# rate my cable management



## imperialreign (Jan 14, 2008)

*Thought I'd one-up myself  *

just a little run down - I posted this here as I'm just wanting people opinions, suggestions ratings whatever . . . this case isn't ready for the gallery, by a long shot, as I still have stuff I'm going to do . . . this turned out to be a rather tough setup for some reason, I think between the case itself, the PSU, and the location of the mobo connectors . . . anyhow, if you want, give me a rating between 1-10, and any comments and/or suggestions to go with it


Anyhow, things I'm not happy with - the primary PCI-E power connector is too short to route behind the tray and under the mobo, or to come around the edge of the tray - which is why it looks as if it's just dangling there.  Aside from physcially modding the cable to be longer, I'm kinda stuck with it.  The cable is secured, though . . .  Also, not happy with the orange SATA cable . . . unless I want to interfere with future RAID setups, I had to go with the SATA connection towards the back of the mobo, which means it's pinched in between the mobo and the back panel, on top of that, it's still too short to route it back under the tray.  I'll have to keep my eye out for a much longer cable . . . Tha fans on the side panel I'm not too worried that they're not wrapped, as I plan on replacing them with 4 140mm units in the near future . . . not too happy with the secondary PCI-E adapter, either, as it's rather short in and of itself 

I'm keen with it, for now, but I'm wondering if I'm being to critical on myself about some things, so, I thought I'd fish for some opinions . . .


_
<edit> - sorry bout the poor lighting on the pics, but I turned the exposure rate down so as to not have everything flooded by camera flash - all that shiny aluminum, y'know_

BEFORE (this was after I had just gotten the case out of the box and threw all my hardware in it just to get it up and running):










And, this is after toiling with the case and routing for near about 5-6 hours yesterday:



























alright - fire at will!


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## WhiteLotus (Jan 14, 2008)

i dont think its anything amazing but it is very good - a vast improvement on before.

i cant think of anything that will make it better but i'm sure others can <cough>tk, slade<cough>


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## thoughtdisorder (Jan 14, 2008)

Night and day from when you first put it together to now. For your cable management it looks to me as though you've done the best job possible with the config you've got. 

9/10.


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## imperialreign (Jan 14, 2008)

WhiteLotus said:


> i dont think its anything amazing but it is very good - a vast improvement on before.
> 
> i cant think of anything that will make it better but i'm sure others can <cough>tk, slade<cough>



yeah, kinda diggin for opinions here.  I was starting to give serious thought to extending the PCI-E cables, as that'd clean things up a lot, too.


BTW - anyone else with a P5W-DH board, if it's possible to use a different SATA connector (like the two ez-raid ports) without fudging future RAID setups, let me know!


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## Random Murderer (Jan 15, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> yeah, kinda diggin for opinions here.  I was starting to give serious thought to extending the PCI-E cables, as that'd clean things up a lot, too.
> 
> 
> BTW - anyone else with a P5W-DH board, if it's possible to use a different SATA connector (like the two ez-raid ports) without fudging future RAID setups, let me know!



it is possible, i use one ez raid plug and one of the black ones:




i don't know why i have it set up like that, but it works...


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## rick22 (Jan 15, 2008)

It looks great..i would give it an 8


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## imperialreign (Jan 15, 2008)

Random Murderer said:


> it is possible, i use one ez raid plug and one of the black ones:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




hmmm . . . I might toy with it some then - I've got some extra cables laying around, see what I can get to work.

Damn owner's manual isn't very clear as to what does what by itself, unless you're building a RAID, and then it only tells you which ones to hook up - and with 3 different hardware controllers :shadedshu


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## Random Murderer (Jan 15, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> hmmm . . . I might toy with it some then - I've got some extra cables laying around, see what I can get to work.
> 
> Damn owner's manual isn't very clear as to what does what by itself, unless you're building a RAID, and then it only tells you which ones to hook up - and with 3 different hardware controllers :shadedshu



yea, the p5wdh definitely has its quirks, but once you figure them out, it's hard to find a better board.
hell, there's only ONE board i would trade mine for, and it's an amd board, the msi k9a2 platinum.


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## Batou1986 (Jan 15, 2008)

looks very nice i just recently move my friends pc into a stacker 830 and they are a SERIOUS PITA to wire nicely took me roughly the same amount of time it did you and ive put together alot of computers
 i give you a 10 for not getting frustrated and saying fk it like i almost did
tbh these cases look really nice when finished but are even more difficult to get clean wiring than an antec 900 without cutting holes in something


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## imperialreign (Jan 15, 2008)

Random Murderer said:


> yea, the p5wdh definitely has its quirks, but once you figure them out, it's hard to find a better board.
> hell, there's only ONE board i would trade mine for, and it's an amd board, the msi k9a2 platinum.



