Chanelwell PUC1200V rev A)
2. The objects are not connected to the wires electrically
3. They appear only on the pcie cables and not on any others

I have asked around on the OCN forums where I'm normally found lurking and the general consensus is that they are for EMI and/or ripple suppression, but have received conflicting information regarding whether or not swapping the cables out for omes without these objects can cause serious damage, or just acoustic annoyance via coil whine.

My reason for wanting to know this is because I have only a single 6pin pcie modular cable remaining for this unit so I want to modify cables from a 750W seasonic m12ii evo to fit and provide an additional 8pin pcie, but the cables from that psu do not have these objects provided on them.

The cable rewiring into a compatible psu side connector is complete and all ready to be installed, but I want to know if there are any dangers to using it without the barrel shaped object before I tear down my pc to install it.

It was suggested by one of the more helpful participants in the discussion that I ask on here, so here I am!

Attached is a photo of the object in question, and thanks in advance for any help with this matter.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Advice re mystery barrels