Gadgetory

silence redefined November 2014 what's up guys i'm proud to announce that this is my first how-to video which essentially means i'm out of products to review but this is a good thing because what I'm talking about today isn't issue many PC builders including myself struggle with on a regular basis and not knowing how to treat it can have a negative impact on your performance by the way I'm sorry if this sounds like an ad for a rectal dysfunction cable management is the topic at hand and today I'll be going over some quick tips to get your rig nice and tidy but for those of us new to PC building what is cable management and why should I care while according to the interwebs cable management refers to an important step during the installation of electrical services and the subsequent installation of equipment providing means to tightly secure electrical data and other cables in other words it's about strategically arranging your cables in order to keep them clean and organized although giving the innards of your PC a cleaner aesthetic isn't the only benefit of cable management less cabling exposed means less surface area for dust to settle on which can filter PHY your components at an increased rate and potentially impede their performance over time another key benefit of proper cabling is healthier air flow for your system with a large serving of cable spaghetti in the way the air current from your chassis fans is dramatically stifled by the time it reaches the components in your case this can cause your hardware to overheat decreasing performance and ultimately shortening its overall lifespan so to prevent any of that from happening you'll need something to tie your cables with like zip ties twist ties or velcro straps among my zip ties I like to use a few twist ties which are more forgiving if I need to undo something you'll also want to grab some scissors wire cutters or nail clippers to cut off the excess cable length of your cable ties I did want to mention I'll be using a modular power supply for this video which means the cables can be physically removed from the unit itself because this makes the process of managing cables much easier and provides clear results overall I'd highly recommend opting for a modular power supply for most computer builds so now that we're all ready to go at what point in the PC building process does cable management actually begin well of course everyone has their own way of doing things but generally speaking you can install nearly all of your components before plugging in your first cable to components I would refrain from installing at this point would be the video card which can sometimes block access to your SATA connectors if it's long enough and the CPU cooler which can obstruct access to your 8 pin CPU connector that's why I usually get this cable routed in first plug the a pin cable into the motherboard and route the rest of it through the nearest routing hole most cases have a hole or two at the very top above the motherboard as a rule of thumb you always want the cable to travel the shortest distance possible between its connector and a routing hole using routing holes hides the bulk of cabling behind the motherboard tray and is where most of the nitty-gritty cable management will take place cases often have a routing hole mix of the power supply as well thread the other end of your a pin cable through this opening and connected to your power supply you'll want to leave a little bit of slack here making sure not to pull the cables so tight that it puts strain on the power supply or the motherboard connectors and this rule does apply to all of the cabling in your system next move on to your 24 pin ATX motherboard cable connected to the power supply if it isn't already attached like mine is and route it through the same grommet you used for the eight pin cable from here run it out of the hole nearest to the motherboard connector before plugging it in since this and the eight pin connector are the thickest cables in your system you'll want to keep them from overlapping each other keeping things as flat as possible you'll notice some cases like this one have tie-down points that hold cables securely in place flat against the motherboard tray I'm gonna hold off on using these for now until I've connected more cables and can better visualize where everything should go now we can move on to plugging in the front panel connectors well these are typically located close together on the motherboard they shouldn't all necessarily get routed through the same grommet check your case to make sure which routing hole makes the most sense for each individual cable on the backside I use twist ties to secure the cables to various tie-down points while making a path to the optical drive bay where any excess cabling can be coiled into a loop and placed up in the corner of the case since I'll be plugging in my fans next now is a good time to install the CPU cooler if you're installing a closed loop liquid cooler make sure the fan cables are facing toward the back of the case and that you route them through the appropriate holes while they're still accessible I decided to connect the fan splitter that came with my CPU cooler to one of my motherboard CPU fan headers after routing it through the top routing hole I connected radiator fans and led the cables away towards the front panel connectors as for the pump cable I hid the excess length by routing it between two DIMM slots before connecting it to the CPU fan header assuming you'll be connecting your fans directly to your motherboard scope out the location of each fan header and decide which is best positioned for each of your fans not all of your fan cables may be long enough to route behind the motherboard so tie up any excess cable length and position it out of sight before plugging into the header when routing fan cables behind the motherboard is an option tie them down so they're not visible on the other side of the case moving on to your SATA power and SATA data cables for your hard drives and SSDs most motherboards come with two types of SATA data cables straight angle which has flat connections on both sides and right angle with one flat and one right angle connection personally I like to use the right angle cables connecting the flat side to the motherboard and the right angle head to my drives included with your power supply you'll find a SATA power cable with multiple connectors plug one end into your power supply and route it behind the motherboard if you've installed your drives adjacent to each other you should be able to power them all with a single cable once your drives are wired up tied to save a power cable to your data cables for additional tidiness finally it's time to install the video card and connect your PCI Express cables plug them into your power supply route them behind the motherboard tray and out through the closest opening tuck away any unused pins out of sight and use a zip tie or two to tighten up multiple PCI Express cables for a cleaner look now that all the cables in your system have been connected you can begin to tighten up everything on the back end by now you can start to see different groupings of cables forming naturally being conscious not to overlap any of the thicker cables use your best judgement to decide which cables should be bunched together based on length and direction you almost want the final image of your cables to look like a series of freeways with clear defined paths heading in different directions use as many as if times as you like but bear in mind - this equates to how much work you'll be making for yourself if you need to remove or replace a cable for this reason I tend to use twist ties for cables I'm more likely to remove in the future follow all these steps and you'll experience one of the greatest things about building a PC being able to fit that damn side panel on as always guys toss me a like on this video if you found it helpful and leave me some feedback in the remember to bookmark my Amazon affiliate link and do not pick up a torso chassis while you're at it because I'm currently in the process of switching over to the same printing company that Logan from tech syndicate uses for all of his merchandise on epic pants com if you guys have ever bought anything from Logan in the past you know the quality is super legit so I'm pretty stoked to be opening the new store which should be launching very soon until next time I'm kind of awesome Stiles Network thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see you in the next video