Importance of good cable management

[Mehta23]

Not sure where this was supposed to go...

Just wondering what everyone's opinions are on how important the cable management is. I wouldn't thought that extra airflow would be good and maybe vital when over clocking comes into play..

Thoughts?

[Biscuit]

Interesting topic.

Cable management is a means to an end really. The main practical purpose is to keep cables from obstructing the airflow to allow all components to remain at a reasonable and safe temperature. Its easy to get quite obsessed with it on a further level though (as i do) and try to make the cables look nice and pretty. This is more an element of pride than anything else though.

Here is what i have done with the SATA cables in my case:


Now this doesnt really add anything to the airflow or temperatures, but im reasonably proud of it

[jim]

I doubt there's a big difference between decent cable management and great cable management, in terms of temperatures.

However, seeing how bad it can be... if you block every gap in the case with cables, there's no way it'll ever be achieving its maximum thermal performance.

[Pob255]

Cable management's impact on airflow and cooling is far less important now, the cables that always caused big cooling issues where ribbon cables, or to be exact bad cable management of ribbon cables.
I'm a bit sad to see them go really because I'd learnt how to run and manage ribbon cables well just as they where phased out, shame as they are actually very flexible in what you could do with them in terms of cable management.
Also case design and cooling has improved, older cases had relatively less area for venting and air flow so it was more important to keep your cables out of the air flow pathway.
Cables will still have an effect on air flow but the effect is far smaller these days.

Currently cable management is more about ease of access and making things look good, than air flow.

[Mehta23]

Alright, thanks everyone!

[ehhhhhhh]

Also, getting rid of the built up dust is much easier with good cable management.

[phil4]

Easy access is usually at odds with good cable management. That's is once all the slack is removed, and cables carefully bound and pinned.... Then it becomes a harder job to undo, or move around.

Should have seen how awkward it was to add an extra SATA drive to mine with all the carefully pinned cables.

[Mehta23]

Mine is pretty much decent. It's not that good that you cannot see any wires but it isn't as bad as my cousins. Seeing how he doesn't want to do it, and how it doesn't make too much of a difference to temps, I'll end up doing it myself for peace of mind. Not that I have ocd or anything :-P

[Biscuit]

Mine is pretty much decent. It's not that good that you cannot see any wires but it isn't as bad as my cousins. Seeing how he doesn't want to do it, and how it doesn't make too much of a difference to temps, I'll end up doing it myself for peace of mind. Not that I have ocd or anything :-P

Honestly the effort I put in was more hassle than it was worth and my 650D doesn't have anywhere near enough space behind the mobo tray so the side doesn't go on.

[Pob255]

Easy access is usually at odds with good cable management. That's is once all the slack is removed, and cables carefully bound and pinned.... Then it becomes a harder job to undo, or move around.

Should have seen how awkward it was to add an extra SATA drive to mine with all the carefully pinned cables.

That's not easier access that's upgrade, to add a sata drive means adding in extra cables.
Generally if the sockets are in good positions (eg at the edge of a motherboard not in the middle) then to get to things and to get them in and out just involves unplugging at the device end and not having to remove the whole cable to get something out, good cable management needs to take into account removal of devices, space inside the case does also have a big impact here.

But you are right about the major negative impact upgrading can have on cabling, swapping a motherboard for a different one can reposition all sorts of cables which can end up in major re-cabling if you really went to town on the cable management.

[deejayburnout]

Its surprising how many PC's I have seen without any cable management. Cables strewn all over the place.

My best friend is some of that curly cable tidying strap stuff.

Hides a multitude of sins.

[peterb]

Velcro strip/wrap is useful. It is easy to cut a length to keep cables together, easy to undo to add extra cables. Apart from using it in computer cases, it's good for general cable management in (for example) AV set ups.

[Biscuit]

Velcro strip/wrap is useful. It is easy to cut a length to keep cables together, easy to undo to add extra cables. Apart from using it in computer cases, it's good for general cable management in (for example) AV set ups.

Velcro straps don't pinch the cables either, so less chance of them getting damaged.

[zain6267]

Cable management just looks nice for me, if you've gone to the trouble of building a PC, why not just put in some extra effort and hide the cables?