Antec 900 cable management?

[pb126]

In my first build I haven't paid much attention to cable management (aside from running a few fan cables under the motherboard). Looks pretty ugly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/84551670@N00/2443531689/
I'm wondering what others have done (MinGraphics?) and whether there is a much cleaner way to do it (pictures?).

[RickyTick]

Mine looks very similar to that. There just doesn't seem to be an easy way to arrange all the cables neatly. I have the HX620 psu, and I can't stand the sticker being upsidedown. Seems silly, but it just bothers me. On the other hand, no one sees my case but me, so who cares what it looks like. Know what I mean?

[The Wise Monkey]

What you could do is take off the other side of the case (behind the mobo) and thread all the cables round that side. In my case, I've just used lots of cable ties to keep all the cables bundled together and wrapped some of them around the support bar that goes accross the top.

Also, its not just a cosmetic issue - if you organise your cables neatly, the air flow in your case could be enhanced by a bit, thus keeping your components cooler.

[Barrister73]

I used a dremel with a cutting wheel (and small grinding tool to smooth it out and duct tape over that) to make three holes in the inner sheet metal. One at each upper corner and one right by the PSU cords. These, and the two holes by the bays, allow me to run most cords through the back or along the sides. Only the four-pin has to cut across the board. Some are a tight fit and buying cable extensions would help a lot (and would allow the four-pin to go though the back) It looks a lot neater and looks like it has better air flow.

This gives some ideas; http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=126395
But I did almost as well with just the three holes mentioned (thanks to Antec precutting a few holes).

MRR

[MinGraphics]

In my first build I haven't paid much attention to cable management (aside from running a few fan cables under the motherboard). Looks pretty ugly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/84551670@N00/2443531689/
I'm wondering what others have done (MinGraphics?) and whether there is a much cleaner way to do it (pictures?).

Oh you don't want to see a picture of my case, it looks worse :eek: than yours. When it all worked I slapped that cover on and never looked back.:D My desk has 3 levels of shelfs and the one on the bottom where my feet and my pups lay on blankets is where my 900 sits so no one can see inside it, all they see are the awsome lights and the front. So like most people I don't care how it looks as long as it works. Sorry I am of no help on the tidy computer case but if you every want to tidy your clothes closet :p I can post some nice pics.

[pb126]

OK, so I spent some time redoing the cable management. A tech support engr from Corsair who was very friendly and who does system builds gave me some very good tips. Here is a picture of the redone cable management, you can compare to the "before" picture, much better from the point of view of improving air flow in the case. No more cable draping over the motherboard:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/84551670@N00/2510115890/
The key step I did here was to route the 8 pin aux power cable (which plugs in near the processor) under the motherboard. You'd think that there is not enough room under the motherboard but in fact there was and that eliminated a major issue with routing over the motherboard. I also made use of the holes that Antec has in the case near the motherboard, and then also used the 24 pin power cable as a main routing "pillar" which other cables ran along. I probably could have cleaned up a bit the cables at the bottom of the case next to the PSU but figured I had spent enough time already...

[iiiprimeiii]

just be glad u used sata.. at least it looks like it... i used old school ribbon cables for optical drives and mine would look like urs if it wasnt for that. i ran a bunch of cables behind motherboard on other side of case.

[zburns]

I think you have two questions here. One is cable management and the other the flat ribbon cables impedeing air flow. In my build with the Asus M2N32, they provided two flat ribbon cables for DVD drive and floppy (in my case). I quickly became disgusted with trying to bend them and route them out of the way so that air flow was best. Rob in his instructions does mention "round" cables as a substitute.

These are round bundles of the same number of very small wires that make up the flat ribbon cable. There is even an IDE cable with three plugs (mobo, master and slave) on it -- cable body itself is round. Lengths from 10", 18", 30" etc.. Rob recommended Belkin which I did not look at but would have if I had not been in a hurry. I am close to a Frys Electronics; they had a good stock of Chinese made cables. I used them; they worked fine. I used short ones, about 10 to 12 inches.

My one "caution comment" would be that they are a little "delicate" to handle right at the plugs since the small wires are somewhat loose; the flat ribbon cable wires are "molded together side by side" and therefore are protected from mishandling. On my cables there is a flat plastic pull strap at the plug that you "pull on" to remove the plug from the socket and "push on" to push the socket in.

Given time, I would have searched for what I knew to be a "name quality" round cable. The round cable certainly solves the "air flow" consideration, and given enough length fits the cable management concern also.

My case is the Sonata III, hence a little cramped for neat cable management and particularly for air flow at the Zalman fan intake; the round cables worked better than the Asus supplied flat ribbon cables. zburns