Cable management for noob

[Maximilian17]

Hi

This is my 2nd time building my own PC. I built my first one 9 years ago.

I read from google about whether bad cable management effects PC part temperature, some say yes it does, others say that good cable management purely only for aesthetic. What do you think?

This is what it looks like for my current PC
https://flic.kr/p/2niMFPE

I don't care about aesthetic, as long as my fan is not hitting the cable and the cable is not touching other part like touching the GPU (not sure whether it does matter when the GPU is getting hot?). Also, because I'm a noob, I feel nervous disconnecting/reconnecting parts into motherboard. And prefer to leave cable as it is, as long as everything works.

Not planning for an upgrade for the next 5 years. In fact, I was using gtx 650 ti boost for 9 years. I only upgraded memory once during that 9 years period.

[Gin]

While it could be managed a bit better, this isn't the worst i've seen...
Not even by a longshot.

[Haruspex]

Not bad. Not good, but not bad.

Cables on the front side should be routed neatly to the shortest path to the back side of your case. So your motherboard cable should make a sharp turn directly into the hole it's next to. Your GPU power cable should basically hug your GPU into the hole next to it. Those fans in the front should hug the edges and drop into the hole right in the front there, then emerge from the holes nearest the fan headers.

You want to minimize visibility and exposure of cables inside your case.

Now you'll have a mess of cables on the back side. You can just close that panel over it, since nobody will see those cables anyway. What you should do is try and tidy the cables up first by bundling them together with zip ties or Velcro.

However, none of this will make your computer run any better. If you don't have a window or tempered glass side panel in your machine, there's not much reason to tidy up the cables any more than you have them now.

As for whether it impacts performance or not, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDCMMf-_ASE

[Elucidator]

Personally I prefer loose cables, because then I can just replace stuff more easily or move them. If they're bound together, I need to cut a wire. No it doesn't affect temperature or air flow almost certainly. The only time it would is if it is in a place where it can get dust to get stuck (forming a wall, causing a like... microscopic single corner of a piece of hardware not to get cooled entirely) or if it can touch the fan (causing it to slow down).

And if you think about it, there is a reason. Its a box, it can only contain so much air before air gets pushed out. If air gets pushed out there is space, causing air from outside to get sucked back in. Air heating up expands and pushes, so even in the corners, cooler air, which is more compressed and heavier, can still be reached. Its very ...... very unlikely that a cable will cause an increase in temperature.

Edit: cable management by tighing cables together is highly overrated and mainly for the looks. It serves no purpose, other than moving things out of a way if you need to get somewhere... which usually you don't.
If you really want management, go systematic, like tagging cables with a clear indicator so everyone knows which cable it is, where it is connected into and what its purpose is for the system. But tags--... they're ugly. Well you can also print the label directly on the cable.
Its entirely unnessecary for a 'home system'

I recommend to think more like an engineer and less like an architect with these things. Prioritize function. If it makes it harder to add more SSDs, don't bind the cables.

If you have a rack with a number of systems and a bunch of UTP cables going out of a switch and stuff like that, if those UTP cables for example mostly go into the same direction, then it becomes useful to bind them. But in small places, like a PC case, idk. Its more of a bother.

Its much better to pick the correct length and not add cables that are too long in there basically. You don't want a cable you need to mostly roll up due to its severe length.

[Azza ☠]

Ideally you should of swapped the holes those cables are going through. Use the closest.

The idea is to keep the cables to the sides and behind the motherboard as much as possible. That allows airflow across the top of the motherboard without any blockage. That improves your system cooling and allows it to be quieter too with less fan speed.

Hot air flows from the front/bottom to top/rear. Yet a graphics card will also split the case's air flow into two areas - top and bottom. Top flows via the CPU cooler, exhaust back and/or top. Bottom gets sucked into the GPU and exhausts back. So your setup is fine and doing that nicely.

So long your airflow is unblocked and cooling is stable, you can leave it as is.

[Fake]

So long as your cable management doesn't look like the verge build, you'll be fine.

[ulia]

Bad cable management can only affect thermals in the absolutely worst of cases, pun intended.
You do have the usb and power connector in the way of your front panel fans, but even this is not going to meaningfully impede the airflow. The only benefit to cable management here would be for aesthetics and convenience.

There's maybe some arguments to be had about the top mounted fan possibly doing more work if mounted on the CPU heatsink instead, or further to the right to assist the airflow path for the GPU where it's got an exposed pathway, as right now it's only really drawing out some turbulence. But realistically this wouldn't make a significant difference either.

[_I_]

as long as cables are not stopping fans its fine

[Electric Cupcake]

If your desk doesn't have a power outlet/USB hub grommet and a cable managing grommet, get a hole saw and install them.

Wait, you mean in the case? As long as you remember to take off the case panel on the other side and run wires underneath the mobo, plain old velcro wraps work fine.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Its not as important now as it was back when we all used Cases with 80mm Fans. Cases that lacked areas to tuck your cables. Back before modular PSUs and also back when PSU cables in general were rather short. Modern Cases tend to have better airflow for the most part and having plenty of 120mm or larger fans all through-out the Case helps as well.

[Pocahawtness]

I think it is probably important when the case is stuffed full of things, but with a really empty case like that one I don't think there is anything to worry about at all.

[dOBER]

🤪 Pocahawtness eredeti hozzászólása:

I think it is probably important when the case is stuffed full of things, but with a really empty case like that one I don't think there is anything to worry about at all.

^This. In a case like this with 3x 120 intake and only handfull of cables it doest matter at all. In old cases with max 1x 80 intake and a lot of hd cages/non modular psu it matters.

Or in some rare cases when you have a lot of cables it might a bad idea to not use back for cables like in my 1000D.
https://imgur.com/a/z1rj3WY

[ulia]

dOBER eredeti hozzászólása:

https://imgur.com/a/z1rj3WY

Your build needs an exorcism, that "cable management" is unholy.

[DeadBeat]

dOBER eredeti hozzászólása:

Or in some rare cases when you have a lot of cables it might a bad idea to not use back for cables like in my 1000D.
https://imgur.com/a/z1rj3WY

What on the Richter scale did the earthquake that produced whatever that is read? :)

[A&A]

uh, as l know the bad cable management can only effect the air flow

[dOBER]

ulia eredeti hozzászólása:

dOBER eredeti hozzászólása:

https://imgur.com/a/z1rj3WY

Your build needs an exorcism, that "cable management" is unholy.

Keep in mind 1000D is very huge case and i have a lot of stuff inside like 35 fans. Cable management without right cable length is impossible. Front looks clean, this picture was only back side.
https://imgur.com/a/HablauS