How are all of your cases so neat??

E

Edman22

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
158
I look at peoples computers here and other boards and they are insanely neat, some with hardly any cables or wires visible. I desparately need to tidy up the case, theres wires everywhere. I've got a P180b....please help
 
if you could post a pic it would be easier to see what your problem areas are :D


one of the unspoken things i've discovered is that your ability for neatness has a lot to do with just what (and how many) components you have in your case. if all you have is 1 optical and 1 hard drive with a video card, then it'd be pretty easy. if you have 15 hard drives, 2 optical drives, front panel inputs for various things, etc then it's much harder to make it look clean..


general tips:

sleeve wires
tuck wires behind stuff
tie wires out of the way using zip ties or sticky wire-holder things
 
you can cut out a hole at the top of your case and run all of your power cables down between your motherboard and the back of your case, that makes things look very clean.
 
The thing about cables is:

Hide em. If you can't hide em, show them off.

Sleeve them, try to colour them with vinyl dye, and hold them up with zip ties...

You can often get zip ties in different colours, which makes them blend in with the rest of your case.
 
Arcygenical said:
The thing about cables is:

Hide em. If you can't hide em, show them off.
Click to expand...
Hehe, good one, but to avoid visual clutter try to keep all cables that need to be visable in one bundle.
 
then the Lian-Li fairy comes at night when you're sleeping and straightens out the wire management inside your case. Justifies the cost of a Lian-Li case. ;) j/k

What Devilpup said is true... alot depends on what you have installed in your case.
His general tips are right on the money too.

Some people even go to the extreme of cutting off any wires/connectors they don't need from the power supply to reduce as much "extra" un-needed components as possible.

A pic of your "rat's nest" would greatly help.
 
NordicRX8 said:
Some people even go to the extreme of cutting off any wires/connectors they don't need from the power supply to reduce as much "extra" un-needed components as possible.
Click to expand...
One of the advantages of 'modular' power supplies, no surgery required.
 
When I get off work I will take a picture of the neat side of my case, and then I will show you a picture of why it is so neat :p

The basic idea though is just put the wires anywhere that you can't see. I.E. behind the motherboard tray, behind the optical bays, around the edges of the case where the window does not show. Use zip ties to hold cables together so it makes it look like less cables and just 1 cable. Use sleeving when able and bundle multiple cables going to the same place into the same sleeve, so if you have 3 HDD and thus need 3 molex power cables, then put all the cables in the same sleeve and make them come out of the sleeve at different points at the appropriate places.
 
Mine isn't!

I'd put money down that I have the worst wiring on the board.

My solution? Side panel! Out of sight, out of mind. :D
 
Edman22 said:
I look at peoples computers here and other boards and they are insanely neat, some with hardly any cables or wires visible. I desparately need to tidy up the case, theres wires everywhere. I've got a P180b....please help
Click to expand...

In my case I desired to connect the wires to minimize restricting airflow in the case. I have found after building several PCs that if you plug everything together, and then try to sort out the mess and clean it up later... it just doesn't work. So it requires advance planning. So brainstorm it for a couple of hours first.

Install all of your hardware but don't connect any wires yet. Look at it and picture how you will connect each wire, and how to route it. How many PSU wires and connectors will you need? Spare PSU wires can be hidden in 5-1/4 drive bays, or in the small space above the PSU.

You can sometimes run wires under the motherboard, or under the motherboard tray (though it takes more work, or is sometimes impossible without modding the case).

Zip ties and wire sleeving are your friend. If you want to get really anal about it you can modify the PSU cables to be shorter, or remove extra wires. Or make your own custom IDE and case front panel cables ( I wouldn't bother with either though).

My last build:
finished.jpg
 
some great advice guys. I'll try to get some pics up soon when I have some time. I've managed to get it a little more clean...but still got a ways to go.

The idea of cutting a hole will probably help out my cause a lot with this case.
 
I think it might depend largely on the PSU, too. I got a not-really-that-used-but-still-used Antec that had massive amounts of wiring; half is between my motherboard tray and outer case sidey thing, but the other half that's connected to my components is still madly messy however I try and sort it. Case features might be a problem too (I have a silverstone TJ-05, and it has massive amounts of fan spaces, HDD cages, USB, firewire, mic/audio ports and LCD screens at the front etc, all with stupid fiddly little wires to connect everything up).
 
my thoughts: many(most) cases have support bars to hold the PSU, use these by tapeing(scotch or duct) or tieing your wires behind them
 
JinxyBoi said:
Mine isn't!

