Now that the computer is functioning, it is time to close up the case. Before that, though, I really needed to finalise the insides, which necessarily means cable management!
Cable management is often seen as that unenviable thing not strictly necessary yet has to be done to avoid the look of a sloppy assembly job. I, for one, see it as a form of art, right up there with case modding. In fact, the reason I chose a case with both side panels of glass is to display my skilful taming of the marine-like flowing beauty of long cables.
The cables
My cable management paradigm, which I share with at least one YouTuber, is to treat the cables as having distinct start points and destinations, and grouping and splitting them as necessary. The end result is what looks like a network of highways each going to where they are going for a reason. My strategy is liberal use of zip ties; I am strongly against letting adhesive spoil the fine paint job, so I try to avoid using cable clips. The In Win 904PLUS does not have very many holes to which I could secure cable ties, but I ended up not needing them.
Being the elephant in the room, I started off with the motherboard power cables: the 24-pin and 8-pin EPS ones. The 24-pin had some slack but the 8-pin was just about the right length, so I decided to route the 24-pin with the 8-pin for a bit before splitting it off. The result is barely any slack for both cables.
I then started working with the point where the power supply cables start branching out. This is a very busy part of the 'network', not only because of all the power supply cables, but also that the bottom motherboard tray cutout is nearby and that the optical drive SATA data cable runs via here as well. It was simple enough to run the one-metre SATA cable along the bottom of the compartment, and hide the slack behind the optical drive (don't tell anyone!). As for the front-panel cable, I let it run towards the back with the optical drive cables for a bit before splitting it off vertically. The rest of the cables were run forward and split off as needed, with the cables destined for the bottom cutout (including the PCI Express cables) forming a sizeable bundle.
There is a good tangle of SATA data and power cables around the 3.5" drive bay. For the ones that were meant to be connected, I bundled them into a single loop (which made them much more compact). As for the unused cables, I hid them in the space above the drive bay. The loop itself proved to be a convenient way to suspend the optical drive's SATA data cable at the motherboard end, so I zip-tied it on. After this meticulous effort, this is the result:
And here is the view from the front:
Yes, I added some LED too
Very much joining in on the craze (without going overboard, of course), I made the decision to add LED strip lights to the case interior. My no-adhesive policy applies here as well, so I was somewhat limited on which strips I could use. I had bought magnetic strip lights, but since the case was made of aluminium (yet still heavy!), they could not stick. I found hairpins (called bobby pins in the United States) quite useful here, as I could use them to clip the strips onto the walls of the case interior. Black hairpins were available to me, and this helped disguise them against the black paint. It was certainly convenient that In Win designed this case with double walls!
To power them and the intake fan's lights from the one motherboard RGB header, I used a splitter cable. Unfortunately, they only came in white, but it should not be too hard to paint or scribble (with a permanent marker) over:
Since the side panel is entirely tempered glass, there is no bezel to hide the direct glare of the strip lights. I used black duct tape (called PVC tape in the United States) to fashion my own:
I was not against using adhesive in this case because it should be much easier to remove from glass without leaving behind permanent damage. However, I did find two issues with using duct tape: that dust very easily sticks to and spoils the otherwise clean edges, and that using isopropyl alcohol to clean it off would dissolve some of the adhesive and leave it as smudged residue when the glass panel dried. It took a good amount of elbow grease and much scrubbing in the direction of the tape to remove enough dust and adhesive residue to have it not show when lit.
The end result
I started this DIY endeavour mostly to have full control of the final specifications, but also somewhat as an obligatory initiation into the PC enthusiast community. I must say, despite the learning curve with actually assembling the thing, I am very impressed with the final product, having achieved those goals and ending up with a system which I can truly call my own. I expect many more upgrades, modifications and troubleshooting down the line (I'm looking at you, video card...), but that is a matter for future blog posts!
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