How do I make my case look more neat?

[50]

Hello, I can't seem to make my case look neater than this. I am planning on adding a UV reactive single device floppy cable in a week or so but everything else is a real mess. How do I hide all those power wires? I know having 4 CCFL's makes keeping it neat much harder but does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get them out of the way? I can't really do much with anything else, most of the cables are behind the mobo and the round IDE cables can't really go anywhere. BTW the light blue inverter usually hides in the drive cages when the case door is closed. Any suggestions?

 

[SneakyStuff]

you know those clear zip-wires you're using? see the holes punched into the case metal near the floppy drive bay, and cd rom drive bays? use them as a hole to loop the wire through, group the cords together, and zip em up. This will make the cords to further to the right (as shown in your pic) and less visable in a window.

 

[Painman]

With the layout of that mobo you'll only get so far. That IDE/floppy connector placement is godawful. Try to do as much tucking and tying as you can like the previous poster said.

 

[jhurst]

You need to certainly get your UV box out of there...you should be able to stick it on top on one of your drives (perhaps floppy/cdrom). Also, if you are going to have wires, make them look good. Get some UV reactive cable sleeving (vantec....about $10), and sleeve those power wires! It makes your case look great, it draws peoples attention away from the fact that you have wires everywhere, and draws their attention to the nice lit up wires. The neon green looks really good.

 

[yourdeardaniel]

use watercooling with UV tubes and UV dye.

 

[nick1985]

get rid of that mass of cables?

 

[jhurst]

Originally posted by: nick1985
get rid of that mass of cables?

What do you want him to do, take out HD? Perhaps X his floppy out of there too, maybe his CDROM also. Its not like he has unnecessary cables in there. Just need to rearranged.

 

[xbassman]

Have you got room behind the drive bays? (by behind I mean underneath looking down @ the side like your pic)
Usually I start by plugging in the wires you don't really have a choice with like the ATX and 12v aux. Zip tie fan wires that run adjacent together with them. Then I try to set it up where I can take the whole bundle together behind the drive bays, only poking out enough molexes to plugin accessories. If I am feeling like it I will wrap the wires (between molexes) with electrical tape. I always save the IDE cables for last.

I put one of those light kits in my daughter's pc and the box velcroed to the case door. (If you can't do that hiding it in a drive bay is probably your best bet.)
Speaking of that I saw a neat trick where a guy hot glued the wires for his side fan to a good location on his door to keep them out of the way.

Some of the more serious modders will use shrink wrap and sleeves on everything. Looks great, by I don't have the patience myself..... :]

 

[Jaxidian]

Although xbassman hit on it, he didn't make it too clear. Typically with cables/wires, it's best to have all of the wires powering your drives behind your round IDE cables. This makes them be part of the background so the foreground is the better-looking round IDE cables.

Personally, I would probably sleeve some of those cables and tuck as many as I can between your 3.5" bays and the other side panel.

 

[50]

Hello all, I tried making my case as neat as possible w/o buying any new supplies and it came to this. It's still pretty messy, the wires are moved behind the cages but I can't seem to get them out of sight, maybe I might have to get ghetto and tape them there. BTW can anyone tell me what the purple thing(with many holes, I think it might be to connect molex connectors but not sure, I will post pics later) in the Chieftec X pider case is? THanks all

 

[Corporate Thug]

take the unnecessary PSU wires and put it behind the mobo. there is no mobo tray on that case but the other panel still opens up

 

[GnomeCop]

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I had better luck with flat ide cables.

 

[Jaxidian]

Looking at your updated pic, here's a suggestion:

If your HDD racks detach (I'm assuming they do) that you have your power inverter for your light hiding in, then detach it and run those white wires into the front of that area. Also, something else you might try for those wires you have stretched across that aren't long enough to run behind things, you could always get extenders for those wires so you can run them behind things.

Other than that, I think you did a pretty good job at cleaning it up!

 

[50]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Looking at your updated pic, here's a suggestion:

If your HDD racks detach (I'm assuming they do) that you have your power inverter for your light hiding in, then detach it and run those white wires into the front of that area. Also, something else you might try for those wires you have stretched across that aren't long enough to run behind things, you could always get extenders for those wires so you can run them behind things.

Other than that, I think you did a pretty good job at cleaning it up!

I have a fan in front of the Hard Drive so I couldn't run the wires through there. I'll look for an extender for that wire, (I put the other invertor attached to the case door with velcro). Thanks for all the help

 

[jhurst]

Your updated pic looks alot better. Getting matching RAM heatspreaders would make your case look cooler. Also get some UV reactive IDE cables, along with another UV tube (assuming your inverter is dual tube). That way people will look at the lit up crap, and leave the little PSU wires alone. I have sleeved my PSU and it has been the coolest looking $10 mod ever.

 

[SniperMerc]

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
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I had better luck with flat ide cables.

Thats lookin pretty good

Better than mine, im not done yet tho


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[SniperMerc]

Originally posted by: 50
Hello, I can't seem to make my case look neater than this. I am planning on adding a UV reactive single device floppy cable in a week or so but everything else is a real mess. How do I hide all those power wires? I know having 4 CCFL's makes keeping it neat much harder but does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get them out of the way? I can't really do much with anything else, most of the cables are behind the mobo and the round IDE cables can't really go anywhere. BTW the light blue inverter usually hides in the drive cages when the case door is closed. Any suggestions?

My case is same general design as yours, Pic I spent quite a bit of time going over it and the best way to get it cleane dup is just to punch some holes in the motherboard tray and router as much wiring as you can to the rear panel and under the motherboard. I'm likely going to bet switching out my rounded cables for some flat ones just to get it tidier, and I'll also be punching more rectangular holes under the motherboard tray to thread them through.

More pics here Snipershide

 

[sep]

Originally posted by: 50
Hello all, I tried making my case as neat as possible w/o buying any new supplies and it came to this. It's still pretty messy, the wires are moved behind the cages but I can't seem to get them out of sight, maybe I might have to get ghetto and tape them there. BTW can anyone tell me what the purple thing(with many holes, I think it might be to connect molex connectors but not sure, I will post pics later) in the Chieftec X pider case is? THanks all

You can go 2 ways with your case. Show your wires and make them look cool or high them as much as possible and don't worry about how they look (hidding as much as possible). If your going to show your cables I think right now you've got too many colors (bare power cables, audio, ccl, ide blue, ide red, etc.). Yuck! I would recommend sticking with two colors and sleving the power cables. If your not going for the perfect sleving you can get away with a cheap sleving and heatshrinks. I really liked the colored molex in black if you bet black sleving. I think you can get other colors as well. I sleved everything in my black so you can't see anything (even the molex are black, ccl are black, etc.). The other option would be to use flat ide cables. I think you can hide these better in your system. With that get some power extensions and pull them behind the ata cables or from the back of the case to the drives. Audio should be behind and the ccl blue boxes should be hidden behind your bottem drive cage and have the white cables run as close the front as possible.

Give us another pic of your progress!
-JC