Hide your ATX power cables

Thomas Koflach shows you how to solder the wires from your ATX power connector to the back of your motherboard.

It doesn't matter how clever you are at hiding your PC's cables - hiding that big, bulky bunch of power cables connected to your motherboard is a task worthy of David Copperfield. A large ATX power connector has at least 20 pins - usually 24 on a modern power supply - making it the hardest cable to hide when you're trying to build a clutter-free PC with easy access to the motherboard.

Thankfully, though, if you're a dab hand with a soldering iron, you can solder the ATX power cables to the back of your motherboard. In this guide, we'll show you how to hide a 20-pin ATX connector on a media centre PC that uses an old Slot 1 motherboard. However, the principle is the same for other motherboard power connectors with different pin-counts.

We wouldn't recommend performing this mod on a brand-new rig worth thousands of pounds, as the risks are high. However, if you're building a small media centre PC, in which space and airflow are a priority, then this is a neat little mod that will keep those big power cables out of the way.

• Tidy your cables
• Modify an MSI Wind
• Hide your ATX power cables
• Monitor your PC with an analogue meter
• Cool your VRMs
• Make your own SSD for less than £20
• Create a 3D animated Logo
• Set up a secure browsing environment
• Remove motherboard heatsinks and heatpipes
• Remove a GPU cooler

These are the most popular features articles over the past three months.

• Intel Core i7 - all you need to know
• VIDEO: 6GHz plus: Overclocking the E8600 with liquid nitrogen
• How to add any song to Guitar Hero 3
• The FAIL Feature
• How to get a cooler Radeon HD 4870 with manual fan speed control
• Interview with Hardcore Computer: The quest for a full immersion cooled desktop PC
• Ten Technologies that can Revolutionise PCs
• VIDEO: Dream PCs 2008: Scan's Great White
• Inside Intel's SSD
• Wishlist for a next-gen EeePC