Maybe this link is useful too, although it's in Dutch. I hope the translation is complete.
Tidying up IDE cables
Page 1: Introduction
When tucking away IDE cables, make sure to use the walls and/or bottom of the case as often as possible. As flat as possible.
We are using a 90 cm IDE cable. Its surface is rough and it's flexible to fold, but will hold this form because of the roughness.
Older cables are too flexible and will not retain the form.
Using a longer cable offers more freedom for routing.
Pic 1: 90 ° angle. The red lines are folding lines.
Pic 2: Result: a 90 ° angle, however the IDE connector is now upside down. Next page shows a solution for this little problem.
Page 2: Turning upside down
Pic 1: As we showed before, it's possible you rather have the cable upside down. Using the right folding techniques this is possible.
We start with the printing facing up, and the connector facing up as well.
Pic 2: First make a 90 ° angle like described on page 1, then fold it back again, parallel to the rest of the cable.
Pic 3: Now fold both parts over eachother, the result is a straight cable with the connector turned upside down.
Maximum thickness of this cable: 4 times the thickness of a single cable, about 2 mm.
Page 3: Rounding
Pic 1: Depending of how the cable will be routed, it may happen there is no place for a wide IDE cable, and you rather wish you had a small round cable.
Pic 2: Fold the cable in a U-shape. The middle of the U will be the part that ends up rounded. This part can now be simply rolled up.
Pic 3: If needed, tape off both ends to prevent unrolling of the cable. You can fold back the ends of the cable to form a straight cable again.
Pic 4: Result.
Page 4: Connecting optical drives
Pic 1: Using long IDE cables has its downsides. The distance between the connectors is big. If you want to connect two optical drives, there are some possibilities to tuck the cable between the 2 drives.
Pic 2: First, you can just tuck away the cable on top of the upper drive, but it's not as neat. Neater is, to tuck it between the 2 drives.
Pic 3: Pre-fold the cables, mount the lower drive, put the cable in, and then slide the upper drive in its place. Then connect the cable to the upper drive.
Pic 4: The cable arrives from below. Next page shows how to arrive from top - handy for hard disk connecting.
Page 5: Connecting hard disks
Pic 1: There is still a better way to connect the optical drives and hard disks. We can do this by not routing the cable straight to the back of the hardware, but to route the cable underneath the hardware.
Pic 2: Depending of the case and specific routing wishes, this needs some creativity. Usually, hard disk bays are open in the front, easy to tuck away a cable in there. 5.25" bays are usually closed in front, maybe needs some extra modding, or routing the cable on the back to top.
Page 6: Making slimmer
Sometimes making the cable slimmer will make a certain route possible.
Pic 1: Fold the cable in a U-shape like before, but fold the legs back again after half a cable-length. The piece sticking out can be folded back and you end up with a cable half the width.
Pic 2: Result.
Page 7: Conclusion
There are no standard solutions, but these tips will make it possible to reach the best end result.
I am slowly modding my P180 and im down to wire and cable management. Im going to route all my power cables ( the ones with the molex connectors ). The part i need some help with is ribbon cable management. I remember a few weeks ago, i saw a thread here on SPCR, and in one of the replies, the person made a comment how he thought the guy should get rid of his round hard drive cables, and go back to the ribbon cables, and dress it properly.
