Antec Nine Hundred custom cable management.

pidevildog07

Baseband Member
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Location
usa
Anyone know of any places that do case modding in MD? The reason I ask is because cable management has been a nightmare and this is my first build so I want to make sure that it's done right the first time. I've installed all the parts and cabling and it's a mess. I uninstalled and reinstalled all the cabling several times and it still looks like shit and looks like the cabling joined at the psu is partially blocking the bottom most fan. Also wondering what people's experiences so far are with the psu being mounted fan down as there's only about an 1/8th inch of space in between it and the bottom of the case.
 
Unless you have a vent hole in the bottom of the case like my Antec P280 has, yes the fan goes up. Yes it does help a little to suck some of the heat out.
And considering this is your first build, yes you got it wrong.
 
I went back and flipped it over now I'm having problems with the front usb connections when trying to navigate the bios. The rear ones don't have this problem. Thank you for your replies.
 
With the Antec 900, you have to double check the cables coming from the front of the case. The Antec 900 has cables that should be labeled correctly (if I recall, mine were labeled "USB"), and those cables need to be plugged into the board. There is documentation for this in your motherboard manual, more than likely.

As setishock mentioned, with this case, you want to face the PSU fan up. The fan will act as an intake, and will pull hot air from the GPU. There should be an additional fan in the back of the PSU that is acting as an exhaust, and so the PSU will not overheat. A PSU is going to have a high tolerance for heat, and will generally shut off before it burns out. Your GPU will usually not do this, so it's actually beneficial to have it work this way.

The Antec 900 has a lot of fans and filtered vents, and so cooling is probably not going to be a huge concern. I installed additional fans in my Antec 900 back in the day, by choice, because I wanted it to be pretty frosty inside. I also kept my fans at max speed (via the fan control), as I'd prefer loud fans over burning hardware.

Last tip for now (unless of course you have questions)... dust your case, often! At least once a month, or more depending on your home and pets, open the case and blow out the vents and fans. This case has so much airflow that any dust, hair, or impurities are going to get pulled in. I've had clientele in the past go a year or so without cleaning, and it was like a dog lived inside. The filters are going to catch a lot, but again, I like my cases to be super frosty. :D

Great choice on the case, and best of luck with the cable management! We all form different tips when it comes to cable management over time. My advice is to not only take what we suggest, but also take a look at how Youtubers have done it. For most of us, myself included, seeing it done in a video makes all the difference (and shows you the final product)!
 
I personally feel cable management is completely unnecessary. I have built many machines since building my first in 1986 and have never bothered with cable management at all. The inside of my machines may look messy but they always worked fine. I don't look at the inside of my machine often so don't really care how it looks and have never had airflow problems due to rat's nest cabling.

I'd rather spend time using my newly built machine rather than put time into routing cables. I'd rather not use tie-wraps because those have to be removed when you want to swap out a part.
 
A messy case is detrimental to good air flow. And if you route your cables in an orderly manner, you won't have to cut one single strap to do a part swap out.

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For me cable management is having them out of the way of the hardware and airflow. While the pics setishock posted are great examples of a spic'n'span job of it I am not that picky.

I have an Antec 300 Illusion case. All the power cabling not in use is balled up in from of the PSU in the dead air space there. All the cable sin use are tucked to the side of the mobo for the most part with a couple routed behind. I tend to be in my case swapping things out fairly regularly so having everything cable-tied drove me nuts. Here's a pic of it (an old pic taken with a crappy phone with old hardware right after I moved to it). The moles sticking out is for the fan mounted in the side of the case.

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I'm all for good cable management, it makes a difference (though very small) to airflow, but seriously, who wants a messy case? Cable management means the case is easier to clean (yes it will need to be cleaned to maintain good airflow) and you can swap parts out more easily!
 
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