Wire Management

[napes22]

Whats the best way to manage the wires in your case? I have seen some pretty sleek setups without any clutter whatsoever. I have seen shrink wrapping - but don't know if I have the time/effort to do that. What else would be a good way to manage my cables, without forcing any unnecessary bending/damage to my system connectors?

Not necessary to show my full setup, but why not. My biggest problem has been to manage cables from my power supply to my hard drives.

My setup:
Case: LIAN LI PC-7B plus II
Mobo: Foxconn C51XEM2AA- 8EKRS2H Socket AM2
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Power Supply: ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT (500W Modular)
Ram: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (DDR 800)
Vid Card: Sapphire Radeon 1800XT


Thanks in advance.

 

[Aussie_Dan]

Get some cable ties and tie them to parts of the case. Put unused cables up in the top right corner.

 

[knowsitall]

drill a whole behind ur powersupply, and drill holes under the motherboard on the motherboard tray. run the wires underneath the motherboard tray between the bottom side of the motherbaod tray and the side panel. flip your hard drives backwards. end result could be something like mine if done right .

 

[frozenlead]

putting cables under your motherboard can heat both the board and the cables pretty bad...unless you've got the space i wouldn't recommend it. i just use twisty ties to keep my cables in place. it's neat, and you don't have to torture your cables with zip ties.

 

[knowsitall]

putting cables under your motherboard can heat both the board and the cables pretty bad...unless you've got the space i wouldn't recommend it. i just use twisty ties to keep my cables in place. it's neat, and you don't have to torture your cables with zip ties.

i disagree, the wires are fine under the motherboard. electronic wires are made to easily without a doubt withstand these pathetic temps found under the motherboard...............

 

[RichPLS]

I agree... wires if gauged correctly, should not add significant heat to caouse concern

 

[skyguy]

Get a little creative, it'll help.

Route your cables along the corners of the case, where the top meets the side panel. Put them down the front cages. Tie them down. Wrap the excess back on itself. Push them down into the bottom corners of the case.

And so on. I'm very anal about cable management as well, so I understand what you mean. Use zip ties, cut the ends. Use base mount holders that will get them taut and snug where you want them.

Lian Li's are difficult because they're very sparse inside and wires are more visible. But since you have a modular PSU, you'll do better. Just be creative at where to put the wires. Fold them back on each other and bundle them, then tuck that into a drive bay if you have to.

The results will be very nice.

 

[Travisty2012]

drill a whole behind ur powersupply, and drill holes under the motherboard on the motherboard tray. run the wires underneath the motherboard tray between the bottom side of the motherbaod tray and the side panel. flip your hard drives backwards. end result could be something like mine if done right .

Dude, that is amazing, good job! I have a Nine Hundred also and have been planning a wire management project. Good to see you got the wires to fit behind the motherboard tray. I wasn't quite sure there was enough room back there for that....

Did you have to order a lot of cable extensions for your power supply and what not? Any tips specifically for the Nine Hundred?

Thanks

 

[frozenlead]

its not the heat on the wires that i'm talking about, its that the heat put on those wires will displace to any component that they're attached to. thus, you raise all of your temperatures, not buy much, but still.

 

[knowsitall]

thanks.. honestly its a tough job. If i were u i d look for a case that has good wiremanagement already... i m sure someone could recommend you a case like that. Its alot of work and would be alot of typing to tell u everything.

 

[dj_taboo]

Whats the best way to manage the wires in your case? I have seen some pretty sleek setups without any clutter whatsoever. I have seen shrink wrapping - but don't know if I have the time/effort to do that. What else would be a good way to manage my cables, without forcing any unnecessary bending/damage to my system connectors?

Wire management = Time/Effort

 

[Travisty2012]

thanks.. honestly its a tough job. If i were u i d look for a case that has good wiremanagement already... i m sure someone could recommend you a case like that. Its alot of work and would be alot of typing to tell u everything.

I just bought the case a month ago and love it...going to stick with the Nine Hundred. I wasn't looking for a how to, I'm pretty proficient with this sort of thing. I was just wondering if there was a major hurtle or two that you had to overcome that took a lot of thinking...

