Hi, I've got a great system, but I'm really not happy with my cabling job. It was my first shot at a cabling job, but its not very tidy. Can someone please suggest a way to make this tidier? I think the root of my problem is the length of my cables, the Seasonic's cables are a little short in places, in particular the 24pin. I've got a full tower, Antec 1200 so it is understandable, but I would like a nicely cabled system. Also, I don't want to spend too much because it isn't noticeably detrimental to my computers performance and thus not that important, it is merely about aesthetics for me. I was thinking extension cables, but I don't any experience with them or idea what to get. I was planning on giving overclocking a go, after all that is what I got the 2500k for. I'm probably going to change the heatsink's thermal paste because I'm not too happy with the stock Coolermaster stuff. It runs at about 33 Degrees celcius idle. I think it can do better. Another thing, with my hyper 212, in the manual it says to put the fan on the other side of the heatsink, for me that doesn't make much sense as it is an extracting fan and if I were to extract heat to the RAM side it would get sucked back into the heatsink anyway. I'd like to get another fan for it so I can get some push/pull going. Anyone know how to effectively get rid of this dust? I clean it once a week. The filters are fantastic and pick up most of the dust but there is still a small, noticeable build up. Is it possible to get that "new" look again? I know you'll probably cringe at this:
with your 8 pin cable id get an extender so i could run it behind the mobo tray if you couldnt do that then have it run over the psu then up the mobo and underneith the gpu ( there is a space near the IO sheild ) rotating the rear fans to align the cables near to the cable rounting holes might also help a little your gpu cables can be hidden in the drive bay cage thingies i belive so its only coming from the cage to the card, ( zip ties are your god here ) your 24 pin cable should also be behind the mobo tray ( or agasint the mobo tray if it wont fit behind it ) if you wanted to take an extra step, custom making your own cables MIGHT be an option if you feel comfortable in re-sleeving and soldering i normally dust with a can of compressed air, should be avalible cheap from a local pc shop
you can pass the atx 12v cable under the graphics card also dear god that case is bad for cable management
Have people had trouble with this case in the past? It is pretty tricky to route the cables. Oh and another thing, can I hook all of my fans up to one molex connector? The voltage should be equal amongst all, but the current draw will be different. Do I really need one molex connector per fan?
All the fans can run off one connector no worries. My last case I cut all the molex connectors off the fans and soldered them to one connector to remove even more clutter.
When I first saw this picture it reminded me of my computer in my Antec 900 case. Then I saw that you had an antec 1200. I really hate the Antec 900. It's a terrible case for cable management. Anyway. Simple things. Run as much cable behind the motherboard tray as possible. Put whatever cables you can through the hole nearest the power supply and bring them back the hole nearest the motherboard connector. Things like firewire, usb, front panel i/o cables can be run underneath the motherboard (although I have never done this myself) You are also missing simple things to keep it tidy. Those fan cables on the top left. Run them along the body of the fan and back out through the hole above the motherboard. You might even be able to tuck them in around the motherboard or run them beneath it to help keep them tidy. The sata power for your hard disk and dvd drive. Rather than using two consecutive connectors you've one sticking way out. Use two consecutive connectors and try and do your best to hide the remainder. Don't worry, that cable can take a bit off punishment if you have to work it a bit to curve it into position. There should be no reason the graphics card power cables are both going either over or under the card. Rather than one in each direction. The cable going out the back gromit should be routed either over and down the side of the rear fans or between the two of them. It can be difficult to put the side panel back on the case with all the power and other cabling ran behind the motherboard tray so keep an eye on that as you go. My case is hardly, the king of neatness but it shows what can be done. I started out with an antec 900 case looking like yours ended up with something a good deal neater. Switching the 900 for something conducive with cable management was key though. That white cable was never run in the end.
