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We’ve all seen those perfectly wired high-dollar rigs with cables completely hidden beneath the motherboard tray and have wanted that for our home-brewed PCs. Unfortunately, unless you’re prepared to buy or make cables that are precisely the correct length for the components in your system, a Voodoo-quality wiring job is nigh-impossible to achieve. However, with some zip ties and a little patience, you can get close.
Before you start, you’ll need something to restrain the cables. Some enthusiast PC cases come with a package of ties, but they’re also frequently available in the cable-tie area of your hardware store or in Radio Shack. We prefer small plastic zip ties, which you can buy at most hardware stores in quantities of 100 for around $5; Velcro straps will also work, and twist ties are even acceptable in a pinch. You’ll also need wire snips (to trim the ends of the zip ties), and some adhesive cable wranglers are also handy for attaching the bundled cables to the case. We also use flex tubing and shrink tubing to bundle up smaller cables. You can find the tubing at most electronics stores, or online at Frozencpu.com.
As always, feel free to do as much or as little with your PC wiring as you’d like. This is a project that can take from 10 minutes (if you want to do it quick and dirty) to several hours (if you want every little wire in perfect position).
Before you get your hands dirty, it’s a good idea to consider your plan of attack. First, untangle your cables and separate them based on their source and destination. Obviously, you can bundle all the power cables for your videocards together, but you probably don’t want to tie your hard drive’s SATA cable to your optical drive’s SATA cable.
You’ll also want to suss out the cable-management features of your case. Many cases, especially high-end ones, feature channels and holes that let you run cables behind the motherboard tray. This keeps them tidy and out of sight. Many cases also include binding clips or hooks to attach Velcro strips and tie downs.
A typical enthusiast PC has power cables running from the PSU to the drives, the videocard, and fans, as well as the two traditional ATX power connectors. Often, the supplemental ATX power connector is a prime candidate to run behind the motherboard tray, provided it’s long enough. As a general rule, we like to have one main vertical cable run, along the drive bays on the inside of the case. Typically, the trunk of that run is the main ATX power connector. With that in mind, go ahead and bundle the power leads for your videocards and your optical drive along with the ATX power connector, but use something you can disconnect later.
After your power leads branch off of the main run, you can make secondary bundles to keep the whole thing nice and tidy. For example, we also used zip ties to hook together the two PCI-E power leads required by our videocards.
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tcbinc
August 31, 2011 at 9:13pm
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kanehi
August 15, 2009 at 2:25am
I just upgraded my PSU to a Corsair modular unit. Since you only use the cables you need there's less wires to deal with.
Lord Omega
August 13, 2009 at 11:49pm
I have an Antec 300 and we all know how bad the cable management is in that beast. Well, a dremel, time, imagination, zip ties, duct tape, more time, and a rasp can do the job :D
http://s117.photobucket.com/albums/o53/Lord_Omni_des_Omega/Blue%20MKIV/
LOL that is what you can do.DO NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT MY HARD DRIVE CABLES! It works prefectly fine just the way it is.
Odaecom
August 13, 2009 at 6:42pm
When I'm really fastitious and know that no other parts will be added, I will remove the extra connectors from the bundles, (expecially the floppy power). (No need to have two extra connectors hanging off a drive when only one of them will be used.) Mainly by removing the wire pins one at a time snipping off the eccess then putting back into the connector.
"I'm not sick, but I'm not well"
http://Odaecom.com
horzo
August 13, 2009 at 4:25pm
Dust accumulation is a far bigger problem for me than wiring. Even with good (and frequently cleaned) filters, the amount of dust my machine accumulates is depressing.
What I need is a good little vacuum that has attachments capable of getting into a PCs nooks and crannies.
Modred189
August 13, 2009 at 4:10pm
Check out this thread over at [H]ardOCP's forums:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=791179
SOme SICK wiring jobs. Like this one:
http://www.itdesign.com.au/haf/2.jpg
and this one:
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3006/img1679q.jpg
Caboose
August 13, 2009 at 3:53pm
Any PC that comes to my workbench gets a complete cleaning and cable wireing overhaul. I find that it's much easier to maintain, upgrade, and fix a PC that's had the wireing tideyd up and kept nea. WHen I got my Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 case I set up the wireing in such a way that upgrades are easily done, airflow is great and everything looks awesome. Just need to clean up the wireing in my wife's PC.
BTW, with the shrink wrap stuff, can a hair dryer work or do you have to use a heatgun?
