Cables, connectors, and modifications

[snoogans]

I'm looking to get my mess of cables out of the way and increase my airflow.

Anyone know of any tips or "how-to" guides I can use? My case is pretty spacious but I don't want to cut it up or anything. I'm dealing strictly with the cables and whatnot and any help would be appreciated.

This is what made me want to take on the task. I probably won't get similar results but I want to try

 

[Supergax]

Well, it depends on the cables. PS cables can easily be wrapped up in electrical tape. For the floppy and ata/33 cables, you can cut them with an exacto knife so that you can bundle them up. A coworker did this. It took him quite some time. For ata/66, there is a problem with the size of the wires in the ribbon, they are quite small and I don't think you could cut the cable without slicing a wire by mistake. For this, Plycon has cables pre-made for both ata/33 and ata/66or ata/100 applications, at a price of about $25 for the 33, and $30 for the 66/100 cables. Once this is done you could shove and manuver it however you please, it really would depend on what the case is like on the inside.

 

[fast_eddie]

When 'rounding' ribbon cable (FDC & IDE, including ATA66) it is not necessary to cut the entire length of the cable to separate the conductors. You only need to 'push' an Exacto knife thru (between conductors) in one small place; you then use your fingernails to open up the small slit from the knife. It is easy to 'tear' the rest of the cable length. I usually separate the eleven outer conductors on each side and up the center to the ribbon cable. This gives me 4 sections of 11 conductors to wrap with colored electrical tape (I use red, green, blue, & white); doesn't turn out as exactly as round as narrower 'strips', but it is a whole lot smaller than the OE flat cable.

 

[snoogans]

What about signal noise and cross-talk? Anyone run into data integrity problems with this technique?