Cable Management 101 by Deano12345 - Overclock.net

Deano12345 · 11-06-09

Welcome to my thread that will hopefully get you a 10 in the ''Rate my cables thread'' or at least decrease the temps in your case.

Step 1

We need the correct tools before we start, like anything.

3.2mm or 2.5mm cable ties :

''Snips''/Small wire cutter :

One Case :

And Finally

Some time :

Step 2
Have everything you need?

Lets get started !

Evaluate whats in your case
Which means
- How many Fans/drives do you have ?
- Is your PSU modular ? (Modular always helps)
- How many graphics card ?
- Does your case have any pre drilled holes ?

Heres some advice before we even start managing anything.

1. Fan controllers will clutter up behind your motherboard,But this is ok, we cant see the cables (other than a small few a the top,I'll tell you more about that later)

2.Modular PSU's always help, it will eliminate that cable clutter down the bottom of your case

3.Sata drives are great ! Their cables are much easier to manage than the old ''Ribbon'' IDE cables. If your doing a new build,pick up both SATA HDD's (thats a given nowadays) and a SATA DVD-RW Drive

4.Your type of case is very important. Some will have a lot of holes pre-drilled (Down by the PSU,up at the 8pin are the most usable IMO). If your handy with tools, you can create these holes with a Dremel or other rotary tool.

Step 3
Now,actually onto the cable managment.

Step 1 : Front Panel connectors

These are usually USB, Audio I/O and maybe an E-Sata port. Lets manage them first.

For this particular case(HAF 922, but any case I have seen has had FP cables long enough to do this),the cables are long enough to be ran across the top of the motherboard and then down the left hand side and poke them through the recesses in the motherboard you can see just above the large hole.

Poke them through the separe holes (On/off cables though one of the holes on the left hand side and Power/HDD LED,through the hole closest to the connections for the motherboard.For me it was the hole furthest to the right above the big hole.But DONT tie them down yet.

*But Dean,I dont have any recesses *sadface*

Do not fear, cable manager.Get a roll of masking tape and use that to tie those dastardly cables down and run your IO cables through the big hole that will be on front of your PSU.*

Front I/O sorted ? Your damn sure it is !

Step 2 : In the Drive-ing seat (

)

Ok, lets sort out your drives, first off.Plug your SATA Data cables into your SATA devices,what ever they are and run all your drive cables across your motherboard.Once they are behind the motherboard tray,grab them all and line them up behind each other and cable tie them their.This step really reduces the cluttered look of multiple cables.Cable management is all smoke and mirrors really

Rinse and repeat this step for your SATA power cables but IMO,dont tie them all together, it looks cleaner if you do them seperatly (you will see what I mean a bit later)

Step 3 : Powah Time !

Ok, we have our IO and our drives sorted out. Now its time to sort out our motherboard power, 8pin and GPU power.

First things first, the tighter you can get the GPU and 24Pin connectors the better it will look, try and tie them to the case wherever you can, again, use masking tape if you dont have any of those handy little recesses. For the 8Pin, run it around the back of the motherboard and out the top hole (if you have one,if not,make one !) and thats it

With your GPU cables you will most likley have 2 6/8 pins, plug them into your GPU and then cable tie them (in view)to a point where they are not being 'pulled' at the GPU end (ie so they cable isnt pulling on the card) and tie them down like your 24Pin

Step 4 : Admire your work

Here's what your case should look like once your done

More managment tips :

Controller Clutter :

On the outside, they look purty,but on the inside they a mess of unsleeved cables(a bit like me then) Not really,that pun sucked

Couple of things that make them a minor annoyance

1.Molex Power - It makes you crack out the wonderous 4pin cable and the cable clutter that goes along with them.

2.Fan Cables - You have to run the cables into the back of the controller or at least (like my fan controller) have a smaller cable which connects into the Controller PCB at one end and the other end is a traditional 3 pin connector.

Right, lets get to sorting these problems out

Molexs, run them around the back of your motherboard from your PSU, then bring the connector (for power on the Fan controller) across your case and behind your motherboard.Dont connect anything or tie anything up yet.