 

[No1sFanboy]

Wow knowsitall; nice job. You have me looking at my 900 right now thinking birds nest.

It is tempting but I think I'll steer clear of trying to copy you. I have another hard drive, side panel fan, more front header connections, fan controller, and those two power connectors on the side of the 8800gtx. I'm sure though that you would overcome those obstacles. I'll stick to my zip tie everything off to the sides approach. Mine looks absolutely like crap after seeing your pics but my air pathways are clear anyhow.

 

[skyguy]

Cases with bottom-mounted PSUs are VERY difficult to cable well....unless you're dropping serious $$$ on a Lian-Li or Silverstone that have areas to hide wires better.

My P180 was a Bi^ch to do, but I think it turned out well, considering how much stuff I have in it.....4 hard drives, 5 fans, 2 opticals, fan controller, etc, etc......check it if you want some other ideas too:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Antec-P180-Cable-Management-101-ftopict226954.html

 

[truromeo4juliet]

drill a whole behind ur powersupply, and drill holes under the motherboard on the motherboard tray. run the wires underneath the motherboard tray between the bottom side of the motherbaod tray and the side panel. flip your hard drives backwards. end result could be something like mine if done right .

nice job... as clean as my Antec SuperLAN Boy no pics right now, I'll post them when I take some shots later this afternoon... mine didn't require drilling though

 

[proof]

drill a whole behind ur powersupply, and drill holes under the motherboard on the motherboard tray. run the wires underneath the motherboard tray between the bottom side of the motherbaod tray and the side panel. flip your hard drives backwards. end result could be something like mine if done right .

Show off. :lol:

 

[truromeo4juliet]

Show off. :lol:

I think mine looks cleaner >,> will post pics tonight...

 

[proof]

Mine is a frickin' mess right now.

 

[knowsitall]

Show off. :lol:

I think mine looks cleaner >,> will post pics tonight...

i would like to see that?.. mine is just about clean as it could get... great airflow now

 

[proof]

Yeah, unless you soldered the cables to the back it doesn't get much cleaner...

 

[dj_taboo]

So Proof,
When are we gonna see your wiring job?

 

[proof]

I have already posted pictures of it. I am getting my second GTX and a new proc in so new pics this weekend. Plus I didn't have all my HDDs in there.

The First Batch of Parts

The Second Batch of Parts

Case

Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum

Memory

8800GTX

SCSI Card and PSU

Noctua Fans

Empty Boxes

Mess One

Mess Two

Mess Three

Mess Four

Side One

Side Two

Front Left One

Front Left Two

Heatsink: Being lapped
Processor: Being lapped
Three Raptors: In the mail
Revoltec Mounting Brackets: In the mail

 

[truromeo4juliet]

i admit, for the amount of stuff you have crammed into that case, the ratio of cleanliness for yours to mine is better

my current gfx card needs no power cord, and i don't have an extra controller card that my drives would run to...

but i looked at my case last week (tried to take some shots with the camera phone) and i still think mine looks cleaner... I'll upload the camera phone pics in a sec, i bought a digital camera on saturday that I could take better pics of it with (and other things)...

sorry it took so long

 

[truromeo4juliet]

sorry for the poor quality... these were taken with my camera phone... I'll post better ones tonight when i take shots with my digital camera...

blurry as hell, but I'll post better ones tonight for sure [/img]

 

[truromeo4juliet]

i'll happily take 2nd place for cable management :-/

I upgraded from a graphics card that required no power cable to 2 graphics cards that require 1 cable each... I also added a thermaltake gfx card power supply that has 5 cables running out of it as well...

I only spent about 30 minutes cleaning up the cables (compared to the usual 4 hour job) so yes... I halfarsed it... here's a list of components my case is sporting (only components that have cables coming out of or going to them):

Antec Super LANBoy Case
QMax 460W PSU (Replacing w/ a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W PSU)
Thermaltake PurePower 250W PCI-E GFX Card PSU (5/5 stars!)
eVGA nForce 680i SLI
2 x 7800GTXs (for sale)
2 x dvd burners
2 x hdd's...

no cutting or case modding was done... look clean?

Just need to work on cleaning up that HDD bay:

ouch.. what a mood killer

opinions?