Cable Management

[Niox]

Its me again. I'm still practicing my dremeling on as many different pieces of material I can find before I cut my case and have come to the realization that my cable managment... sucks. So before I put the window in, I'd like to try and fix that.

I've got some sleeving in the mail (should be here in the next few days) as well as a complete change over kit for all of my connectors. I'm sure that I could just group a bunch of wires and sleeve them together or zip tie them or something like I was doing before but I don't think thats the best way. I seem to just get 3 or 4 huge groupings of wires.

I saw a thread about this before but after searching for it, can't find it. It showed a couple of cases that absolutley amazed me. You could barely see a single wire. I consider myself to be a computer geek and yet I was scratching my head trying to figure out where they were. If anyone knows where I could find some tips, or a tutorial, or something similar that would be great.

EDIT: I'm getting sleeving that will match the rest of my case so hiding all of it isn't really a concern. I've been told that putting the cables behind the mobo tray is one of the best way to hide them but looking at my case, I don't see how its even possible.

[p9l28a]

1.http://www.twistedmods.com/article.php?artid=94
2.http://www.casemodgod.com/cable_management.htm
I got same quastions and answears are in "idea zone" section witht title Any ideas for this mod.

Welcome on board.

[Niox]

Never thought to look in the idea zone... thanks for the links.

[Cevinzol]

this guide at pimprig (http://guides.pcapex.com/modding/wire_sleeving_-_zennzzo_style.php) is really good for dealing with sleeves

[dray20]

We have cable since I was a kid and I'm kind a used to it! but now we cut if off since we no longer watch t.v. We cut it off!

[Konrad]

Those articles don't seem to mention all the fiddling and twiddling needed to get the cabling done "just right". My basic approach is to just try to hide every cable length as much as possible ... this means trying to run them along hidden corners and edges, stuff them into grooves and rails, feed them through holes and slots, tie off bundles in empty drive bays, exploit whatever little "invisible" areas I can find (or create) anywhere in the chassis. I like my PC guts to look clean, and I find the easiest way to accomplish this is to keep the "middle" areas as open and free of cables/tubing/etc as possible. When all other options fail, when it's just impossible to avoid a cable run, I'll sometimes hide a bundle within a biggish cylinder or something instead ... sort of like camoflage, if you can't hide it completely then instead deliberately draw attention to it while making it look like something else. I'm also a "function before form" sort of guy, I'll avoid EMI-leaky case windows and signal runs which are longer than necessary or which cross powerlines or HDDs/motors or whatnot - but such overefficient hardening is not strictly required in most PCs these days; flimsy tech like WiFi and fancy bling like CCFL inverters are fairly robust and reasonably problem-free.

Having said that, my tastes aren't for everyone. And there's any number of mods where making the most out of cable clutter is done very cleverly and very artfully ... perhaps the most impressive examples I've seen are G-NOME's famous ORAC3 (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/tbcshof/view.php?ID=0355) (a freaky tangle of cybernetic metal tentacles which impresses everyone), and Piloux's HL2 / City17 (http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2004/11/10/blackmesa_II_part2/7) (in which the cabling seems rather unimpressive at initial glance, but is actually quite ingenious, subtle, and thematically creative). Both these mods demonstrate a variety of sophisticated methods and exhaustively neurotic attention to detail.

Having a terminal pick or proper Molex/PSU pin removal tool lets you remove/reattach the end connectors very quickly and easily, which sometimes allows more options when feeding cables through holes or byways too small for the connector bulk to fit. You could DIY build such a tool, but these days you can buy one for about ten bucks.

Modular PSUs can help a lot too, since you attach only the particular cables (and lengths) you need, meaning you don't have to cut or tie off a bunch of extras. Although they look prettier, I find that modular PSUs usually cost a lot more than regular PSUs and sometimes I'm able to pick a (much less costly) PSU which already has only the particular specs and cable outputs I'm actually going to use. Although I never advise skimping on a PSU, I'm also all for not wasting money ... or for at least getting more bang for the buck, spending a limited budget on upgrading the most useful components. Save yourself some grief by allowing for any planned future upgrades.

[d_stilgar]

Spammer necro?

[Konrad]

Ah, damn, I have totally failed my saving throw vs the evil spammer's clever psychological manipulation. Nerds can never resist any opportunity to demonstrate their encyclopedic knowledge of trivial technical esoterica.

Oh well, at least I wasn't trolled. But I feel dirty.

[mDust]

Nerds can never resist any opportunity to demonstrate their encyclopedic knowledge of trivial technical esoterica.


...nor their immense, prolix lexicon.

Just kidding. +rep for the info.

[Konrad]

prolix lexicon, lol #winning