Help - Case wiring management illiterate

Redstone · Feb 3, 2003

Case wiring management

No matter what I do, the inside of case eventually reverts back to a wiring nightmare. I did a search and came up empty. Are there any How to: guides on case wiring and IDE cable management? I am looking for efficiency and ease of use when I want to work in there. I see all these cases here with what looks like neatly arranged wires and I need some tips. Please don’t tell me the secret is to cram all the wires over into the hidden side of the hardrive cage.
There has to be a better way.

Deathknight · Feb 3, 2003

I think how you wire your case will vary depending on case, motherboard, and drives. The far side of the hard drive cages is definatly a handy area to use but the thing that helps the most is prior planning. I have recabled my machine tons of times when I think I have found a better way. I still think my case is rather unorganized compared to what it could be but its a big improvement.

If you want the ultimate in organization then I think the biggest thing that hurts that is rounded ide cables. They may look snazy but I find them frustrating to deal with. Several ide cables running through the same area of the case takes alot of space up! Ribbon cables can be folded and tucked and run flush along the side of the case or the bottom of a drive.

Da_Beeblebrox · Feb 3, 2003

Zip ties are the key in my opinion. Tying down the wires, tying bunches, that sort of thing, zip ties really make a difference. They are really cheap, too.

Pic

For organizing groups of wires that go around the case, i use this stuff which is pretty nifty for getting maximum airflow around wires. Not sure what its called but i just call it spiral wrap.

I'll do a search for some guides and pm you if i find any.

EDIT: One thing to do is unplug everything and untie everything and then plan it out so you can figure out exactly where the air is coming in, where the wires need to be in order to not restrict airflow, and where it would be most effective to tie them down. It can take a lot of time depending on how your case is set up, so dont get frusturated

nut581 · Feb 3, 2003

and use just as many fans as you actually need ..
back in my air cooling days, I used 7 case fans and the sight of 7 molex cables all over the case was not a good sight .. then I put down 2 fans, leaving only 5, and used zip ties to organize the cables and voila ... all of the sudden, everything was much better

..

now, I used watercooling, and things get a little messy once more

.. urghhh ..

Redstone · Feb 3, 2003

I'll do a search for some guides and pm you if i find any.

Much appreciated. I hope you have better luck than I did.

If you want the ultimate in organization then I think the biggest thing that hurts that is rounded ide cables.

I agree, I tried it and made a mess of those as well. There bulky and not that its an issue in my system, but they didnt lower the temps at all.
-----
I actually use the zip ties and have tried that same spiral wrap as you use Da_Beeblebrox; I just really am bad at it. Maybe there is an art t this, because for me it just always turns out kinda ugly. You see cases with neatly folded ribbons and wires that seem to disappear and I am thinking how the hell did they do that?

I need help!

Deathknight · Feb 3, 2003

Redstone said:
You see cases with neatly folded ribbons and wires that seem to disappear and I am thinking how the hell did they do that?

I know what ya mean. One of my machines is built by Voodoo PC and try as I might I just can't figure how in the world they wire this thing so neat. I have sat here and stared for eons at it and I still have yet to aproach the job they have done. A technique I noticed that they use with their ribbon ide cables is that they use them to obscure their power cables.

rogerdugans · Feb 3, 2003

Painstaking effort, zipties and avoiding rounded cables makes for a neater case, IMO.

When I build a "show" case I get everything installed and running and then pull the guts back apart: it usually takes me a couple of hours to really get the wiring good.

"Good" in my book means neat, out of the way and still easy to work on if needed.
Replace a drive and it does NOT destroy my wiring; adding one on the other hand does

I put small zip ties every inch or so on the molex power cables to keep them neat, and it has the added advantage of making them stiffer and more likely to hold on to any bends I put in the wires.

IDE/floppy cables get "origami'd" flat against the back wall of the case, and connected to the drives as flat as possible: out of the airflow, neat and looks sharp. Extra gets rolled or flattenned out of sight.

I know of no way to tidy wiring that does not take a long time, but if you have a window its worth it.
If you don't need to be quite that anal about it

then it goes a bit faster, but can still look get and not obstruct the airflow.

Redstone · Feb 4, 2003

"Good" in my book means neat, out of the way and still easy to work on if needed. IDE/floppy cables get "origami'd" flat against the back wall of the case, and connected to the drives as flat as possible: out of the airflow, neat and looks sharp. Extra gets rolled or flattenned out of sight.

Now this is exactly what I am talking about, but each time I install something I have it in my mind to set up an efficient wiring system, and end up with an amateur looking job. If any of you “show case" builders desire to have sticky thread in their name, do a How To guide with photos, you’ll be a demigod to us case management challenged individuals for life.

TehMaster · Feb 4, 2003

I agree. I would surely think of someone as god if they would make a nice guide to wiring your case. I'm in the same situation. Everytime i sit down and try to wire my case nicely, it always ends up loooking the same *** before i started. It makes me so mad. I just can't seem to get those damn cables out of the way. Some pictures of thw wiring process would be nice to look at as a how-to.

