Good Airflow in the Case Guide

[Yellowhello]

Cable Management and Airfow Guide
By Nate Phillips


Greetings, and today I will be showing you how to manage that rats' nest of cables blocking airflow and making you wish that you never bought that windowed case in the first place.


The first thing you want to do is remove the side panel from your case (obviously).





Right, now you begin to hide wires and clear up the cables. A great way to hide SATA power cables and data cables is to tuck the cables under the hard drive itself.


ZIP TIES ARE YOUR FRIENDS!! These are great!! There pretty cheap at your local hardware store.


Here's an example of zip ties at work.


Now here's the same picture, but for a different purpose. Notice how the IDE cable and some of the power cables are tucked under the DVD drive. You can't see them from the side, and it doesn't interfere with airflow.


Now, on to airfow inside of the case. Fans are required to move air (obviously), but what gets in the way of the air those fans are moving are more important. IDE cables are the absolute worst when it comes to obstructing airflow, so try to get SATA hard drives and, if possible, SATA optical drives as well. The picture below is a good example of getting cables out of the way so that good airfow can be achived. Notice how I hooked the SATA power cable on the corner of the fan and out of the way.


A modular power supply always helps.


As for your graphics card, you should always move any other cards down a few PCI slots so you graphics card has room to breath.


Tuck any other wires out of the way....


And the finished product!


Well, that's my guide to airflow and cable mangement! Hope you enjoyed it....

[garetjax]

Nice guide. It's worth pointing out that one does need to be careful when routing and/or bending SATA cables for cable/wire management. They should never be forcefully bent or crimped, nor should they ever be bent in any angle at 90 degrees or less.

[Capper]

excellent, and exactly the type of stuff we are looking for.....what might seem silly to most of you experienced system builders may be something the beginner is overlooking. Short, simple guides like this are a perfect way to get involved, show of your literary skills, and help people at the same time

[Yellowhello]

The SATA cable I used is meant to be a 90 degree connector. Thank you Rich for the encouragement. Might have another guide/review on the way.

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

The SATA cable I used is mean to be a 90 degree connector.

I realize this. What I am referring to is the bending of the actual wire itself, not the 90-degree bend in the connector...

[Yellowhello]

Thanks for pointing that out garetjax. I agree with you.

[One4yu2c]

Moved thread to User Guides/Reviews.

[gvblake22]

Great stuff yellowhello, thanks! :wavey:
I just want to toss in using twistie ties to aid in wire management duties. They are nice because you can hold wires out of the way like with zip-ties, but they are reuseable. So you can secure wires out of the way, then easily add more wires to the secured bundle later on as needed without having to replace the zip-tie. But zip ties are easier to use in the first place and last longer, so I've found using both together for taming the spaghetti beast works great.

[Computer-Ed]

Well done, I think some useful tips for little extra to help with this would be good:

Get SATA cables with 90 Degree connectors, help move the cable out of the way.

Get extensions for the 4/8 pin and 24 pin power lines to make sure you have enough cable for a clean out of the way run without having to cross the mainboard.

[[Dr. V]]

Get an Antec P182 case and rout those cables like never before!

Lol wouldn't that be nice for everyone.

Either way, this is a great guide, and very useful for everyone; no matter how much of a veteran you. There comes a stage when you could be doing it so much, you overlook the tiny things and not consider them important. This could be a good refresh!

Also, especially for the newer builders, this will show the importance of the little things. So many little things amount to one big thing. They're all important to have a safe, cool, and well-running rig.

Great guide man!