Seeking advice on build layout

[kskerns]

My apologies if this is not quite the right forum for it!

I'm building a rig very soon here, and I wanted a bit of advice on how to layout my drives and power wiring. Hopefully, here is a picture to show you the crux of my problem:

The case has a lower and upper chamber. I can choose to place my hard drives in either - manufacturer prefers them in the lower chamber to reduce cable clutter near the hot stuff and let the top breathe a bit better. I have 1HDD 1SSD and 1BD-R going in, but my PSU's SATA power is three in a row - certainly wouldn't be long enough to mix and match.

Configuration 1 (blue) would have me thread cable into the upper chamber and connect all three drives in a row. This matches cabling nicely but puts extra drives/cables/heat/blockage in the top compartment.

Configuration 2 (red) would place the HDD/SDD in the bottom compartment and utilize two of the three SATA power connectors. For the optical drive I would exercise the modular SATA power connector, thread it behind the motherboard backplate and out the cutout near the drive bays. This makes the main chamber a bit emptier, but isn't as efficient as possible on cabling.

Thoughts? Thanks!
KK

 

[jerreddredd]

i don't think you are going to be able to use just one sata power string to power all 3 devices. the sata connectors are almost never spaced right. so you are going need 2 cable no matter what configuration. go with what you think is best. what kind of CPU/GPU and HSF are you running knowing what kind of heat to expect would help in decision making. what PSU do you have? what case is this a picture of. it looks familiar, but the model escapes me at the moment.

how much clearance between the MB tray and the side panel? generally you pull all you excess cable and hide it (tied off) between the MB tray/HDD Bays and the side panel using lots of zip ties.

 

[kskerns]

Thanks for the input!

Think I've decided to go with the second option, because it leaves almost all the cabling out of the upper compartment. You're right, trying to get it all done with one cable is inconvenient. Waiting on one more piece to come in, should have it built by next weekend and I'll upload a new pic in case anyone with a similar question arrives on this thread.

Antec P183 v3 case
Antec CP-850 PSU
i7 2600k CPU / CM212+ HSF
EVGA GTX570

Thanks,
KK