I'd put money down that I have the worst wiring on the board.

My solution? Side panel! Out of sight, out of mind. :D
Click to expand...
Mine's probably messier.
I've stuffed an Enermax 650W into a Lian-Li PC60USB. And we all know how wire happy enermax is. Add to that the 24 pin to 20 pin adapter, 4 opticals, 4 IDE and 2 SATA and you got a receipie for a very messy jumble of wires under my video card.
 
what I did with my Centurion 5 build was put the optical drive in the third highest placement, so I can stuff my :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: load of cables (OCZ Powerstream) into the upper two slots.

But I don't have a front panel on the case now, so it's kinda useless... (the case is a skeleton, no side panels)
 
Cut wires to length & solder. Adding more wire as needed of course. Run 'em where you want - no more bulky molex connectors. :)
 
n00btard said:
what I did with my Centurion 5 build was put the optical drive in the third highest placement, so I can stuff my <smileys removed> load of cables (OCZ Powerstream) into the upper two slots.

But I don't have a front panel on the case now, so it's kinda useless... (the case is a skeleton, no side panels)
Click to expand...

You should rename the computer "Skeletor" :D
 
Stormscape said:
Mine's probably messier.
I've stuffed an Enermax 650W into a Lian-Li PC60USB. And we all know how wire happy enermax is. Add to that the 24 pin to 20 pin adapter, 4 opticals, 4 IDE and 2 SATA and you got a receipie for a very messy jumble of wires under my video card.
Click to expand...

lol you got a lot of stuff, but ive got a bunch of probes and fanwires from the fancontroller strewn about an matx case. with no option to hide behind a mobo or cd cage.God knows I tried to manage my wires, but nehh, no success.

IMG_6003.JPG
 
I vote on gut the pc, take all the goods out and transplant it to a bigger roomier case with more option, then get the someone really big to sit in the case and squash it like a can. I had an HP pavillion back in 2000, it was hell to work on it, tight space, dissambling takes some effort.
 
JinxyBoi said:
lol you got a lot of stuff, but ive got a bunch of probes and fanwires from the fancontroller strewn about an matx case. with no option to hide behind a mobo or cd cage.God knows I tried to manage my wires, but nehh, no success.

IMG_6003.JPG
Click to expand...

:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
JinxyBoi said:
lol you got a lot of stuff, but ive got a bunch of probes and fanwires from the fancontroller strewn about an matx case. with no option to hide behind a mobo or cd cage.God knows I tried to manage my wires, but nehh, no success.

IMG_6003.JPG
Click to expand...

Yikes! It looks like the rear case fan isn't getting any air at all! :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Forget about wire managing a p180. The thing you need to know, is gut the lower fan, put all your unused wires on the bottom of the power supply, and in the rear opening, put the atx and the 4 pin and maybe the 6 pin pci-e through. have the rest of the cables you need go through the front. Use as few leads as you can. use the lower chamber for hard drives.
 
the best thing to do is take everything out then go from there
i'd suggest that you cut a rectangular hole in metal sheet that supports the mobo, then route all the sata wires and such and usb. I did it and it was amazing!!!
 
ellover009 said:
I vote on gut the pc, take all the goods out and transplant it to a bigger roomier case with more option, then get the someone really big to sit in the case and squash it like a can. I had an HP pavillion back in 2000, it was hell to work on it, tight space, dissambling takes some effort.
Click to expand...

Had this Compaq since 2001 or so, so trust me, I know all about the tight spaces. A little while ago I actually ordered a TT Mambo to move my junk in to (the heat problems were getting to be too much), but NewEgg canceled my order (saying it was backordered even though the site didnt show it as being out of stock at the time, nor has its status changed at all). After that I was just disheartened and didnt bother to order again.

Honestly, I've dumped more mods into this case than anything else and its gone through a dozen and half revisions, so I cant bear to part with it, save for a LiLi and some quality parts to match, so it ain't going anywhere. At this point I'm pretty much done with it so I needent to open it up and deal with the wires ever again, and I'm absolutely fine with that. :p

Frank4d said:
Yikes! It looks like the rear case fan isn't getting any air at all!
Click to expand...

oh yeah, ambient temp of the inside of my case was in the 30~35 degrees celsius. it actually caused my gfx card to overheat a lot, so i threw in another 92mm fan (yay more wires!!11) sitting around in there.

honestly, if i wasn't so lazy, I'd do it all over again. Hindsight being 20/20, your advice about managing before conencting the wires makes me feel like I should've obviously have seen better results if i organized first. So the rest of you take and compare me and Frank4d's management to see the differences proper techniqe will bring out. :D
 
Don't feel bad, when I built my first pc I crammed all the parts in, when I upgraded parts I started to neaten things up, rewired the whole thing, problem is you don't have space to move around. What kinda harware is inside the case, hard to see.
 
