Cable Management. Does It Really Matter???

glasskuter said:

I'm pretty darn particular about managing the rats nest of cables both inside and OUTSIDE my computers. Zip ties are a puter user's best friend.

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Zip ties are awful. Velcro ties are the way to do it.

KevTech said:

Buy modular PSU then you can reduce the number of cables in the case.

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Yeah, I've been using fully modular power supplies for about 20 years.

Scannerman said:

Sometimes it does. The PC featured in this thumbnail boasts about 30 drives plus external drives. It's a bit like a mini-server. Ambient temperature does matter and the sooner hot air escapes from the case the sooner it can be replaced with cooler air. Every little bit helps. I would imagine with water cooling this is negligible. Good organization of cabling will make working on a system much easier. In my case (no pun intended) I number each cable and make sure that open areas stay as open as possible to allow air to circulate freely though the case. Admittedly, not everyone builds a PC with a massive amount of hard drives so spotting where each cable goes isn't usually a problem. My advice is to use what works for you.

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I need you to prove to me that backend cable management has anything to do with frontend air flow. That encluds AIO as well as Air. It is at the backend. Where as airflow is at the frontend. No correlation

Lance1 said:

I need you to prove to me that backend cable management has anything to do with frontend air flow. That encluds AIO as well as Air. It is at the backend. Where as airflow is at the frontend. No correlation

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How about you prove to us that a rats nest inside your case does not impede airflow? Seems fair. Airflow should be through the case with a slight positive pressure to keep out the dust. In other words, a bit more intake than exhaust CFM. I guess I am just put off by someone arguing for a mess. It makes no sense.

Cable Management. Does It Really Matter???​

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yes
best of luck Steve ..

Yeah I need to "clean" this up

Simply: YES it does matter.

I make sure no cable on way of using my PC the cable management not needed for me.

Lance1 said:

I need you to prove to me that backend cable management has anything to do with frontend air flow. That encluds AIO as well as Air. It is at the backend. Where as airflow is at the frontend. No correlation

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Some cases are set up to "breathe" better than others. When it comes to airflow every little bit helps. Traditionally, intake is at the front of your PC and the air "exhausts" through the back (rear I/0). There are cases that actually allow for circulation through the back panel in addition to what you would see with the front panel off. The real question is "Is it really needed?". My point is that sometimes every little bit helps.

As per my previous post I did point to the portfolio thumbnail. Air is brought through the side of my case and vented through the top. This helps one side but then there is the other side and that doesn't get a whole lot of draw. Fortunately, because my case exhausts through both back and top (back being the rear of the case where the I/O parts are located) I get additional cooling and airflow. I have also modified the case so that I have extra intake on the side that I'm hoping makes its way to the "back panel" via those openings that I have left for such a purpose.

There is a veritable "cyclone" going on inside my case, but a gentle one. You don't need me to prove anything. Just use your imagination. If you were to say drop thirty or so cables in front of your front intake fans (especially thick ones) it will affect air flow. Now I realize Jay from Jay's Two Cents did an experiment with this and a couple of measly cables aren't going to make a significant difference BUT if you start dropping bundled clusters of wires in front of your fans it can affect airflow. So it really depends on what you're working with. Case design, form factor, and PSU placement can also make a difference.

There is another reason why I still manage cables on the hidden side: When they are nice and neatly "tacked" down the risk of friction and/or catching is reduced. The panel slides on smoothly and easily when there's nothing dangling. But once again.... User preference prevails. Some PCs just aren't worth the fuss.

I am absolutely terrible at cable management, though a modular power supply has helped in that regard. I did manage to get things squared away for air flow, but it doesn't look pretty.

No, there will be no pictures of my case.

Catnip said:

I am absolutely terrible at cable management, though a modular power supply has helped in that regard. I did manage to get things squared away for air flow, but it doesn't look pretty.

No, there will be no pictures of my case.

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This is me. I'm not a perfectionist, but from the days when I was running 3-way SLI with GTX580's and a GTX470 for PhysX made it pretty much mandatory to maximize airflow through the case. Hard to believe now I had all that stuffed into an Antec 900.

My cable management style hasn't changed since the 90's - as long as it reaches it's fine.

z3r010 said:

My cable management style hasn't changed since the 90's - as long as it reaches it's fine.

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So it was your cables I was always tripping over.

Do they even make ribbon cables that long?

I make a feeble attempt to clean up the back of the case under the MB, but I'm not obsessive. It is important to be able to take that panel off without risking damage to the cables, so I insure that can happen.

Some of you do know, but for those of you that may not, introduce yourself to inductance and high speed data cabling sometime.

Lance1 said:

Who is obsessed with Cable Management and why.

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I just like it to look clean. Heck, historically i haven't used cases with windows and such, so it really is something that absolutely nobody sees.

My latest build has a tempered glass side window (Fractal Meshify S2). Since I can see it, I want it clean. Since it could interfere with air flow, I want the case the least cluttered as possible. Also part of the reason I run the fully modular power supplies.

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to keep your back panel super clean. I do, just because I prefer to have it clean looking. I like it being nice and tidy. no other real reason for it. Makes it easier for me to run new cables and such when everything is cleanly out of the way. It makes it easier for me to take things in and out, when I don't have cabling in the way.

LTT did a video approximately 10 years ago which showed that at least under their test conditions in a standard mid tower case cable management does absolutely nothing when it comes to cooling. Only when they added hilarious things like t-shirts, Santa hats and boxes into the case were they able to increase temperatures.


So yeah, while cable management does not really influence temperatures I still try to keep my builds tidy for good looks.

A modular or semi-modular power will greatly help in cable management. That is even more important if the case is not very large.

I have an old computer that needed a new power supply. The case was mid-tower and didn't have a lot of room inside.
The old power supply was non-modular which meant there was a rats nest of unused cables always getting in the way. I bought a semi-modular power supply. That meant there was less unused cables inside getting in the way.

Here's mine with a non-modular PSU...
It's a full tower (Cooler Master ATCS 840 from 2008).