I've never had an ASUS board that wasn't solid as hell, and compared to some brands I've used here and there - ASUS is stable as crap too, if something fails to boot, it's very rarely associated with the board itself.

BTW, RM, another user mentioned to me you might be able to help with an issue: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=606367&postcount=1112




			
				Batou1986 said:
			
		

> looks very nice i just recently move my friends pc into a stacker 830 and they are a SERIOUS PITA to wire nicely took me roughly the same amount of time it did you and ive put together alot of computers
> i give you a 10 for not getting frustrated and saying fk it like i almost did
> tbh these cases look really nice when finished but are even more difficult to get clean wiring than an antec 900 without cutting holes in something



 Too late!  Aside from the hole in the mobo tray I had to cut - I also had to take a slice out of the backside support rail so I could run all the PSU cables behind the tray - even then, the cables had to be tapped flat so as to not interfere with the side panel.

I hear it on the f-it part . . . I came damn close!  My Mystique was a hell-o-lot easier to route, and was only a touch messy.


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## Random Murderer (Jan 15, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> I've never had an ASUS board that wasn't solid as hell, and compared to some brands I've used here and there - ASUS is stable as crap too, if something fails to boot, it's very rarely associated with the board itself.
> 
> BTW, RM, another user mentioned to me you might be able to help with an issue: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=606367&postcount=1112
> 
> ...



i'll get back to you about that after dinner, i know what you need to do, but it will require a lot of typing on my part and i don't have the time right now.


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## imperialreign (Jan 15, 2008)

Random Murderer said:


> i'll get back to you about that after dinner, i know what you need to do, but it will require a lot of typing on my part and i don't have the time right now.



cool, thanks!  Take your time - no rush.  I'll be heading out for a while shortly anyhow.


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## t_ski (Jan 15, 2008)

I have four Seagate drives in raid 0/5 on my P5WDH.  I'm using the three black connectors off the ICH7R and the orange connector closest to the bottom in the pic above.  These are the four ports used by the ICH7R.


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## Random Murderer (Jan 15, 2008)

ok, this worked for my dual 1950pro's, just make sure you follow this guide EXACTLY:



> 1. Make sure you have two supported GPUs
> 2. Make sure you have installed supported versions of the Catalyst Drivers
> 3. Enable the *primary output* from each card, using the "Settings" tab on "Display Properties"
> 
> ...


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## imperialreign (Jan 15, 2008)

Random Murderer said:


> ok, this worked for my dual 1950pro's, just make sure you follow this guide EXACTLY:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




hmmm . . . I've done that before - and I can get them working individually . . . but upon next reboot, WIN 'forgets' that "imaginary display #2" is no longer there, and I have to go through the process of juggling the display connector between cards and extending the desktop in WIN.  Being able to extend the desktop lets me know the second GPU has been initialized, which it needs to be to have two seperate GPU consoles working . . . perhaps it's the CCC driver, as I only noticed this since installing 7.12; I might try to rollback to 7.11 tomorrow and see if it's still acting the same . . . thanks anyways, though.




			
				t ski said:
			
		

> I have four Seagate drives in raid 0/5 on my P5WDH. I'm using the three black connectors off the ICH7R and the orange connector closest to the bottom in the pic above. These are the four ports used by the ICH7R.
> 01-14-2008 08:37 PM



So . . . the EZ_RAID connectors can be used without having to have a RAID configuration?!  Brilliant!  That would mean I can get that pinched SATA cable out from in between the mobo and back panel!


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## Random Murderer (Jan 15, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> So . . . the EZ_RAID connectors can be used without having to have a RAID configuration?!  Brilliant!  That would mean I can get that pinched SATA cable out from in between the mobo and back panel!



i told you that earlier...


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## imperialreign (Jan 15, 2008)

Random Murderer said:


> i told you that earlier...



Doh!

myself = 



I misread your earlier post, man


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## ShadowFold (Jan 15, 2008)

I was gonna rate the berfore picture a 7/10.. I have low standards  9/10 for new tho


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## btarunr (Jan 15, 2008)

Damn..I could've taken a CNPS 9500 instead of 9700. Yours looks so much neater. In the third pic didn't you pull off the USB_FP cables (under the SB card) and behind the board? That's smart. Did you mod the chipset heatsinks to place those fans or are they a revision of your board?

