Cable management tips?

toon_mad

toon_mad

toon_mad

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Has anyone got any good tips for cable management? I've done a few different builds now and the PSU cables just seem to get everywhere :o

My current build is a non modular PSU which doesn't help here. Should I just get some cable ties and tie them up? I would like to hide the cables completely if I could but they always seem to tangle and dangle :p

It also doesn't help as I have 7 internal fans excluding the front fan, and the heatsink I have (Alpenfohn Triglav) is taking a lot of room making the cables harder to move around.

Is it just a case of tie the loose ends wherever possible? I hate PSU cables :o

I need to reapply some AS5 and reseat the heatsink sometime so when I am back in there would be a good opportunity to sort the cables out.

Any tips would be useful thanks :)
 
Cable ties, lots and lots of cable ties.
Also the back of your motherboard tray is where your PSU cables go (if you have room there...), at least ones you plug in, tie them down nice and flat and for the extra's find somewhere to stuff them, tie them in a neat pile together with ties and put them somewhere where they won't get in the way.
I think I've used about 20 ties in my computer to tie everything down and make it neat...

For the fan cables, you could route them along the top of your case to keep the wires out of the way with electrical tape or something.
 
I compulsory ONLY buy non modular PSU, and so far is not really a problem if you are able to hide the cables below the motherboard tray

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thats my next task in hand getting some cable management sorted out, its all down to patience and some logical thinking as to wheres best to hide as much cable as possible

tonschk looking tidy but i wont get some colour coding/braiding goin on in there :) :)
 
Modular PSU + modern case = tidy build most of the time.

Use all the available cut outs in the case, just cable tie anything together that goes the same route, and cable tie anything useless or not required behind the motherboard tray or behind the HDD bays.

Or buy braided extensions for everything, and tie the whole lot behind the motherboard tray! LOL
 
tonschk said:
I compulsory ONLY buy non modular PSU
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I usually do too but even then the amount of cables you plug into the PSU makes it messy anyway :p

Looks like I need to get hold of a ton of cable ties. tonschk you seem to have done a pretty good job with the cables ;)

I'm going to get some pics of the build up soon before the cable management, and after I hopefully get it sorted out.

scottmuir424 said:
thats my next task in hand getting some cable management sorted out, its all down to patience and some logical thinking as to wheres best to hide as much cable as possible
Click to expand...

This is where I fail, I have very little patience.

When I am doing a new build I should take care of it all there and then but in the back of my mind I think what if there is a problem with the build and I have start taking things back out to see where the problem is, then I've wasted time organising it all :o

SouthEastBlue said:
Or buy braided extensions for everything, and tie the whole lot behind the motherboard tray! LOL
Click to expand...

Sweep it all under the rug so to speak :p
 
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Yea its pretty much just cable ties. Also try to hide some near the hard drive bays as that goes in a little more from the back and cable tie stuff to the tray.

Other than that just take it one cable at a time and try and organise how they will fit in enough so that you can snap the back on and have a clean inside look and a messy back!.
Using pre-braided cables makes the inside of your pc look super nice too but they are a pain! in the back of the case as its yet more cables to hide. The back of my case is cramped full of cables.
 
almostgfx said:
Yea its pretty much just cable ties. Also try to hide some near the hard drive bays as that goes in a little more from the back and cable tie stuff to the tray.

Other than that just take it one cable at a time and try and organise how they will fit in enough so that you can snap the back on and have a clean inside look and a messy back!.
Using pre-braided cables makes the inside of your pc look super nice too but they are a pain! in the back of the case as its yet more cables to hide. The back of my case is cramped full of cables.
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If I was a woman I could probably get it all neat and tidy :p, I just have no patience to do it which I really should try and do as apart from it looking neater will improve airflow.
 
Well here is what I managed, although still not perfect it's still an improvement.

I think because the tower is probably not the largest and the size of the heatsink and non modular PSU made it somewhat difficult.

Before

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After

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It's actually embarrassing posting the non cable managed build :D

The second picture was took before I put the other pull fan on the heatsink, now you don't see the red wires and a few others. It's the ones coming from the PSU at the bottom near the HDD bays that cram up everywhere :D

From now on I will make that extra time to stuff the cables away properly :p
 
toon_mad said:
Well here is what I managed, although still not perfect it's still an improvement.

I think because the tower is probably not the largest and the size of the heatsink and non modular PSU made it somewhat difficult.

It's actually embarrassing posting the non cable managed build :D

The second picture was took before I put the other pull fan on the heatsink, now you don't see the red wires and a few others. It's the ones coming from the PSU at the bottom near the HDD bays that cram up everywhere :D

From now on I will make that extra time to stuff the cables away properly :p
Click to expand...

I think the power supply need to be upside down (with the fan facing downwards) otherwise the dust will go fast inside and the PSU will become full of dust, in the way is installed now, small screws and other things can fall inside the PSU
 
tonschk said:
I think the power supply need to be upside down (with the fan facing downwards) otherwise the dust will go fast inside and the PSU will become full of dust, in the way is installed now, small screws and other things can fall inside the PSU
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I thought about this but I figured why put the fan facing downwards when it can blow some air upwards.

And as for screws falling in when I was building it I just put some paper or something over the top in case any fell in.
 
toon_mad said:
I thought about this but I figured why put the fan facing downwards when it can blow some air upwards.

And as for screws falling in when I was building it I just put some paper or something over the top in case any fell in.
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I believe all PSU fans on big face of case suck.. I mean draw air in and blow it out the back. Have never seen one that didn't.
 
doyll said:
I believe all PSU fans on big face of case suck.. I mean draw air in and blow it out the back. Have never seen one that didn't.
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Yea i thought this too, every PSU i've seen the fan is pulling air into the unit not out of it. As the PSU is mounted at the bottom its generall practice to put the PSU facing downwards thus pulling in air from underneath the case.
 
So I have the PSU upside down? I guess I went with the logic that if the PSU was located at the top I would have had the fan facing down, so the opposite rule would apply here :p

I am not to worried as I am going to get a better graded PSU some time anyway.
 
it's not a problem as air in case is only a few degrees warmer anyway.

PSUs with the 80mm fan in back of them push air out of PSU, but the big fans pull air in ;)
 
I've been reading on some other sites about this and some say it's ok and other say it isn't, the difference is marginal if any apparently.

To me I can live with it, I have in total 8 120mm fans and now I have the cables sorted I am getting much better airflow, motherboard temps have dropped quite a bit so I am not worried.

But yeah I was immediately wary about screws dropping into the PSU. I think I situated the PSU with fan facing up because I probably thought having it blocked facing down would be a bad thing, which in this case would have covered the fan up completely.
 
Have the power the supply the other way around, the air is definitely sucked into the fan it and not pushed out of it, the air exits the power supply through the back. Also if your turn your hard drives around 180 degrees, your cables will look much neater.

Here's my build in the same case...

w99suu.jpg
 
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