Mod your case for neater cabling

Tidy wiring not only looks better, but also helps to improve airflow. James Prosser explains how to mod a case to prevent it resembling a spaghetti junction.

Thanks to the modding scene, the old beige monstrosities that used to house the PCs of yore have now been replaced with great-looking cases with fancy lights, large windows and lots of mesh for all your 120mm fans.

However, therein lies a deeper problem, which is that windows expose that worst nightmare - the cable equivalent of a spaghetti junction.

Luckily, help is at hand; if you follow this cable management guide, you'll not only improve your system's looks, but also increase the airflow, reduce temperatures and you may even find room for that water-cooling loop you've been dreaming about for the last year. If you need any help with the guide, then please feel free to PM me on the Custom PC forums, where I go by the name prosser13.

What you need

• Holesaws of various sizes between 20cm and 60cm. You'll need saws appropriate for cutting metal - avoid value brands, especially if your motherboard tray is made from steel. Holesaw kits can be bought in most hardware shops.

• A jigsaw with metal cutting blades.

• Spray oil such as WD40.

• A drill with a large (around 11mm) bit if you're using a jigsaw, or a drill bit slightly smaller than the one supplied with your holesaw kit.

• A set of half-moon files.

• U-channel/rubber edging to cover any sharp edges - sold by the metre at www.chilledpc.co.uk.

• A set square for marking out lines.

• Masking tape to prevent scratches when cutting.

a 60cm holesaw is fairly large, im assuming you mean 60mm, not being a tw@ to point this out but some people i can imagine spending hours looking for a 60cm holesaw on the internet

Comment by bobfre1 at 12:35am 26th July 2008

We did a video tutorial on cable managment with only using cable ties http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poXyU-BwNbk

Comment by Mnpctech_Guy at 10:42am 22nd May 2008

I thought this was a pretty good idea so I took my 4 year old machine apart for the umpteenth time for a quick reccy on what needed to be sliced out. Duh! The motherboard support plate already had beautiful apatures cut out for just about any cable scheme. And I had never noticed them much less twigged what they were for. So - pretty simple job.

Comment by Eschatonic at 1:51pm 6th April 2008

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