Oh, and Deathknight, how did you affored to buy a pc from Voodoo PC? I went there, configured a pc, and it came out to be $8,749 and 38 cents. Man, what a ripoff. I then took the time to see how much it would be to make the EXACT SAME pc myself, and it came out to the low low price of $3, 512. Hmm..... i see a big difference.....

captain_amd · Feb 4, 2003

Don't pre-manufactured systems like voodoo and alien have custom length wiring also? I've seen where they have the wires all neatly ziptied in straight lines, and I know for a fact there is no way in hell that I could get my power supply lines to look like those jobs.

DaveSauce · Feb 4, 2003

Don't use spiral wrap, that's just asking for trouble.....and if you do it wrong it looks even worse.

Use a wire loom.....its the same concept as spiral wrap, but much neater if harder to use.

I bought a 5 foot 1" diameter wire loom from radio shack for $5....it's essentially a long tube with a single long cut in it. What makes it work is it's ribbed, so it can bend, but the cut in it stays shut....and it does too, which is what makes it hard to work with. It doesn't want to open up for small wires, and molex connecters are a pain to get in there so they don't pop back out. But, after about an hour or so, I managed to get all of my power cables in order.

IDE cables are much easier than power cables. They can be folded and stuffed anywhere there's space. What I havent done yet is hide them under my motherboard......right now I have them all folded and bunched up.....gotta fix that, heh.

Dr3w · Feb 5, 2003

just got my case today and aimed to get it as tidy as possible in there. and i think i managed

ide cables are taped behind the mobo tray aswell as all unused psu cables tucked out of sight- im well happy with it- also used spiral wrap on all cabels

Avatar28 · Feb 5, 2003

I've got more of a problem, because my case has THREE windows in it. So I don't really have anywhere that I can hide nasty masses of cables.

One thing that I found helped was to open up my PSU and unsolder the excess wires. I will note that I had to get a large soldering gun to do it because the wires tend to be all connected by solder and act as a giant heat sink, so you need something that can melt the solder before the wires suck all the heat away. Desoldering braid AND a solder sucker are also your friend here.

Once I had taken out the excess wiring, I had a LOT less wiring mess. I still need a little more work on it, but it's a LOT better.

DaveSauce · Feb 5, 2003

That's what I did. Ignore the top portion, lol. It's the bottom portion that counts, heh. I just stuffed all my power wires into the big black tube, and suddenly it looks 10x better. It's better that the wires are completely hidden rather than tie-wrapped or something. That is a pretty poor pic of it, but from here it looks tons better than it did before I loomed the wires.

Capt Fiero · Feb 5, 2003

I cam here planning to start a thread just like this one.

I love my round IDE cables. Kinda becuase they are not the norm, I like the braided steel look.

But here is what I was going to start a thread on.

I want to install a small box in the top of my case on the inside. Something about 1/4 the size of the PSU. I need to find a way to attach this to the inside top of my case. I am going hide and route all the wirring and fan connectors up and inside of this box. I am going to hing it so I can drop it down for access to all the power wiring. I plan to feed all the excess PSU wiring into it as well. I am not worried about blocking the back of the PSU becuase it is a dual fan PSU with an intake on the bottom.

So now the short of the question. How would I attach something to metal without bolts. Glue, Epoxy, velcro any suggestions.

340Duster · Feb 5, 2003

cables at their current state

Luciferase · Feb 5, 2003

Redstone, here are two examples for you to look at. I used scotch tape for the rounded IDE's on the RAID controller in the first picture. I used automotive hoses for the power cables. I cut them down their length and wrapped them over the wires, and secured them with zip-ties. You could also run the wires through the hose with no cutting, but that is alot of work.

Either way, works great, and real cheap!

Avatar28 · Feb 6, 2003

Fiero, you could probably use a bit of glue or epoxy to connect the hinges to the box and the inside of the case. I would use some sort of latch or velcro on the other side to hold it up when you're not trying to get at it.

MEAT BAG · Feb 6, 2003

Just stick stuff behind things. I know mine is not the neatest but no extra zip ties or wire loom ot tape was really used.

DarkHawk · Feb 6, 2003

Hard to see in this pic, but its the only one I have for now.

The Blue wire-loom IDE cable and one Power cable for my HDD and the ATX conn. are the only visible cables from the window, the tubing is routed up to a pump in the top section of my full tower case and the window doesn't got that high. The pump is connected to the 120v inside the PSU, so if my computer loses power so does the pump, but my computer can't be on without the pump that way too.

It took me 2 hours to plan it all and 3 more ours plus some blood, sweat and tears to get it all there.....

The pic can no longer be hosted on theforumisdown!! What am I to do?

Help - Case wiring management illiterate

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Linux challenged Senior, not that it stops me...

Member

New Member

Member

Member

Member

No, I showered

Member

Member

Member

Registered

No, I showered

Member

Member

Similar threads