Guide To Computer Cable Management

When you build your own gaming rig or have a computer with a side window so you can look inside and admire the amount of work and money that you have invested into your computer, why not make it look like it was build by professional?

I built my own computer a few months ago and cable management was thought of before i ordered a single part.

Common cable management techniques are cable shortening, lengthening, color changing, and sleeving.

[unfortunately I cannot show everything because some things were already finished, I took my computer apart and put it back together again for this instructable]

[this is not to put a computer togethor or how to choose the right parts]

PLEASE FORGIVE MY DYSLEXIA

Step 1: How NOT To Do It

These pictures severally piss me off because they are $250+ cases that have rat nests in them.

WHY PEOPLE WHY!!!!! Such good cases ruined by ignorance and stupidity

Comments

[rbennett8]

what pisses me off is when there is tape on the wires !!! :)

[OLyMpic FuRy]

I am going to be taking all the cables out of my PC and re-doing my managment, Thank you for your guide and thats an awesome case in step 11!

[vanwazltoff]

if anyone wanted to know, i have made a few upgrades. first and foremost i sold my gtx 480 and bought a gtx 670, sold my 64gb ssd and upgraded to 120gb sandisk extreme, sold my 1tb mechanical and replaced it with a 2tb caviar black, switched to a fractal define r3 pearl black, switched my heatsink to an antec kuhler 620, ditched the cold cathodes, i currently have no lighting but when i get another case or mod my r3 ill buy some bitfenix alchemy LED strips

[npushis]

Great instructable! The center computer in your cases that disgust me section is water cooled. Air flow is not a issue. It does look nasty, but the number one case to make for strict cable management is that it allows air to flow throughout the case as designed. My personal pet peeve is folks that take the side panel off for extended periods of time, especially those who think they are getting better cooling this way. Anyhow, great instructable, now I feel lazy.

[vanwazltoff]

I have to admit, I do like to take my side panel off a lot, but only because I haven't put a window on my new case yet so I can't admire my work haha. I don't know how good the cable management is on that first case, but all the cable clutter around the HDD cage has to substantially decrease air flow especially since it seems like it omly has 2 fans. as for the middle case I not sure how well a thermaltake level 10 hides cables, but I am guessing it does better than that. air flow is still important in a liquid cooled case, you want as much air flowing through your radiator as possible without an increased noise level to supply adequate cooling. plus if your going to shell out the price for liquid cooling and a level 10 case wouldn't you want it to look good?

[npushis]

Yes, no excuse for the pure sloth shown in your examples. I just trying to throw the guy a bone. :)

[Ceiling cat]

Great Instructable! I did this on my computer, and it looks a lot better. But I think it needs an "after" picture. Other than that, great job!

CC

[vanwazltoff]

thank you, i plan on revamping this because im getting a new case soon, im going to use sleeved bitfenix cables and a fractal define r3 pearl black case and im going to borrow a camera for better pics, i finally stuck the lighting in. did you take a picture? id like to see it

[jdege]

Actually, my biggest cable management rats nest isn't inside my case, it's what's hanging off the back of it.

[Ceiling cat]

Ditto. Especially when you have four desktops, two monitors, a stereo, a tape player, a zip drive and a router all togerther.