Cable Management?

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Mr Bob

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
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I have a Thermaltake Kandalf VA9000SWA case and I have decided I no longer want this really nasty cluttered look I always see when looking into my case window.

I have seen some people run the sata and power cables from behind the actual side (the one that isn't visible. Any idea what size of sata cable I will need for this? Is there something better I can do? Is this setup/idea even possible with the type of case I have?

Some hard drives are using the standard 4 pin power connector, and others are using the standard sata power connector, so I assume that I will need some sort of extension if I decide to increase the cable length so it can fit nice behind the side.
 
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TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
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Ok, well since i have never had the time nor inclination to spend $200+ on a case... and then not cable it properly... sorry, had to get my porr man dig in there

Anyway, my roommate has a thermaltake case and the included PSU was incredibly cheap and skimpy in the cables department, not only were there not enough power connectors for all the bays to be filled, there werent enough power connectors for what he had.

I'm not sure if the Kandalf has a similiar problem orif youare running another PSU... so here is the general advice

With the exception of the 20/24 Pin ATX connector and the 4/8 pin 12V Connector, try to run all the other wires behind hte motherboard tray. That is the first step to taming the cable mess. Even if you are merely relocating the mess from one spot to another, so long as it is no longer in the direct flow of the air, you are improving matters. If you are simply looking to tidy the mess I would recommend leaving the drives the way they are mounted now, if it is necessary to get longer cables, get longer cables, but at all times try to route them as best you can to avoid blocking where the air needs to blow.

If you are interested in showing as few cables as possible, that takes a good deal more work... from putting in lots of cable ties, to mounting the drives backwards, to possible even switching from rounded to ribbon IDE cables since you can oragami the ribbon cables but not the round ones.

This is the best advice i can offer you, and without more pics I cant really tell you what exactly needs to happen in your instance.
 
M

Mr Bob

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
1,757
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Ok, well since i have never had the time nor inclination to spend $200+ on a case... and then not cable it properly... sorry, had to get my porr man dig in there
Click to expand...
- This is my first mean machine that I actually care about.

Anyway, my roommate has a thermaltake case and the included PSU was incredibly cheap and skimpy in the cables department, not only were there not enough power connectors for all the bays to be filled, there werent enough power connectors for what he had.
Click to expand...
- I have the FSP Group AX500-A PSU. Although I still don't think that the connectors will be able to reach if they are going behind the motherboard tray.

I have 9 hard drives (9 sata cable, 9 sata power cables), and two dvd burners connected via a single IDE ribbon cable and using two power cables. There isn't enough room to switch the hard drives around so they face in the opposite direction (each hard drive bay has its own fan, leaving zero room on that side).

It sounds like I should take some more pictures of the inside area of the case. I'll see what I can do about that.
 
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Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
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Personally, I ran a lof the the cables between the motherboard and the bays, behind drives if possible. I ran the power switch stuff down the right hand side of the bays and through the bottom hole in the bay mounts, the long oval ones, to the motherboard. A lot of them went down the back of the motherboard tray.

However. If you really want something a little more.. Impressive, you could invest in a plastic box to house all but the mobo power cables and some ACryan power cable drop downs, and run them from inside the plastic box, and mount that on the toop of the case. Might require some drilling or araldite, but hey, a bit of modification is always a winner.

I've got the Armor case in black, which is basically the same case with a different front, so.. You might have some clue about what I'm on about. http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e298/liratheal/PICT0016.jpg That's the best I could get with my case, a lot of the 'mess' is the tubing though :p
 
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Mr Bob

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
1,757
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You're running 4 drives, right? It seems like the hard drives pose the biggest issue with this case. Personally, when I look at that screenshot, it doesn't look all that clean to me. Maybe it is a bad angel and the fact I am a total newb when it comes to this area.

My case has no room for a plastic box :( Plus, it seems like it might be a little hard to do for someone with little experience like myself.

I am pretty sure for my first set of 3 drives (front case, bottom rack), I will just buy really short sata cable, and then run the power cable below the MB tray. When you placed the power cables behind that tray, did you have to get an extension to reach the hard drives?
 
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Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
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I didn't go to much effort to hide the sata/IDE cables, 'cause they glow, most things in there glow. I'm running three CD drives three harddrives, four IDE two sata.

I could do a better job, but the positioning of the IDE cables hinders them being hidden anyway. That and I have a large collection of tubing to argue with too.

If you picked up the right things, ACryan's 'dropdown' kit for example, it'd make the cabling a hell of a lot easier, I used to use one, but I can't be bothered to do it all again.

Out of curiosity, what do you do with all that space?
 
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Mr Bob

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
1,757
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81
My budget is around $50 for everything. Where can I find the ACRyan dropdown kit? I checked here and didn't find anything: http://acryan.com/_cablemanagement/index.shtml

"I didn't go to much effort to hide the sata/IDE cables, 'cause they glow, most things in there glow. I'm running three CD drives three harddrives, four IDE two sata."
- Despite the fact some things in my case glow, I would still rather have them hidden as much as possible.

"Out of curiosity, what do you do with all that space? "
- Backups, dvds, music.
 
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Mr Bob

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
1,757
12
81
I thought it is not a good idea to have a single power connector power more than a couple drives? My data is very important to me, to the point I would rather leave the case as is.

Music collection is great, but not as good as the DVD collection.
 
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LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
8,771
58
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i didn't bother reading the posts, but i had a thermaltake case with a thermaltake hardcano fan controller, it had SOOOO many wires it drove me crazy. after a while i just redid my psu and fan cabling and gave up, took it out and cleaned out all the dust off the cables and the cooling was much better
 
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Mr Bob

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
1,757
12
81
So you didn't get too far? Maybe if I just unplug everything and then put it back in, but in a way that i can tie down more of the cables so it looks cleaner. I haven't even tried to connect the hardcano wires yet just because it is going to be even more messy lol.

Were you able to run any cables under the MB tray?
 
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Mr Bob

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
1,757
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Damn, now that is a good job. Think you could keep it that clean with another 6 drives?
 
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garetjax

Member
Nov 12, 2004
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Originally posted by: Mr BobThink you could keep it that clean with another 6 drives?
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Yes. Especially if they are SATA drives... wire management, beleive it or not, is the easy part. Figuring out how and where you are going to route your cables is the hard part. ;)
 
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Jotho

Senior member
Dec 29, 2004
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Originally posted by: garetjax27 Figuring out how and where you are going to route your cables is the hard part. ;)
Click to expand...
I would say that wire management of any kind is the hard part in smaller mid-towers. I did the best I could with a $10 kit from Home Depot. Air flow is pretty good and since there's no case window in my Antec, I'm happy :)

 
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BUrassler

Senior member
Mar 21, 2005
811
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I thought I would share mine as well. I dont have a window, but I like to keep it neat inside...

Case
Wires

That one orange wire on the bottom leads to the fan on the side panel of the case.
 
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