Wire Management Guide?

[Capo]

Hey All,

 

I've seen some pretty nice screenshots over the years of some excellent wire management. I have a very large case (in sig) and should have plenty of room, but obviously, I'm not doing something right. My question is, is there a guide to wire management floating around here (or somewhere else?).

 

I definitely feel there is room for improvement on my end.

 

Thanks!

[ARandomOWL]

Google returns lots of results

[Verran]

Unless the guide is written for your specific case, it'll only get you so far.

 

Lots of people around here have Armor cases (including myself). If you post a picture of your current layout I bet you could get a lot of help.

[Comp Dude2]

Unless the guide is written for your specific case, it'll only get you so far.

 

Lots of people around here have Armor cases (including myself). If you post a picture of your current layout I bet you could get a lot of help.

 

[Capo]

I'll try to get a pic once I'm back in town. But for now, I suppose I mainly meant some general guidelines as to how to hide things things effectively. As in, should wires be put under the mobo or behind the back panel? What about all the extra PSU cables (mine has tons)? Etc.

 

Anyways, thanks for the suggestions thus far. And Verran, do you have an pics of your armor case? I'd love to see how you do it.

[Zertz]

Make the hard drive connectors face the front of the case so you don't have visible SATA/power cables coming out of them

 

All I can think of that easily applies to every case, the rest really depends on cable length, case, hardware, etc

[CanadaGUY]

head out to home depot, pick up a couple packets of cable ties and those little sticky things (can't for the life of me remember what there called, but they basically give you a spot to pull the cables tight to the side of the case). And play alittle snake for a couple hours.

 

 

I tested out how well I could clean up the cabling on a computer I built for my uncle, and ever since then it's a must to whatever computer I build. Makes it look so much cleaner, with all those see-through cases going around

[Verran]

And Verran, do you have an pics of your armor case? I'd love to see how you do it.

You can check the Q6600 link in my sig. That's for the case gallery for that build. There's a few pics in there of my wire setup. I certainly don't claim it to be perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it.

 

The biggest trick I use is to run as much as you can behind the motherboard. Figure out where cables are going to come off your motherboard and then cut holes in the motherboard tray behind that location so the cable tucks behind the board and then into the hole and out of sight. I did that with both SATA cables, the IDE cable, and the front case connection wires. You'll notice I didn't do it with the top USB connections though. They aren't long enough They barely fit as it is That's a flaw in the case design (IMO), but oh well. They're black so they don't stand out too much. Also, you may notice I actually used a flat IDE cable and not a round one like most people like. Flat is MUCH easier to tuck behind the motherboard.

 

To cut the tray I used drill bits for round holes and a dremel cutoff wheel for square ones (like the IDE). Other than that, I just went crazy on zip-ties and tried to get everything tied back as much as possible.