I have worked on my wire management for quite some time, improving it each and every time any way I can. I have cut holes in my case i.e. on the mobo tray to further improve my cable routing. I have tucked away all of the excess wires behind the mobo tray and the PSU and have zip-tied or e-taped them down and out of sight. "Cable-gami" is used where it can be used. For example, the IDE cable running from the mobo to the HDD is folded a total of 6 times between the two connections.
I have eliminated every and all things that are more than required. I love the simple and clean look of one HDD and one DVD-RW. While it may not make sense to some, it works perfectly for me. And while my system isnt the fastest out there, its plenty fast for what I use it for which is basic IM'ing, e-mail, word processing, a little gaming here and there(BF1942, good 'ol CS and CS:S, HL2, etc.) and my favorite, video editing.
My only complaint about this case is that the HDD cannot be mounted sideways. I have tried turning the drive cage but it completely and entirely blocks any and all airflow from entering the case in the front so that idea is out. Plus, the drive cage does not fit when rotated 90*. I have thought about suspending the drive but I sometimes bump my computer with my knee and would rather not have it swinging around like an ape looking for a banana. I have just recently thought about ordering a Zalman heatpipe cooler for my HDD and mounting it backwards in the 5.25" drive bay but am not too sure about the idea.
During the day, the system cannot be heard. There is too much ambient noise, whether its the ocean(I live very close to the beach), or just regular neighborhood noise, it cant be heard unless you are within 1-1.5 feet from it. Even then its very difficult. At night, when I am in bed and there is very little ambient noise, the system is audible from about 3 feet away, after that, its pretty much inaudible. It is very quiet. Id say ~26dB or so
Enjoy!
The goodies I got in the mail today are CoolerMaster Blue UV Fans that are 22dB and approximately 42CFM. They are silent! Loudest thing in my system now is my hdd's crunching. They're amazing and for only $19 shipped from http://www.svc.com, they're hard to beat. Plus, IMO, they look gorgeous. To further silence them, I picked up some 8 x 1.5" screws and some hex nuts along with 24 rubber washers to mount the fans. You might be able to see the washers if you look closely but I doubt it. Basically how the fans are attached(at all four corners) goes as follows: hex nut->rubber washer->case wall->rubber washer->fan->rubber washer->screw head. See the pic for further explanation...
The changes to my wiring are highlighted by the pictures for the most part. I cleaned up the area behind the HDD cage and the right side in general.
The DVD-RW area has been improved as the wires have been ziptied tightly above and out of sight.
The HDD wiring has improved along with some added cable-gami behind the drive cage.
One smaller, more noticable(IMO) improvement is the wire that used to run down from the PSU under the mobo to the bottom fan connector on the mobo. I have instead re-routed that wire through an existing hole I made for another cable and it still connects to the same fan header for RPM monitoring. You can see where the wire used to be in this older pic I have. Its circled in red.
Once again, enjoy and please feel free to post comments and/or questions!
