P160W Wiring Hints

[PCBliss]

I got my Antec P160W last week and did a decent quick wiring job, but I want to take it apart again and go all out.... Any advice or tricks for doing clean wiring jobs in general or in specific to the P160W?

 

[g33zy]

i'll give you the world famout patent pending P160 wiring guide....haha, j/k, a few tips that helped me do mine....This is just to get you started, im about to get my mobo back from ASUS so i'm gonna be puttin mine back together. As I do it, i'll pass on all the tips and the details of what I did.

Unfortunatly wire management varies a lot from case to case and also depending on the mobo and how many things you have attatched to the mobo.


Best advice, take a pic and post it. There are some cool guys in the rate my cables thread that will help you out. But first of all there are some things that you have to sort out first.


The first thing they are gonna tell you in there is to mount your hard drive with the plugs side hidden, basically reverse the way you mount it.


My advice too, be honest with yourself on what you "really" use. If you don't use many usb items, there is no need to plug in front usb connections because they just add to clutter. The rear usb connections are imo the worst thing you can have. They usually only have like 2 pots and the wires are thick and make a mess (usually the first thing you can get rid of to make it look better). You don't need to cut the unused wires, but just make sure you put them somewhere hidden and put a zip/twist tie around them to keep them in order.



The fan exhaust fan at the rear of the case can almost always be run under the mobo (and yes there is usually enough space under the mobo to fit molex plugs when they are flat)


On that "under the mobo" note, pretty much try to run as much as you can under there, its gonna depend on waht case you have but unused psu wires and that kinda stuff. There are some people who cut off unused wires but im not comfortable doing that so i just hide them.


Flat IDE cables are your friend too, they work very well because you can literally fold them right under the edge of the mobo and run them to where they need to go. Yeah the round ones are good for airflow, but thats only when they are exposed . The round ones don't usually fit very nicely under motherboards and don't fold as easy as flat ones. A good idea would be to get some black IDE cables (most likely from ASUS).


Spend some time looking around at your case and try different things then take pics and take advice from these guys here. We all @ the [H] been thru a lot of cases and helped a lot of people and believe me, we all had to start somewhere.


First case I ever wired up in my life was in about in Feb this year. Was it ever a piece of crap. Looked horrible, but as time passed and I tried different things (and different cases) it got better.


I also practiced a lot on other people's machines. Not many people have thier case wired very well so ask them to let you re-wire it for practice.


Heh, I even re-wired my work pc for the hell of it.


wow, that was long =) anyways, post some pics and i'll take a look at it....here are some pics of my progress.


Started out with a generic case that was a total nightmare (no pics of that one ) Then I got the superlanboy:

I didn't post many of the detail shots of how I wired up the lanboy, but here's what I did when I got my P160

Here is the "rate my cables" shot from when I just got the P160 (notice the tape holding the PowerSupply wires)
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And absolutely zero wires visible to the HDD
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This is how they were routed, folded under the mobo and through a hole the tray, then taped along the rail so you won't see it from the other side. Where the arrow starts is where the hole is and where they come out.
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The unused USB cables and the temp probes sit up here, they look pretty comfy and at least they have friends to keep them company
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The power and reset switches run from ALL the way up top behind the cages and like the IDE are taped along, behind a rail so you won't see them from the other side and they come out right under where they are to be plugged in.
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Then I put in some sound dampening, got my x-fi sound card and a 36GB raptor and this is what she looks like now...

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[killedaway]

bless your hearts... a P160(w) thread! i just got mine from Amazon (a steal at 97.89 shipped!) a few days ago, and other than some bad ram that has to be RMA'd, i got her up and running temporarily. despite some criticism/speculation, i went with Ultra's X-finity 500w PSU, whose flat "flex force" cables seem like they'll go a long way in helping me hide my wires...

i'm split btwn. two camps: i want to hide my basic power wires, and such, but i'm also going to run some UV IDE/SATA cables, and have some lighted fans in there as well. so i'm gonna do my best to tidy up a lot of the more "pedestrian" wiring, while accentuating some of it as well... should be an interesting project, but one that seems not uncommon here in [H].

g33zy, if you wouldn't mind, can you tell me a little about your lighting? CCFLs, fans, etc.. what brands/models you using? looking at that last picture, you seem to have perfectly captured a balance btwn. the green and blue effects, and they fill the case nicely without any real "dead" or dark spots. i think i'm gonna do the same with my cable management, and just add a few "highlights" here and there.

also, i'm gonna give the P160w's blue leds a chance and see how they look (while i've powered up my rig, i've not yet attached any of the front panel controls/leds), but i do intend to do a UV purple/green motif in the near future.. the color combo you're using looks amazing from the front.. like somethin' out of a cartoon... thanks for the pics, btw!

