Cable Management help!

S

swchoi89

New Member
Hi guys,

So, I've seen some of your pictures on beautifully managed cables. I noticed how there aren't any cables randomly crossing inside the case, but rather they are neatly shortened and attached to its end destination with no interference. I use Lexa S, which I think is beautiful on the inside, but on the inside, I pretty much jammed all the stupid wires in. You can just imagine a giant spaghetti ball inside my case right now.

Where do you get these shorter wires? Also, how do you customize the route for your wires to go through your cases and stuff? Do cases come with the capabilities where you can just shoot wires through a random hole to avoid having wires dangling everywhere?

Thanks in advance,
 
lucasbytegenius said:
Tie-wraps, neatly-coiled cables, and duct tape.
Click to expand...

Ah... there aren't special magic that's being casted here then? I mean, I see that some wires that come with my PSU have unnecessary lengths with unecessary number of plugs that aren't even in use. So I assume you just tie them up so it doesn't take space?
 
wolfeking said:
he has it. Tape, drills, cable ties and the like. A good case helps too.
Click to expand...

I guess having all those extra equipment is meaningless if my case won't provide the room for it? My case is really small, and I panicked as I was inserting my GTX 670 thinking it might not fit llol
 
swchoi89 said:
Ah... there aren't special magic that's being casted here then? I mean, I see that some wires that come with my PSU have unnecessary lengths with unecessary number of plugs that aren't even in use. So I assume you just tie them up so it doesn't take space?
Click to expand...

Yeah, and it takes a lot of time, thought, and patience. I don't show off my computer's guts so I mostly just cram the spare stuff on top of my PSU (it's ceiling-mounted) and find a way to get the cables out of the way of the fan.
 
If you're comfortable unplugging everything. Start there.

I just start with the biggest and hardest to manuever cables first. Probably your ATX cable, then move from there. Anything that's not used tie down and hide behind your panel, or in my case, HDD cage area. Zip ties to cinch cables together and attach to tie down points. Don't get them too tight as you want to be able to snip them off without cutting your cables.

Mine's not great, but respectable considering the crazy amount of cables I have coming out of my PSU and my 50 dollar case that has very little room in the back for shoving cables.

Note: I have a different graphics card now, but doesn't look much different.

1001185p.jpg
 
Best way to get a case with holes in the board tray and route the cables through it.

If you don't have a case which holes in the board tray, you can mod it and cut the holes yourself like I did. The result is pretty good. :)

tumblr_m84ki9DR0d1rr8jsmo4_1280.jpg


tumblr_m84ki9DR0d1rr8jsmo5_1280.jpg


tumblr_m84ki9DR0d1rr8jsmo6_1280.jpg


Securing it all down with duct/packaging tape is fine too. :D

DSCF8495.jpg


That's one of my spare rigs by the way, main one isn't as tidy hahaha. :D

tumblr_m4omhyk51n1rr8jsmo1_1280.jpg


I don't have the time to neatly arrange the cables in that rig.

The general rule of thumb is you want all your cables going from your power supply, behind the motherboard tray, and then to wherever they need to go, whether it be the board itself or the hard drives or the optical drives or whatever. You can hide any cables you're not using (for example spare molex power cables etc) behind the board tray out of view and use tape or cable ties to secure them to the tray. Higher-end cases have special places where you can anchor cables onto. So long as the cables are arranged kind of neatly, you should be able to get the side panels back on with just a bit of pushing.

There is more to it than that, they're just the basics. :)
 
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I have always found it is a combination of, the size of your case and the length of the cables on your power supply.

If you look at all the neatest cable jobs, the cables run under the floor of the case then back out at the connection point.

But you can only do this if your power supply has good length cables, or else you end up having to just run the cables over the top of the motherboard or at best tuck them inside the case.
 
spirit said:
Best way to get a case with holes in the board tray and route the cables through it.

If you don't have a case which holes in the board tray, you can mod it and cut the holes yourself like I did. The result is pretty good. :)

tumblr_m84ki9DR0d1rr8jsmo4_1280.jpg


tumblr_m84ki9DR0d1rr8jsmo5_1280.jpg


tumblr_m84ki9DR0d1rr8jsmo6_1280.jpg


Securing it all down with duct/packaging tape is fine too. :D

DSCF8495.jpg


That's one of my spare rigs by the way, main one isn't as tidy hahaha. :D

tumblr_m4omhyk51n1rr8jsmo1_1280.jpg


I don't have the time to neatly arrange the cables in that rig.

The general rule of thumb is you want all your cables going from your power supply, behind the motherboard tray, and then to wherever they need to go, whether it be the board itself or the hard drives or the optical drives or whatever. You can hide any cables you're not using (for example spare molex power cables etc) behind the board tray out of view and use tape or cable ties to secure them to the tray. Higher-end cases have special places where you can anchor cables onto. So long as the cables are arranged kind of neatly, you should be able to get the side panels back on with just a bit of pushing.

There is more to it than that, they're just the basics. :)
Click to expand...

hmm... I read that you own a Lexa S, which is the same as mine. I wonder how you managed your cable for that one? :)
 
jamesd1981 said:
I have always found it is a combination of, the size of your case and the length of the cables on your power supply.

If you look at all the neatest cable jobs, the cables run under the floor of the case then back out at the connection point.

But you can only do this if your power supply has good length cables, or else you end up having to just run the cables over the top of the motherboard or at best tuck them inside the case.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
Yea I think my PSU came with good wires but they are too long and have too many plugs T_T
 
Denther said:
If you're comfortable unplugging everything. Start there.

I just start with the biggest and hardest to manuever cables first. Probably your ATX cable, then move from there. Anything that's not used tie down and hide behind your panel, or in my case, HDD cage area. Zip ties to cinch cables together and attach to tie down points. Don't get them too tight as you want to be able to snip them off without cutting your cables.

Mine's not great, but respectable considering the crazy amount of cables I have coming out of my PSU and my 50 dollar case that has very little room in the back for shoving cables.

Note: I have a different graphics card now, but doesn't look much different.

1001185p.jpg
Click to expand...

o.... that's where you put your SSD! I put it where the CD ROM goes and I thought the SSD was too small -_-
 
I do certainly own the Lexa S. Basically the 24-pin power cable doesn't go behind the board tray, as you can see it goes over my graphics card, but all the other cables will go through the cable management holes and behind the board tray and if you push hard enough you can get the side panels back on. It's not ideal but really it's not bad at all.
 
swchoi89 said:
o.... that's where you put your SSD! I put it where the CD ROM goes and I thought the SSD was too small -_-
Click to expand...

Mine isn't an SSD. It's a standard HDD. My case came with an adapter so I can put 2 SSD's in a standard HDD slot. It varies from case to case.
 
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