[-N-]

as you can see... the inside of my case is pretty messed up. Pretty cool how the PSU comes with a.. what is it? heatshrink? ok uh.. how the hell did you guys make your wires just disappear???
what would be most effective? I have zip-ties and that's about it lol.

Mine are just so long and popping out. I don't get how some people wrap the PSU wire around back either.. there's no space!?

thanks

[bsspewer]

well..first thing's first..get round IDE cables!! you'll be very happy. You just missed a deal at Xoxide where you could buy all 3 cables for $10...vs $25..

Secondly, lots of people do have space behind their mobo for cables, i do. Zip ties are great, but i prefer some velcro ties. Easy to make, and easily removable. If some cords aren't long enough, then get an old PSU and cut the wires from it, and crimp them into your existing wires to make them longer and therefore easier to hide. If i could upload digital photo's i'd show you what i'm talking about..

[tyshy]

Here is a pic of the inside of my case....altho i have the Lite On FS020 case and it allows for excellent cable hiding spots....including extra holes to run cables.



THe key to hiding cables in a computer is you must have long cables....and for the ide drives the flat cables are easier to hide than the round ones. Long psu cables allow for you to run the cables behind things and to hide them as much as possible before plugging it in.....having a dedicated cable storage space where you can store all the slack like in an empty drive bay is a great way to clean some of it up.

basically just use your own judgement....sit down for a few hours and you'll get the hang of it.....and use lots of zip ties....don't use duct tape...it gets all gummy.

[1-Man-Army]

sorta like what tyshy said key to neat comp is to run things behind "stuff"

[Zim2411]

Run the cables behind stuff, get rounded cables, (or round them yourself, thats what i did,)

I'm thinking about turning my hard drives around and have the cables go beneath the window and connect in the back...

It looks like you dont use half of those PSU cables.... you could stick them on top of the cd drives... just any where they cant be seen... You can also make the wires go right behind the drive bays, and ziptie them

[Fushyuguru]

I too turn my hard drives around. Most of the time, I make my own power cables. That way I can rout them all the way around the case, wherever I want. I also bundle cables together under cable shrounding. Besides that, I use zip tie mounts and zip ties so you can pull the cables off to the far corners of the case. The big ATX connector, I normally measure just enough to make it reach the power on the mobo. Then I zip tie the excess up in the top of the case. Thats where most of my rats nest ends up.

I also like o use old ribbon cables as I can oragomi them around and keep them out of sight.

[Zim2411]

With the cable i rounded my self, i wrapped in black electrical tape, and its quite hard to see really...

[tyshy]

if you decide to wrap your own cables....do not try to separate the wires that are already together....if you mess up you're out an ide cable. Just try and squeeze them together as best you can...im assuming thats what you did right zim?

[BlueWraith]

When I rounded my cables, I count off 5 wires, then cut. 5 more wires, then cut. Makes fewer cuts, which means fewer chances of ripping insulation. I'm happy with my rounded cables now, but the case makes a big difference in how well you can hide stuff.
With your ATX power cable, try pulling it up around over the CPU fan. That cleans stuff up a lot, instead of letting it flop over in front of everything.
Look at your molex plugs too, and sometimes one of the branches will work perfectly powering the harddrive with little to no clutter.

Do you have 2 side panels? If so, take the second one off and look at all the space back there. Thats what people mean when they run it behind the mobo, unless they go all out and really do run it behind the board.

[bsspewer]

Originally posted by BlueWraith

Do you have 2 side panels? If so, take the second one off and look at all the space back there. Thats what people mean when they run it behind the mobo, unless they go all out and really do run it behind the board.

hehe..i have one case that the wires weren't long enough to run behind that back metal panel. So i really did have to run them behind the mobo, man was that tough. I got it together to realize the spacers for the mobo were too long and the mobo was raised too high. So i had to do it all over again, twice before i got it right

[bubba gump]

Well for cheap rounded cables that work pretty good, just the molded bit before the connector tends to slide a bit so the wrapped wires get exposed (no damage can be done from this, don't worry they are already wrapped with something then put in the actual colored stuffs) but nothing to worry about.

get them from
www.svc.com

They had a big sale a while ago, and I think its still going on...

Fold and Frag on
Brian

[-N-]

hmm you guys all say smack it behind the motherboard. I'm gonna try and fit everything back there.. as for the PSU cable.. I have no clue how the heck that's gonna fit around the heatsink and twist and turn like it's a flexible hotdog... but I'll try anyway

If I think my case is worthy of another pic I'll take one lol. I'll probably end up keeping the ribbon cables or buying rounded ones cause I'm not good enough to cut em myself yet.

[aznchaos]

If u make your own rounded cables use a cloths pin to cut them. I did it for my first time and didnt expose any wires.

[DaveSauce]

Originally posted by bsspewer
well..first thing's first..get round IDE cables!! you'll be very happy. You just missed a deal at Xoxide where you could buy all 3 cables for $10...vs $25..

?!?!?

yikes, with shipping I paid $15 from SVC for my rounded cables (3 of them) $25 is kind of a rip off...heh. ANyway, it's better than paying $60 for 3 cables at CompUSA....now THAT is a rip-off, lol.

Rounded cables aren't about hiding. They're about airflow, but ALSO about looking better. They're still there, but they don't look as bad as ribbon cables.

Anyway, as for hiding cables, there are many ways. A lot of people use heatshrink, but that's a lot of work. I used a combination of zip ties and wire loom. First thing is binding all the wires together. The 4 seperate wires on a molex have a tendancy of seperating and creating a mess....just zip tie them in the middle and they should stay together just fine. After I did that, I got a 5 foot wire loom from radio shack and stuffed all my wires in that.

The important thing to remember in keeping things neat is routing things around. My wire loom makes a huge loop around the edge of my case, going from the PSU to the rear fans/CPU fan, along with my CD Audio connectors, then crosses the bottom (because the PSU connectors are going to the front), then up to the HD power, and then finally back up to the CDs and then the PSU. It takes about a good hour and a half to 2 hours to get everything stuffed in there, but the result is worth it....no more messy wires hanging all over the place.