Welcome!

Join our community of MMO enthusiasts and game developers! By registering, you'll gain access to discussions on the latest developments in MMO server files and collaborate with like-minded individuals. Join us today and unlock the potential of MMO server development!

Join Today!

[GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101

A hard working geek :-)
Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,750
Reaction score
236
Welcome to Cable Management 101
Goal: To assist computer enthusiasts in how to best manage your wires, promote better air flow, lower temperatures and add a much cleaner and more professional look to the inside of your computer case.




Choose Your Case!

* There are -many- types of computer cases out there, from server grade 1u/2u rackmounts, HTPC media servers, mini's, mid-tower, full tower, and up to super tower's. Out of the dozens of different builds I have done with my own personal money, I can recommend a few fine points in what choices you should look for to get the best bang for the buck, and to help you attain that professional looking computer build you are looking for.

Recommendations:
* The primary thing I look at with current cases is cooling. What type of cooling system is the case best utilizing? Is it built for water cooling (HAF Series)? Does it take advantage of large air cooling fans (XClio Series)? Is it sound deadened (Antec P-180/280)? You have to answer many of your own personal questions on what YOU want to build your case around. Over the years I have gone from every size of case (Excluding Super Towers.. those are just to massive), and have since begun to prefer mid tower chassis types. They offer the right amount of room, a good minimum of cable organization, and can optimally use either water, or air cooling.

* The second thing I ALWAYS look for, is how much room is available behind the motherboard tray. For all cable management, 90% of your wire routing should travel behind the motherboard tray.. the more room you have between the tray space and the back panel means the easier time you will have routing/hiding cables. Some newer cases utilize as much as 30mm+ of wiggle room.. that is immense!


The PSU!

* In Cable Management, a Modular PSU is an absolute necessity! If you are running a standard non-modular PSU, the best job you can do is bundle everything together and hope no one notices the wad of cables all over the bottom fo your case.

After you have all of your computer components gathered up, now is when you can begin formulating a plan to begin your cable management





Needed Tools/Equipment:

Zip Ties (Lots of them! Preferably Black, or a color to add taste to your build (Green/Red/Yellow)
Screwdriver
Scissors/Wire Cutters/Side Cutters
Ingenuity and Patience (Very important, a good wire routing session can last several hours at minimum.. if you get frustrated often, you may decide it's best to not try excessive cable management.)

Helpful Links:
FrozenCPU - They provide all brands of sleeving and cable management, as well as anything you need for silent computing.

Xoxide - Another great company whom I have ordered through many times, they provide fantastic sleeving kits to brush up the glamour of your case.




Now that you have the absolute basics, I will post my documented build, and describe how I did what I did. And the reasons behind my choices of cable management routes.







Currently I have been sporting the CoolerMaster Storm Scout case, it features a tinted side view window, several 120mm/140mm fan slots.. as well as a good width of room behind the motherboard for routing any wires I may have to hide. It also features a large handle that is reinforced with steel connected direcly to the case, VERY sturdy, and makes moving the computer case an absolute breeze using a single hand.

I went ahead and began removing all of my PC components, as I had my computer running in the office for several years with only a bare minmum of cleaning. If you are going to open up a used case and begin modding/managing it, this is your chance to finally pull all the components out and start cleaning things!


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


In these two pictures, you can see I have removed all side panels, the front panel, and have begun removing the various hard drives and misc wires hanging around. Every piece I pull out, I wipe down with a damp paper towel and simple green (Sprayed directly on the paper towel, NOT on the component!)



After removing ALL PC components, and cleaning up all the extra dust from the fan intakes, I am left with a clean project:
Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


If you notice the front panel - I modded the panel itself to accept two fans on the front, and had to reverse the entire tinted plexiglass in its mount to prevent a whistling noise from installing high static pressure fans. If you own this particular case and are interested in anything I have done, feel free to PM me with any inquiries!




Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


The reason I began this project! Newegg FTW!





The part I didnt document was actually installing the motherboard and cooler fans. This is a very basic part of a build, and shouldn't need to be documented, as this is for cable management, and not a dedicated computer build. I begin taking pictures as I begin my cable management.




Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums



For the first session of cable management, I had 2x 4 pin PWM fan plugs at the top of my motherboard, and each Cougar fan has about a full 16" of wire length, which is fantastic for a tower/super tower build.. but a slight bit excessive for a standard mid tower. To suck up extra length, the goal is to wing the wire around the fan itself before you mount it, and use Zip Ties in the empte holes of the fan to hold the wwire in place. Rotate the fan while doing this until you have it mounted, and only have a few inches of slack left to make it to your 3/4motherboard pin.


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


In this picture, you can see 2x 4pin PWM fan plugs, and the 8 pin motherboard Molex. I ziptied the two 4 pin's together after shortening their length by 'winding' them around the fan, while the 8 pin molex extension I ran underneath each of the cougar fans and ziptied it to keep it up off the motherboard.


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


Success! Completely hidden from view as allowed, and promotes fantastic air flow between my Corsair H70, and the top mounted single Cougar.


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


After figuring out the length needed to get to the corner 4 pin PWM plug, I pushed the 16" length of cable from the fan, behidn the motherboard tray, and rerouted it back through to the front right before the hard drive bay. Don't mind the mess of cables to the upper right, those are the standard case cables - which always make a mess.



After spending about 10 minutes getting my H70 mounted, I determined I did not need the 2x 4 pin PWM plugs that is has available, I wanted completel control of my fan setup through the motherboard itself.. so my only option was to find a way to completely hide the cable itself.


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums



This may look liek a mess, but with a very dilligent use of many zip ties, and using the same color as the tubing wrap, I was able to route the entire extra cable along the water tube. And after clipping the zip ties, arranging it so the stubs were behidn the cable, it looks like this:


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums



Success, Again! Looks completely stock, no visible wires - and promotes fantastic airflow throughout the immediate region. The absolute goal of good cable management is to make it look clean, and to let any air to flow where its path is, without being disturbed by the cables.



Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums



Routed the 24 pin cable through the side/back of the motherboard/hard drive tray, this is the single hardest cable to route, my case doesn't have enough room behind the full motherboard tray to route it - so I am forced to run it up along the hard drive bay while securing it with zip ties.

Also have connected all the molex plugs on the bottom half of the motherboard, all USB, HD Audio, and Power/Reset/Activity pins. These were all routed behidn the motherboard tray, and before routing them, I physically took teh cables and bent them at a sharp angle so when they are plugged in, they immediatly get angled off towards the back of the motherboard slot.


Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums



The back of the motherboard tray. Due to every case in existance having OBSCENELY long USB/HD Audio plugs, you are forced to route them in odd patterns to take up extra slack. Utilizing the back of the tray, and all the extra pin outs for zip ties - you can route it in such a way that all the extra slack is taken up, and you are able to completely hide all of it from the front of the case.



Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums


Plugged the GPU back into its PCIE slot, and ran the pwoer for it. One of the drawbacks of a midtower, again, s that some power cables you can't route. The GPU being one of them, as well as the 24 pin, and sometimes a CD/DVD Sata Power Cable. Tie them off as best as you can, This is just an example of how you can do it. Some cases have much better access for routing cables and those can be pushed behind the motherboard tray with plenty of room in excess.




Seeing as this is just a guide, many people will have differing opinions on what a computer cable management system should compose of. I prefer spending several hours and taking my time doing this, as it keeps your computer case uncluttered, keeps the air flowing.. and in many cases, makes it extremely easy to blow/dust the case off every few months to keep it in top operating condition.
Take these pictures and use them for a guide on how you wish to route your own cables.. do whatever you can to take advantage of tie downs, zip ties and behind the case space, if you are having a hard time routing cables.. post a picture of it and reply in this thread - there are many of us here who would be more then happy to give you opinions on what can be done to optimize your computer case.
 
Last edited:
A hard working geek :-)
Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,750
Reaction score
236
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management 101

Its about half of a new computer.. roughly $400 in new parts. Was a great time for me to finally show people how to manage their cable's in a computer case.. pretty long writeup, getting it written up in notepad and will put out a version 1.0 fairly soon ;)
 
A hard working geek :-)
Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,750
Reaction score
236
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management Guide 101

Asus Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard, 2x 2x4gb G.Skill Sniper Series DDR3 1866MHz memory (16gb total), and a Corsair H70 Water Cooler. :) just updated my post, btw ;)
 
Custom Title Activated
Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Messages
3,137
Reaction score
496
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management Guide 101

Looking sexy!