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Jakspratt
August 13, 2009 at 10:27am
The finish line is in sight... that bundle of cables left on the bottom of the case could be tucked into the empty drive bays (stimulus package). Just a suggestion
dag1992
August 13, 2009 at 9:46am
I envy the cable management you all take for granted. My Silverstone TJ09 is complete hell when it comes to wiring, even though it's incredible in every other aspect.
Zetsuei
August 13, 2009 at 8:09am
Yeah I spent at least 5 or 6 hours total wiring and rewiring my case as I put each part in. Took forever, but with the help of the slide out motherboard tray in my Thermaltake VH6000BWS Armor+ Full tower I have all my cables perfectly organized, and you can barely see a single one. It's great!
And I actually prefer to use nail clippers to cut the ends of zipties off. Works perfectly, and cuts it right down to the base. It's also more convenient when trying to get it into small places to cut those hard to reach zipties that you spent 30 minutes trying to get in the right spot.
One more thing - when I bought my cable wrap, it came with heatshrink tubing, which I couldn't put to use because I didnt have a heatgun. So instead of using the tubing I normally use black electrical tape, and as long as you wrap it tight enough it works fine.
DBsantos77
August 13, 2009 at 8:04am
It's not spying, it's really good targeted advertising, and as you can see it works well lol.
JCBarry
August 13, 2009 at 7:25am
I hadn't seen this done before until these pics and it's not mentioned anywhere in the article.
The CPU fan wire is coiled up (probably wrapped around a pen or pencil) to take care of the extra slack.Probably one of the best tricks I've seen in a while, definitely worth mentioning.
steel_icon
August 13, 2009 at 5:20am
http://www.corsair.com/products/800d/Corsair Obsidian Series 800DWThis case should give first time users out there a new start.Also Lian-Li and Silverstone, to mention a few among other great cases.
K0BALT
August 13, 2009 at 4:40am
My system in my Thermaltake ArmorPlus Supertower that i'm using now, took me 2 days to build from scratch because of all the maticulous wire managment I wanted. I also had over nine 120mm fans, some cold cathode kits, an internal amp and a custom liquid system to install.
ethanajs
August 13, 2009 at 4:31am
the coolermaster HAF 932 full tower case, is a really awesome case for cable management, tons of room because its full tower and lots of holes to route wires and cables.
Talcum X
August 13, 2009 at 4:20am
Dont use the stick on wiring anchors. After a while of the heat, it drys out and dislodges for the point of contact. Rubber bands also dry out, cumble into a mess in the bottom of the case. And twist ties have metal and I dont trust them for obvious reasons. Zip ties, though strong, are a permenent hassle. Anyone who upgrades often will learn to hate that rout as well. There are reusable plastic ties out there that work fine and arnt hard to work with. I have always been a fan of good wiring practices, but gave up when I was always in my system.
***********
Every morning is the dawn of a new error.
"In Ireland, there are more drunks per capita than people." - Peter Griffin
tweeve
August 13, 2009 at 3:15am
My nice wiring jobs in the past didnt lsat past the first big upgrade. In the past I would use 2 or 3 dozen zip ties to hold everything out of the way and provide nice air flow. But that only worked until the first major upgrade then it was snip about half the zip ties and and I would have to rewire everything. After upgrading two or three times the system would once again look like a rats nest.
This time I decited to go the behind the motherboard route. Just about all my data cables and power cables go behind the back of the motherboard tray. The only cables that go across the motherboard are two SATA cables for an addin card.
steel_icon
August 13, 2009 at 2:54am
Braiding, tucking, snipping, twisting, bending...
When your job entails ordering parts from some 25++ suppliers/importers/distributors then assembling all those computers, this is therapy for me.
I'd rather be dealing with computers than "people" most of the time. :-)
triclops41
August 13, 2009 at 2:11am
Great article. I swear the MaxPC guys are spying on me! They seem to write an article at the very time I need it. The Symbolic Links article, Top Freeware Programs, and now the cable management article. I just bought all the components for my i7 system yesterday!
chemguyca
August 13, 2009 at 1:11am
I'm only fussy about the wiring if I'm selling the rig. I upgrade my home rigs so often that being crazy about the wiring is not practical except if air flow is a problem.
Digital-Kid0101
August 12, 2009 at 11:55pm
I torn aprt our rig and I threw away the PSU and bought a 400 watt a perfect one for our rig. I re-wired it and It looks amazing. Any time I get a computer someone gives me I always re-wire it. I'm a neat freak! xD
