In the good old days, cable management was totally ignored when building a PC. Where PC cases were made up of heavy layers of metal, no one cared about the layout of hardware cables. But now as we have transparent PC cases, everyone wants the inside to look clean and tidy. Apart from adding a nice and tidy look to your build, does cable management matter in improving the performance of your PC? Or is there any bad impact of poor cable management? Let’s find out!
Does Cable Management in a PC Case Affect the Performance?
No, cable management does not impact the performance of your PC at all. However, if you have bad cable management, it might build up heat inside your PC case to some extent. Also, if the cables are hanging around inside your PC case, then they might come in contact with the CPU or GPU cooling fan.
Importance of a Good Cable Management
Cluttering your PC from the inside not only makes it look better but also promotes more airflow as well. And if there is a jungle of cable hanging inside a case, it may lead to more heat buildup. And if you don’t have powerful PC case fans installed, there are high chances of hardware failure due to excess heat.
If you see GPU or CPU temperature rising up to 85 Degrees, it’s more or less due to poor management of your hardware cables. Bulky hardware cables can block the airflow inside a PC case, thus raising the temperature.
Also, if you have a gaming PC case with a transparent side panel, it’s better to tie up your hardware cables to add a decent look to your build. You can a lot of ATX PC cases with a good cable management system. Some PC cases come with separate channels at the side to hide your hardware cables.
How to Improve Airflow using Better Cable Management
There are a lot of ways through which you can improve the airflow inside your PC case. One way is to add enough PC case fans or the second is through better cable management.
- Using Zip Ties to hold together your cables is the cheapest way of improving the airflow inside your PC case. Moreover, zip ties allow you to pin down cables wherever you want and the way you want them. Older PSUs come with a lot of cables that are useless now like Floppy Disk cables, CD-rom cables, etc. For such old power supplies, it’s better to go with zip ties to give a clean look to your PC. You can find small slots on the side of PC case where you can attach the zip ties.
- Modular power supply comes with separate cable that you can connect later on with the hardware that you need. In this way, you can make your build look more cleaner and tidy. Also, the cables that come with modular power supply are folded inside a sleeve, therefore, you don’t need any zip ties to fasten them together.
- Some PC cases come with a side panel space for routing cables from the power supply and connecting right away with the hardware. Also, in you’ll find PC cases with routing holes at one side to pass the cables. Make sure the PC case you buy comes with routing holes that align with your power supply at the top of bottom of your case.
Conclusion
Bad cable management does not affect the gaming or workload performance of your PC, but it does affect the airflow inside your PC case. Zip-tying your cable altogether can free more space inside your PC case and promote high airflow. Hope you got the answer to your question. If you have any other queries, let us know in the comment section. Happy Computing!