Get the fans wires you want to control behind your motherboard.You will have to hide any front panel fans,this is why you tied your sata data cables together.Tie them behind the sata cables (Ninja cables...oh yeah lol),an other fans can be put through the hole up the top (Where your 8pin was put through).Connect the fans to the 3 pin connection that you should halve passed across the case behind the motherboard.

All your fans work ?

They do ?

Good

But your not done yet. We have just connected the cables out of site, we gotta tie them down to minimize the space taken up behind your motherboard and also the mess going across your case.

Molex - tie them down to wherever you can in your case,those hooks come into play once more, if not, use some masking tape. Simple as.

Fan cables-Cable tie them all together so you can get a clean look running across your case. Tie the molex to them too.Place your Fan controller in the top 5.25 bay if possible to keep those cables out of the way as much as possible (you can see this on my rig,which you can see in step 4 of this guide.)

That should be you all done,repeat step 4 if you wish

*I know there any many types and brands of fan controller.If my tips aren't relvant to you,post up wiht your model or a picture of you current management and I'll help you with it*

PART 2

Alright, time to hit multiple nails on the head right here.

In this part of the guide, I'll work through :

1.OEM Cases (Dell,HP's etc)
2.Cases with no Cable holes
2.IDE Cables
3.Non-Modular PSU's

And to make my job all that much more fun,my test subject has ALL of these. Yay for me. Lets get started,shall we ?

Step 1

Everybody OUT

The computer I have is a Gateway tower,circa 1999.Heres it before I've done anything to it

Its bad...real bad.

Lets fix this then !

First thing to do is take ALL the cables out and remove the PSU if possible (You'll see why later).Once its done,it should look something like this.

Step 2

Why-oh Wires

OEM PSU's wont be sleeved, and not all PSU's you buy for your rig's will be either. So you will need to organise them a bit so you dont have cables tangles up. You can do this by using cable ties every few centimeteres up the cable. I only did the 20 Pin becasue the other cables had to be placed in then cable tied.

Before

After

Step 3 :

I-D-Eek

Next step is to reattach your IDE Cables to your drives. IDE's are impossible to hide so lets just focus on keeping them out of the way of out airflow.Tie them (using cable ties) to your drive bay. 3.2mm wont be big enough to go around the IDE and throuhg whatever your attaching it too. To get around them,'daisy chain' them together'.

You should have something like this when your done.

Rinse and repeat for your DVD Drives,you may need to double it back in parts and cable tie them. Like this.

Step 4

Lottsa-Cables

Time to put your PSU in and reconnect everything back up. Best thing to do it keep everything tight with cable ties and double it back like you did with your IDE Drives.

Cable tie all your Front panel connectors together and hide the smaller cables behind the bigger ones. Connect them up and we are done !

That was easy wasn't it.

Enjoy your work

Big difference eh, not bad for an hours work. Just gonna throw in a disclaimer for anyone who is opening their case up for the first time

''Opening your case may void your warranty and I, Deano12345, am not responsible for any damage/loss of warranty caused while carrying out any modifcations/changes mention in this thread''

Now, Some pics of OCN members rigs

Recommended hardware for great cable managment

Modular PSU's

0W - 600W

Corsair HX450
Silverstone ST60F 600W
Silverstone ST56F 560W

600W - 850W

Corsair HX650
Corsair HX750
Corsair HX850
Seasonic M12D 850W
Seasonic X650
Seasonic X750
Thermaltake Toughpower 650W
Enermax Revolution 85+ 850W

850 - 1500W

Corsair HX1000
Enermax Revolution 85+ 950W
Enermax Revolution 85+ 1050W
Silverstone ST1200 1200W
Silverstine ST1500 1500W

One PSU 'Accessory' (of sorts) which you may find aesthetically appealing is NZXT's line of sleeved PSU extension cables.From what i can see NewEgg is the only vendor offering these parts.You can see the entire range available on NewEgg here :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2120&name=NZXT

Fans

All Noctua fans come with sleeved cables (to the best of my knowledge)

Also :

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php

Offer a sleeving service with any fans purchased from them

I hope this guides helps you in your cable management adventures.Please let me know If you have any problems or any questions about your specific case...or tell me my cable managment is crap