I've just had a new desk that has the PC (and everything else) all on top of the desk. No shelves or trays. Just how I've always wanted it. I had almost forgot my Antec 900 has a window on the side. The cables are quite messy and I'm thinking of tidying them up (maybe) I just wondered how many of you: A: Leave the cables a mess B: Hide the unused cables and cable-tie the odd cable C: Route every cable in the best way
Do my best to route all my cables as best as possible! No hard drives installed there, but to be honest the wires for them cant be seen now anyway apart from where they plug into the mobo. Just need some PCI-E extensions and I'll be happy, they're the only bit bothering me at the moment as they're too short to route round the back haha
Currently B, but C given the right case. I'd actually like to try some custom braiding myself and so on. But not in my current case here.
Thats limited by the case more than anything there, and its not the worst! Main reason for cable management (other than looking nice and clean ) is that improves air flow through the case. Dont think that case has an intake or exhause fan haha, so no problems there
C. always... My own system (has had a few tweaks even since this to improve things)... And one I put together for a friend (it doesn't even have a window to show the work off )...
Thanks, I know what you're getting at, but I'd rather keep all those cables from insulating my components and keeping the heat near things like the CPU, of all things. There's no harm in precautions. I'm also planning on cutting up one of my plentiful spare ATA/IDE cables to be a bit forgiving in terms of taking up space everywhere! Besides, I had to post something to make everyone else's pictures look even better, right?
The board is slightly bent for some reason but no idea why! Noticed it when I was watercooling it at first, its just sort of slightly warped haha. Looks worse in that photo than it actually is, it just dips down a bit towards the end. Warped by heat or something, I dont know, but theres never been any wieght on it and its not effected performance
I've never been one for tidying my cables, but with my custom build, I think it will be well worth doing...
Obviously..... Switching to my HAF 932 this weekend however and will most definitely spend an hour or two tidying everything up.
Some very tidy builds there chaps. Nice one. md99.. the trick is to decide where you are going to route your cables before building by laying out your cables. In some cases, you can make a few holes here and there on the tray. Post tidying I've found it's almost impossible to achieve results like the above.
Cheers Huddy, and I couldn't agree more. A little bit of time planning makes all the difference. Work out where everything will be going, and see where best to route the cables. Always try to get them behind the tray, or the optical bays if at all possible. And make use of little holes in the case here and there. Oh and cable ties - use loads of these to help keep cables out of the way. For anything you can't hide, if you have a case with black internals, then a good way to disguise the cables is to braid them. What I have also found is that the right PSU makes a big difference too. Modular really is the best here as you only use what you need. Take the Corsair modulars as a great example. Their use of all black, mostly flat cables makes it much easier to make a nice tidy job.
the strange thing about my cable management...when i say try to do cable management is when i put all the wires i dont need from my psu (Hiper 880w) i put them behind the motherboard tray, turn on the pc and...nothing, so it must be a short or something...