The best part of your cable mgmt is the part where you tied all the fan cables. 

The worst part is near the hard-drives...not the worst really but the intake fan's air isn't streamlined into the case, then again the fans on the side do the job.

I'll rate you *9/10* for the extremely aesthetic cable management considering the ass-load of components that are housed inside that case. The case defi has more fans than Marilyn Monroe considering the former is just a stationary case, the latter was a 'case' that moved and died within 'warranty period'


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## tkpenalty (Jan 15, 2008)

Practically imperialreign, there is not really anything to improve on (yes this is coming from me), I am talking in terms of airflow impedance and not looks. You could seriously reduce the slack int the USB cables (remove your sound card first..) and use something like tape to hold it i n place. How tall are your standoffs? If they are the normal sized type.. your wiring is slightly dangerous.


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## imperialreign (Jan 15, 2008)

tkpenalty said:


> Practically imperialreign, there is not really anything to improve on (yes this is coming from me), I am talking in terms of airflow impedance and not looks. You could seriously reduce the slack int the USB cables (remove your sound card first..) and use something like tape to hold it i n place. How tall are your standoffs? If they are the normal sized type.. your wiring is slightly dangerous.



the standoffs, by eye, are a bit longer than the standard 6mm brass ones I've become accustomed to over the last decade - these are the newer 8mm aluminum style (not sure of the exact length off the top of my head).  I made sure with the main power connector, though, to wrap some electrical tape around the area directly underneath the mobo and near the slot that I had cut out at the back (along with spending a good 25min with a dremel and some sanding bits to get everything smooth to the touch) - working as a mechanic, I've learned how much of a headache a rubbed-through wire can create.  I was starting to give it some serious thought, though, to try and spread that main harness out some more to make it a bit more . . . flat; know what I mean?

TBH - once the bulky connectors are out from under the board, the cables themselves slide around freely; without any "snagging" on solder tails.  The only cable I had a major concern about was the orange SATA cable - which I intend to re-route tomorrow.  It's looking this weekend like I'm going to re-wire the PCI-E connectors, too, so that I can have more length to work with.



			
				btarunr said:
			
		

> Damn..I could've taken a CNPS 9500 instead of 9700. Yours looks so much neater. In the third pic didn't you pull off the USB_FP cables (under the SB card) and behind the board? That's smart. Did you mod the chipset heatsinks to place those fans or are they a revision of your board?
> 
> The best part of your cable mgmt is the part where you tied all the fan cables.
> 
> ...



yes, the both USB connectors, 1394 and the the front panel connectors are all routed out from under the mobo.

as to the chipset coolers - no, that's not an ASUS revision.  Their brilliant engineers went and put aesthetic "sticky" plates over th coolers that cover the fins.  I snagged a couple of CM 40mm fans and slapped them on, but, if you'll notice, the SSB hangs over the top of the cooler a bit . . . there wasn't enough clearance between the chipset cooler and the second video card.

Oh, and that is a 9500 cooler . . . but now with the added space of a full-tower chasis, I'm considering a 9700


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## btarunr (Jan 15, 2008)

If I were in the US, we could've swapped them for free


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## grunt_408 (Jan 15, 2008)

Looks good Nice rig


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## EnergyFX (Jan 15, 2008)

You're at the point where you are going to have to build your own cables if you really want it to look any better. I think you have hit the ceiling with managment alone, from her it wouldhave to be all about length adjustment, sleeving/heatshrink, and custom cable ordering.


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## Laurijan (Jan 15, 2008)

You did an awfully good job


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## btarunr (Jan 15, 2008)

Okay I went back to some of tk and sladesurfer's cable mgmt pics. You win considering you have managed these oodles of cables with clinical precision. tk and ss were neater but that was because they were dealing with far lesser components and cables in all. 

Re-rating: *10/10*


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## t_ski (Jan 15, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> So . . . the EZ_RAID connectors can be used without having to have a RAID configuration?!  Brilliant!  That would mean I can get that pinched SATA cable out from in between the mobo and back panel!



The orange EZ-Raid connector towards the front of the mobo (or the bottom of the pic) should be OK to use by itself.  If you use the other one (the one with the arrow pointing to it), I think you might have some isses.  I was trying to do some testing with an external drive on that connector, but couldn't get it to work right.  I ended up having to use the JMicron controller instead (and that one doesn't support hot-swap).  That may have been from the jumper settings being off from what they needed to be though.  Since then I figured the ports out and built the 4-drive array...


