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Rounding your IDE or floppy cables is
nothing new. Having rounded cables allows better air
flow throughout the case. Not only is rounding your
cables good to do, but also shortening them to fit and
clean up the "clutter" is also good. A lot
of people these days don't use floppy drives anymore,
but what's more annoying is they give you 2
FDD connections per cable.
All parts we
will need:
-IDE
or floppy cable (s)
-Scissors, razor or sharp knife
-Wire loom (optional)
-Zip ties
-Electrical tape (optional)
Here are the parts lined up:
For this write-up I will
be using a floppy cable, however the same rules apply
to IDE. If you upgrade or work on PC's a lot, you know
how much these cables get in your way.
Once you determine how long
you need the cable and how many devices you are going
to use on the cable- clean them up.
First, bend the cable back
so it is stretched. Grab your razor, scissors or sharp
knife and put it far inside the plastic connector, like
this:
Slide it all the way down
the plastic.
Now it is at the correct
length for me. At this point you can use electrical
tape to cover the wire.
Next, I am going to take
off these annoying plastic clips. They always get in
my way and are worthless. If your not going to be throwing
your PC around, you don't need them.
There, now we have a nice
clean cable to work with.
Now for the rounding. Get
your razor, or knife and make 1/2 inch slits in the
cable. Be very careful here, one slip and the
cable is worthless. These things are very cheep
- but you may not have an extra one just laying around.
You may want to find an old cable to practice on first.
Make your 1/2 inch slits
like this. It doesn't matter how many, or how far apart
they are.
Now just "tear"
the slits all the way down the cable. Just pull, and
it will tear. You don't have to be really careful here.
Once your done with your
tearing, it should look like this:
Just start "stacking"
the pieces on top of each other. At this point you could
just use some zip-ties to hold it all together. Or,
you could use tape. I went down to AutoZone and picked
up some wire-loom. They carry many different colors
to choose from.
Grab the wire loom and start
stuffing the cable into it. Don't cut the wire-loom
until your almost done, you don't want to end up cutting
it too short.
After its all tucked in,
cut the wire-loom and use some zip-ties to hold it all
together.
Now your PC will be happy.
:)
If you have those cables
that use one blue end and one standard, don't worry
about using the "blue" side for the motherboard,
it does not matter.
Sure you can go out and buy
rounded cables, but then you wouldn't be a "modder"
now would you...
Burke~
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