 

[g33zy]

Thanks for the compliments guys, i'll try to help out as much as I can without the actual system up and running and without all the pics I have of it.

Someone actually asked me about the color scheme already and I typed out exactly what I did, so since you asked too.....here it is agian

I love quoting myself, hehe

It's been an on going process. I got the P160 with the stock antec fans about a month ago. The case lighting was blue at stock. First thing was to change them because they weren't moving enough air and because the OCZ PowerStream power supply light was green so I decided to go with green Antec tri-cool fans.

So for a while I had the case all green with blue leds on the front and green through the mesh on the front, like how it is now. Only problem was the green was very boring. I had it like this for while until I ordered 2 blue 6 inch cathodes and 2 blue LED cannons and the sound dampening. I put 1 LED cannon under my x-fi sound card at the bottom of the case and the other at the bottom of the 5 1/4 cage under the CD drives. I put one cathode on the top of the dvd drive and the other I stuck to hidden side of the Power supply. Here's a diag...the red circles are LED cannons and the orange circles are 6-inch cathodes.

and its really not that bright at all, I took the pics with the lights pitch black in the room show the lights would stand out. Also if I feel like its too bright but want to keep the computer on, I still have the solid side panel that I can just put on that covers most of the light.

 

[g33zy]

I don't really browse the rest of the forum as much anymore, i hang out primarily in GenMay so if you guys need to get a hold of me, you can pm me.

It was actually a friend of mine who saw that this was a P160 thread and wanted me to drop some knowledge...

 

[el rolio]

heh, these p160 threads are so short. geez drops by, problem solved hahah

 

[Boyo]

Your P160 is amazing. I have been going back and forth with cases, and your pics just made up my mind. Unreal. I'm going to follow every step you took to the letter. Best wiring and case design I have ever seen.

 

[dolphumous]

I used your 'hints' to help out my P160

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1029210967&postcount=4012

Thank you

 

[Boyo]

I used your 'hints' to help out my P160

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1029210967&postcount=4012

Thank you

Nicely done. Thanks for the pic showing the back. Very helpful.

 

[g33zy]

Thanks guys.

I actually just re-did my P160 *again*

but I have bad news...maybe something you can watch out for.


I couldn't wire mine as nice anymore because I have been having shorting issues, it seems as if that much uber wire management cannot be contained in one case. So I had to let a wire hang.

I been waiting to take the pics again to show you guys but pretty much the changes are, I got the new zalman cpu cooler. Got another 7800GT so im running SLi now and those also have the zalman vga led coolers. Its pretty sweet.



dolphumous,

one other thing I can tell you, since we have the same PSU you actually can run the pci-e power cord behind the cages and through the hdd rack. You are gonna have to bend it a little but its aluminum so it bends a little easier but that cord can fit there.

Good job overall though and for the powerstream, use an eyeglass cloth and it takes the fingerprints right off. I'm sure it breaks your heart the same way it does mine to take pics and see fingerprints. Wipe it down and then take the pics, also wipe down the chrome on the sides too cause they show up in the pics as well.

I like it though, and stay tuned for my update....maybe tonight

 

[g33zy]

...ignore...

 

[Boyo]

It looks nice. How are you hiding your case fan wiring???

 

[g33zy]

It looks nice. How are you hiding your case fan wiring???

I hide it along the rail that you see with the green zip ties.

I actually cleaned the case up nicely. Its back in top form again, i just gotta get a camera. Anyways, i did a history of everything that I have done to the case and you guys should check it out.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1058187

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Now I'm inspired to rewire my own P160.

Damn you all...making me do stuff...

 

[g33zy]

Now I'm inspired to rewire my own P160.

Damn you all...making me do stuff...

check out the rest of the pics in the other thread.

P160 goodness...