JinxyBoi said:
Honestly, I've dumped more mods into this case than anything else and its gone through a dozen and half revisions, so I cant bear to part with it, save for a LiLi and some quality parts to match, so it ain't going anywhere. At this point I'm pretty much done with it so I needent to open it up and deal with the wires ever again, and I'm absolutely fine with that. :p
Click to expand...

Honestly JinxyBoi, I think it will be a sad day when you get rid of your Compaq case :p. No but really, when you do ever upgrade to a new case, you better post it here at the [H] with pics :cool:

EDIT: Oh and to the OP... The best way would be to gut the case and start over... use lots of thought in planning out how to wire it. If your up to that then thats the best way really. Other than that just unplug all the PSU wires and bundle up the ones you're not using and hide them. With the rest just keep them tucked away as possible

 
I prefer the standard ribbon cables instead of the round ones... I can say one word to answer your question... Origami!
 
magnetik said:
I prefer the standard ribbon cables instead of the round ones... I can say one word to answer your question... Origami!
Click to expand...

I was using rounded cables last build - not sure what I was thinking, they easily took up more space than the stock ribbons.

My latest (and best wire setup to date):

pc001.jpg


It's actually a bit cleaner than that, but gets the point across.
 
1) Avoid power supplys with sleeved cables. Sleeved cables are meant to improve appearance, but hiding is even better :D
2) Update PATA hdd drives with SATA drives
3) Retire your floppy drive.
4) Consolidate your optical drives into one multi function drive
5) Choose a case where both side panels can be removed.

Its not the amount of gear, its in the planning IMO (5 fans, fan controller, triple rad + pump +rad, 2xhdd, mid tower):

radmb_800x600.jpg
 
calvin_q said:
1) Avoid power supplys with sleeved cables. Sleeved cables are meant to improve appearance, but hiding is even better :D
2) Update PATA hdd drives with SATA drives
3) Retire your floppy drive.
4) Consolidate your optical drives into one multi function drive
5) Choose a case where both side panels can be removed.

Its not the amount of gear, its in the planning IMO (5 fans, fan controller, triple rad + pump +rad, 2xhdd, mid tower):

radmb_800x600.jpg
Click to expand...

thats a sexy WC setup, who makes and how much does it retail?
 
dsc00332mb4.jpg
[/IMG]

These 2 were done last year...currently working on a black TJ-09....stay tuned
 
SlikRig said:
dsc00332mb4.jpg
[/IMG]

These 2 were done last year...currently working on a black TJ-09....stay tuned
Click to expand...
in your picture there are 2 clocks visible, which one is correct? they have totally different times..
 
Who cares? :rolleyes:

Anyway having a case that can have both side opened always nice as you can tuck cables on the other side easier.

I use electrical tape, zip tie, and patience. Just sit back witht the case front of you and visualize how to hide it the best. Doesent have to be perfect, just enough to not hinder the air flow.
 
thats a sexy WC setup, who makes and how much does it retail?
Click to expand...

Hand picked all the components, not sure what I spent in total. The black/red scheme something I was after. Most kits are thrown together without any consideration given to asthetics.

The point of my post was to illustrate that even when adding all the gear associated with water cooling can still look clean if follow some simple rules. The biggest one I'd have to say is route power cables in space between the motherboard tray and side panel. Speaking of rules over time have established what I like to refer to as Calvin's Golden rules...

1) avoid placing pumps on case floor
2) avoid routing tubing in front of either pci or memory slots
3) when selecting a case check if both side panels can be removed
4) if a wire can be hidden, hide it
5) in terms of rads go big, else stay with air
6) wait for latest greatest hardware to fall one generation behind
7) steel resonates less the aluminum
8) select rheostat type over pwm type contollers
 
jreffy said:
what's the reasoning behind not mounting your pump on the case floor?
Click to expand...
because you'll then have a "mess" like in my case?


armorwired-001.jpg


and here is the not so neat side...

armorwired.jpg
 
Unknown-One said:
you can cut out a hole at the top of your case and run all of your power cables down between your motherboard and the back of your case, that makes things look very clean.
Click to expand...

he has a P180 - the psu is at the bottom of the case
 
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