How do you guys organize all the cables that plug into the back panel on your motherboard?

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philb2

[H]ard|Gawd
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How do you guys do cable management?

Including a slot card, I must have 12 USB cables plugged into the back of my Asus Strix 670E motherboard, plus Ethernet, speaker, and HDMI. My system is in a space just to the right of my desk. The cables all run along the floor behnd the desk, then bend right and up to plug into the back of my tower. It's a freaking nightmare just to locate a free USB port, because I have to lift up all the cables, and then try to find a free port.
 
  1. Have a case that places all the IO at the top where it's easy to reach.
  2. Velcro everything. By keeping it all neat, it's much easier to access free ports.
  3. There's a PCI bracket with some extra USB ports which are far away from the cabling jungle at the motherboard IO. This makes it much easier to plug in things temporarily. People with normal cases probably have front IO for this.
  4. I run a USB cable to my desk for plugging things in without having to reach the motherboard IO.

Here's a photo. There are only 6 USB cables plugged in here. If I used 12 like you, and plugged them all into the motherboard IO, I wouldn't need to find a free port, because there wouldn't be any!
cable_management.jpg
 
Mr Evil said:
  1. Have a case that places all the IO at the top where it's easy to reach.
Click to expand...

Just bought a new case. I have my eye on some really high end full tower cases, but they are also high end prices.
Mr Evil said:
  1. Velcro everything. By keeping it all neat, it's much easier to access free ports.
Click to expand...
I already use Velcro. Problem comes when I need to undo 2-3 Velcro straps to add or remove just one cable.

Mr Evil said:
  1. There's a PCI bracket with some extra USB ports which are far away from the cabling jungle at the motherboard IO. This makes it much easier to plug in things temporarily.
Click to expand...
Do you mean a PCIE adapter that plugs into a motherboard slot. Got that already but my only free slot is x1,which limits performance.

Or do you mean something else? Amazon link?

Mr Evil said:
  1. People with normal cases probably have front IO for this.
Click to expand...
I have a "normal" case and an external card reader that adds 3 more USB ports. But I need back of the case connectors for permanent connections. Amazing just how many devices these days use USB. And I seem to have a lot of them. Maybe too many? :eek:



Mr Evil said:
  1. I run a USB cable to my desk for plugging things in without having to reach the motherboard IO
Click to expand...

Got that already, but I don't use it much.
Mr Evil said:
  1. .

If I used 12 like you, and plugged them all into the motherboard IO, I wouldn't need to find a free port, because there wouldn't be any!
Click to expand...
Exactly!!!!
 
Mines a clusterfuck. Between 3 monitors (each with a power cable), a 5.1 surround sound sysem, and using every single USB port on the back of my motherboard + a USB hub + a switch dock streaming setup. It's a mess of cables. There's just so. many. cables.
 
philb2 said:
Do you mean a PCIE adapter that plugs into a motherboard slot. Got that already but my only free slot is x1,which limits performance.

Or do you mean something else? Amazon link?
Click to expand...
It's an Akasa AK-CBUB52-50BK the just uses the USB headers that are already on the motherboard. It was hard to find one that had both USB type A and C. If you can't use one of those because the headers are already used up for front IO, then you might be able to use a USB 2 version, since a lot of motherboards have headers for those in addition to USB 3.

philb2 said:
Got that already, but I don't use it much.
Click to expand...
Maybe connect it to a hub?
 
I'm in awe. My biggest box has 5 cables in the back because it watches the UPS's. (Power, display, net, UPS USB, kbd/mouse USB.) The rest have 4. What are you guys doing that you have 10-12 USB ports in use?

(Oh, and the backup USB drive, but I plug that into a front port on-demand.)
 
pitingres said:
What are you guys doing that you have 10-12 USB ports in use?
Click to expand...
At one point when I was doing a bit of VR development I had 2 different Kinect, the Oculus dev VR kit (that took 2 usb I think), webcam, SSD external harddrive, a joystick-throttle, a headset, a x360 style controller and mouse-keyboard.

Needed a good usb hub, with Ethernet, 3 monitors, DAC, power, it can get complicated.
 
My case gives cables a single point out at the top (SV590), so that helps, but I'm a big fan of split cable sleeving as a way to bundle things. I sometimes use multiple smaller sections that then combine into a larger one, branching as needed.
 
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UPS, keyboard, (with usb passthrough) mouse, usb-c capture card, usb to Ethernet (2.5gb, motherboard only had 1gb integrated) various other controllers, (ps5, GameCube, Wii lightbar+controller thing for Dolphin), as well as some other knick-knacks like a cartridge reader to usb, headset, SD card reader hub, etc.

It used to be even more chaotic with an 8port gb network switch as well, but I since got a bigger (32 port) switch for the whole house and run 5x ethernet to the office instead of a single one + a switch.)

I'm set up to stream multiple types of consoles, and my wife uses the office as an actual office to WFH. Though we have our own setups. (She also has 3 monitors, a desktop and a laptop with a kvm setup)
 
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