Retro PC Case Cable Management | How to Sleeve an Old Non-Modular PSU, Ribbon Cable Management
494Want to sleeve or braid a non-modular power supply? Cable management issues with IDE ribbon cables? Want to know how to better organise case cables on your old PC?
Hopefully I can help in some small way. I'm not a cable management buff, but I try to keep my case cables as well organised as I can. My modern PC has a case which made cable management very easy; power and SATA cables are all routed through a back panel and my modular power supply means I only have the cables I need.
But my 90s PCs are a different story. A non-modular PSU takes some work to sheathe the cables with braided cable sleeving. I've read guides about opening up a non-modular power supply and using paracord sleeving on each individual cable. I can't bring myself to do it (it sounds dangerous to an amateur like me) so I've found some cheaper and easier alternatives to non-modular PSU sleeving. I bought some expanding cable braiding, a pack of cheap cable ties and some electrical tape. My non-modular PSUs now look clean, tidy and braided. Keeps the dirt out, and the air moving.
To better emulate the excellent cable channels of my modern PC I bought some cable tie bases. I wanted those little steel ones which you can bend over the cables, but these plastic bases allow me to cable tie my MOLEX and drive cables together and keep them anchored to the case back panel. The cables are still visible, but they're much better looking now they're channeled. It's worth remembering that MOLEX et al were manufactured before cable management really existed as a concept, so they're often quite short. You might have to fudge it a bit, or consider buying extensions to get the case super tidy.
Lastly, I just have to say how much I hate ribbon cable management. I hated them back in the day and I hate them more now. Buying a retro PC always comes with the horrible task of touching a stranger's dust. Ribbon cables somehow are like dust magnets, they're gross. They also inhibit case airflow pretty badly and their size makes them fairly unwieldy for cable management. In 99% of cases I buy new rounded cables for this job and I bin the ribbon cables. If you're keen on keeping and managing ribbon cables then I would split the ribbons up into five-cable strands, then tie the lot back together into a thinner cable. Easier to organise and cable manage than full ribbons, these will also let air move around your case more freely.
There. I hope you enjoyed a quick guide to cable management for retro PCs. I hope you found something useful. I couldn't find a guide for sleeving a non modular power supply so I had to make my own and I thought I'd chuck in a few cable management tips along with it. If you like the video give us a thumbs up.
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