Burn

Ok, so you have a really messy rig. You’re out of ideas as to how to organize all those cables, there are just so many of them! This is a guide to show you the ins and outs of cable management, and get your rig into fighting shape. Here is the rig we’re going to start with, my rig:



Click on the picture to get a bigger view.

As you can clearly see, it looks like crap. All the cables are just about everywhere and nothing is organized at all. Fortunately, my Aspire 520W PSU came pre-sleeved, so that takes care of my power supply, but none of my other cables are either sleeved or neatly tucked away. This will show you how to make your rig look semi-respectable.


1. PSU

First of all, you PSU has the most wires coming out of it, and it can be an eyesore. I suggest following Archer_456's PSU Sleeving Guide. It’s a very in-depth guide on how to sleeve your PSU, and I suggest you do that first before you do anything else, because that take care of a large part of the problem.



2. IDE cables

Secondly, everyone notices your IDE cables, you know, those flat ugly ribbons that go into your hard drives and CD-ROM drives? Those are next. Making those cables round is a cheap, inexpensive, and quick way to spruce your case up. Archer_456's Round IDE Cable Guide. The IDE cables will make your rig look much cooler, I can attest to that. I rounded every IDE cable that’s in my rig, and it makes my case look much cleaner. I recommend doing this second only to sleeving your PSU. If your PSU is already sleeved, I recommend doing this first.



3. Electrical Tape

I love electrical tape. If you look closer into my rig, you can see electrical tape everywhere. I absolutely love it, it gives a cleaner look than duct tape and holds better than Scotch tape. Where you can use electrical tape, use it, because it creates a black surface that’s easy on the eyes instead of a black and red thin line that draws attention. Plus, if you really need to, they have different colored electrical tape, you can get it at home depot for about a buck a roll. I think they carry red rolls, green, blue, and black of course. I used black simply because my case is black and I like black.



4. Hiding Wires

Hiding wires is the most crucial part of this guide. If you can’t hide wires well, your rig will look like poop. My rig happens to have a large metal bar that runs the length of the case, there are around 6 wires in the crevice created by it, and it looks really good. Use electrical tape to keep the wires in there, as that will help you out lots when it comes time to keeping those wires where they are meant to stay. Also, "I like the space between the mobo tray and panel for tucking--shortening or lengthening wires for fans or lights is easy with small heat shrink (bare wires just twisted)and lets them run behind the mobotray." (CyberDruid)

5. Wrapping a Molex Connector

Those Molex connectors are huge, and when push comes to shove, who really wants to see a huge Molex sticking out? More importantly, I can show you a way to take up wire slack using both Molex connectors wrapped up. Here’s a quick how-to:



1. Lay Molex connectors side by side as they were when you got them. You should have them long side on long side.

2. Wrap wire around thicker Molex wire. You should see lower gauge (thicker wire) wire on your Molex connectors than the small wires that go to your fan. Wrap the smaller wire around the thinker wire until you’ve taken up enough slack. Keep in mind that you need enough wire to go to your connection, too!

3. Wrap small wire through the two Molexes. When you’ve taken up as much slack as you need, take the thinner wire and wrap it through the two Molexes. You should come out with something like this:



Click on the picture to get a bigger view.
4. You’re all done! Hook up your connector, and you have no more slack!





5. Blowhole Fan Power Connection

Ok, so you have a blowhole that has a fan on it, that’s great. The wire coming off the fan however, looks like crap. What I’ve done and what I suggest you do if you have one, is the following:

1. Move your CD Drive Down One Slot: I suggest moving your CD drive down one slow so you can fit your Molex connector and your PSU cord in that space created. It looks really nice and you can’t see the plugs, which is the objective of me writing this guide.

2. Electrical Tape: What I would do next if you don’t want to do #1 is to tape your wire to the top of your case and lead it to an inconspicuous spot. Might I suggest to the left of your CD rack? There’s a space (at least in my case) where the manufacturers decided to leave some when they centered the bays to the front of the case. This makes for an excellent hiding spot for this situation.





Here's the final product. Clearly, it looks much more organized and looks much more professional, thanks to some small things done, they make all the difference.



Click on the picture to get a bigger view.

If you have an idea that you’d like submitted in here, or if you have any problems doing what I’ve outlined above, feel free to PM me or email me at ATVkid1090 at gmail.com



Thanks to Archer_456 for his guides, he made the PSU sleeving section much shorter, as well as the Round IDE Cable section. Good Work!

Kittani

Dude.. just went through the guide and re-did both my computers wire management. I didn;t even know some of the places you could stuff wires. I don;t like tubing my power cables because I like the raw power cord look... but the system looks 100% better than it was in my rig showcase... I'll add new pictures to it as soon as I get my camera workign right. (POS Sony F505 with bad batteries) Thanks again man... awesome.

Burn

that's awesome. i'd definitely like to see some picture of before and after, i bet they're totally different. that's awesome i could help you. see how many places you find that you can hide stuff? it's amazing how much you can find if you look hard enough. glad i could help.

hainer36

i rearranged my cables from both psu's and i lost about 8-14ºC its amazing what cable management did for me, i did it before and lost about 5-7ºC and now i lost about a total of 12-20ºC, thats alot for a pressy

KSIMP88

DAMN. This must suck for 56k'ers.

Burn

yeah, i know...but it's worth it.

hainer, glad to seee you got it worked out well.

spyC MAGNUM

my case is clean as a whistle. all you see is main power cables, sata cable, ide and floppy cables, ohh and of course the water lines. every thing glows uv blue. i started by spray painting the inside of the case black(took a lot of masking). so now all i have to do to hide wires is wrap them in something black, LIKE ELECTRICAL TAPE. looks sharp. id post it, but no camera sry

Burn

electrical tape rocks...from what you say, it sounds like it's a good rig.

SPHERE

haha my case has 5 times the wires of that thing and it looks just as neat it took me 4 hours though id post pics but i dont have a camra :(

Burn

Yea, It's gotten wayy messier because I've had to move stuff around, but once watercooling comes, it'll look much better.