I'm sure the guide will come in handy for people that are fairly new to building pc's :laugh:
 
A hard working geek :-)
Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,750
Reaction score
236
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management Guide 101

Looking sexy!

I'm sure the guide will come in handy for people that are fairly new to building pc's :laugh:

Yep! Guide for the new guys! :) Although, I've personally seen some 'vets' that have horrible cable management skills.. makes me shudder with some of the messes I have seen behind the front panel ;)
 
Custom Title Activated
Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Messages
3,137
Reaction score
496
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management Guide 101

Yep! Guide for the new guys! :) Although, I've personally seen some 'vets' that have horrible cable management skills.. makes me shudder with some of the messes I have seen behind the front panel ;)

I don't think it really comes down to skill when you're doing cable management. It's the effort and time you put into doing it. Most people can't be bothered with it and don't even care haha.
 
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
2,795
Reaction score
480
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management Guide 101

Nice tutorial, subscribing for future.

I brought a bang for buck case but it didn't come with a lot of space behind the motherboard, and when I found that was a feature of some cases I was annoyed that I didn't do a lot of searching.

When I did my first build pretty much everything went wrong, I only limited amount of money and I forgot to buy a ODD, I brought the cheapest biggest fans with with all tacky LEDs in them. I brought a Thermaltake V3 case which included a PSU (no complaints on the PSU), the case is alright just not much cable management options behind the motherboard so most of the stuff goes in the bottom section in the bottom two spots and last of all the HSU is a Blue Orb II which is ridiculously massive (but it was free as a promtional thing with my TTV3) and when I want to change RAM I have to remove the HSU :sigh:

Next build if I do one will be a lot better and cleaner. What I noticed on your motherboard is your SATA ports pointing out, man that would come in handy a lot and is probably a feature that'll consider when doing my next build.

I didn't bother with cable management on my build haha

I brought some of those rigged cable sleeves like on your H70 so just waiting for that to come and I'll give it a try.

Warning: photo is 1mb in size & is an eyesore - this is my before shot, now I'll just wait for those sleeves and I can post an after shot ;)

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums
 
A hard working geek :-)
Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,750
Reaction score
236
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management Guide 101

What I may recommend, is just grabbing the entire handful of cables, and putting 3 or 4 or 5 zip ties right around the middle of it. While it may be an 'eye sore' still, it will unclutter the entire chunk of that. a quick 10 minutes of work and it will look much much better!
 
A hard working geek :-)
Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,750
Reaction score
236
Re: Computer Build: Cable Management Guide 101

Last time I ordered mine, were at FrozenCPU..
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
436
Reaction score
244
Re: Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101

But who needs a guide for managing cables with a modular PSU? Look at me, did em quite good considering it isnt modular :p
 
Junior Spellweaver
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
178
Reaction score
18
Re: Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101

dude nicely done ... the case looks like its pretty good choice in sense of CM ... had a hard time myself with CM in mine thu plus i'm a lazy fk and wanted to get on with it asap so big respect for that and it looks fkin awesome man and makes me wonna redo mine ... if i just had the time for it
 
A hard working geek :-)
Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,750
Reaction score
236
Re: Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101

DOing this is VERY timely. To put this into perspective.. my UPS delivery didnt get to my house until about 5pm, I got off work at 2:30 specifically to work on teh computer. I gave myself 2 horus to break every component down, clean every single thing and start putting together a work area. I didn't finish putting my computer back together and powering up until about 11pm. That was 6 straight hours, with a small dinner break, to getting it done.

6 hours! I can say though, it really gives you something to do!


I think my next plan is to take one of my old 24 pin extensions and seperate each wire, and give it a good wire wrapping session. That, or I can get lazy and just order one online for 16 bucks (FrozenCPU).




If you want something to do on the weekend, pull out your computer and spend a day cleaning it out and rewiring it all up.. make it purr like a kitten once again!
 
Banned
Banned
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
315
Reaction score
94
Re: Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101

Last time I check, my supermarket sells all the sleeves and cable what the point? Anyways thats thank for your kind advertisement.
 
Pessimistic butt@%&!
Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2008
Messages
2,057
Reaction score
487
Re: Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101

Well since somebody else necro'd it...I'll add my 2 cents :)

Sardaukar - [GUIDE] Tech Tips: Cable Management Guide 101 - RaGEZONE Forums
 
Back
Top