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## Random Murderer (Jan 15, 2008)

t_ski said:


> The orange EZ-Raid connector towards the front of the mobo (or the bottom of the pic) should be OK to use by itself.  If you use the other one (the one with the arrow pointing to it), I think you might have some isses.  I was trying to do some testing with an external drive on that connector, but couldn't get it to work right.  I ended up having to use the JMicron controller instead (and that one doesn't support hot-swap).  That may have been from the jumper settings being off from what they needed to be though.  Since then I figured the ports out and built the 4-drive array...



lol, and i'm using the other orange port by itself, once again i think we're looking at one of the quirks of this board.


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## imperialreign (Jan 15, 2008)

t_ski said:


> The orange EZ-Raid connector towards the front of the mobo (or the bottom of the pic) should be OK to use by itself.  If you use the other one (the one with the arrow pointing to it), I think you might have some isses.  I was trying to do some testing with an external drive on that connector, but couldn't get it to work right.  I ended up having to use the JMicron controller instead (and that one doesn't support hot-swap).  That may have been from the jumper settings being off from what they needed to be though.  Since then I figured the ports out and built the 4-drive array...



I'm going to mess with it here in a bit - only reason I used the JMicron connector was because after reading the descriptions in the manual, I was under the assumption that that connector is the only one that wouldn't impede a future RAID setup when i get a couple more drives.  Damn owner's manual - it's been my only "real" gripe with ASUS is that they can't write a manual that's worth a crap.



> You're at the point where you are going to have to build your own cables if you really want it to look any better. I think you have hit the ceiling with managment alone, from her it wouldhave to be all about length adjustment, sleeving/heatshrink, and custom cable ordering.



I kinda thought so . . . I'm even already made plans to do that this next weekend to fix up those PCI-E cables . . . the more I see them (even in the pics), the more they bother me  - damn OCD and my need to have everything "perfect" kicking in


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## imperialreign (Jan 20, 2008)

*thought I'd 1-up myself*

well, thanks to my "prefectionism" attitude, I tackled some more cable management on this case.

TBH, I think I've now reached a perfect 20:10 as far asa cable management goes - I've very happy with how this case currently looks, and am ready to move on to my next project(s).

Actually, I'm so happy with how it turned out now, I'll even show off the back (ugli) side of it, if you notice, I've only removed *ONE* component from the last go-round:


_<edit> sorry bout any camera flash - it's a buggar taking pics of brushed aluminum and copper.  Also, for all but the last two pics, the fan panel is removed just for clarity_.









front side:






top side:






towards the front of the case:






angled towards the back:






the bottom of the mobo:






with the fan panel installed:















  


re-rate it, y'all!!


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## exodusprime1337 (Jan 20, 2008)

wow not bad, a few minor changes and the new fan's on the side make a good combo for ya.  Very very nice indeed.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 20, 2008)

Heres what mine looks like now,not quite perfect.I'm gonna cut some holes in my tray when i get around to it.


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## imperialreign (Jan 20, 2008)

not too bad, tigger69.  I'm sure it'll look even better once you get around to putting a hole in the tray.  

I like how you're mobo is on, too 



So . . . does anyone see anything else that needs to be improved on my setup (aside from getting something better than scotch tape to hold down cables on the backside)?


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## Duxx (Jan 20, 2008)

Digging the new components. Looks snazy.  Do you use all the cables?  I hardly touch my firewire and usb connectors on the front of my case, therefore i dont even connect them.  If you do, then of course you cant eliminate them. hah


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## imperialreign (Jan 20, 2008)

Duxx said:


> Digging the new components. Looks snazy.  Do you use all the cables?  I hardly touch my firewire and usb connectors on the front of my case, therefore i dont even connect them.  If you do, then of course you cant eliminate them. hah



yeah, everything has it's purpose . . . the firewire I tend to use with my camera, USB for whatever . . . the only front panel component that isn't hooked up is the audio jacks.  Whenever I get around to afixing them to the X-Fi, though . . .


I'm really happy with the new 140mm fans.  They're pushing a bit less air than I'd like - but they look nice and get the job done quietly.  For my project that I'm going to start working on - I'm partly trying to go for that 'polished' reflective look.  At some point, the rig is going to be torn down and I'm going to buff/polish the ever loving crap out of the innards.  If done well, you can get a nice mirrorer look to aluminum.


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