Cable Management: A Journey from Chaos to Cleanliness

As I sat at my desk, staring at the tangled mess of cables, I couldn't help but feel a sense of frustration. My keyboard, mouse, and display were all plugged in, but it was clear that cable management had not been a priority when setting up my computer station. The power brick was secured with double-sided tape, which may seem like a makeshift solution at first, but actually proved to be a really good option. This forced me to rethink my approach to cable management.

I decided to secure all the cables one by one, starting with my lighting cable. I used adhesive clamps to attach it to the desk, and it worked wonderfully. However, there was a warning: not to put too much tension on the cable, as the adhesive might not be strong enough and would eventually peel over time. This meant that I had to carefully balance stability with cable security. Despite this challenge, the clamp worked well, and my lighting cable was secured in place.

Next, I turned my attention to organizing the smaller cables. Rather than using a plastic housing for these cables, which would have been a great solution but also made it difficult to remove them without causing damage, I opted for adhesive clamp mounts instead. This allowed me to keep everything accessible and individualized, rather than bundling them all together in one place. If you're worried about really long cables from your USB accessories, remember that you can bunch up the stuff that isn't being used at the end of your cable.

As I continued with my setup, I decided to route an additional USB-C cable to the front and attach it using adhesive clamp mounts as well. This would allow me to easily remove my hard drive from the camera plug without needing to access the back of the computer. While keeping the PC on the floor may seem like a hassle, I found that it was too bulky for the space I had available.

The final piece of the puzzle was lighting. I upgraded my old Hue 2 setup with new Corsair IQ LT100 light towers, which are unconventional but look fantastic. However, this meant adding additional cables to manage. I routed both light towers' power cable and used a USB-C cable going into the PC to secure it all in place. With some extra effort, I was able to keep everything tidy and organized.

The end result of my cable management journey was nothing short of impressive. Both my editing station and gaming setup looked neat and clean, with cables neatly bundled up or secured out of sight. The key takeaway is that cable management doesn't have to be intimidating – it just requires a little creativity and some basic materials like adhesive clamp mounts and zip ties.

What's Next?

With both stations complete, I'm happy to report that my setup has transformed from a chaotic mess into a clean and organized workspace. While there may still be room for improvement – perhaps the light towers or monitor – for now, I'm content with the results. If you're considering tackling your own cable management project, remember that it's not as daunting as working inside a PC case. With some patience and the right tools, even the most complex setups can become tidy and functional spaces.

Products Used:

* Double-sided tape

* Adhesive clamp mounts

* Zip ties

* Corsair IQ LT100 light towers

* Corsair USB-C cables

For more information on these products or to explore other relevant content, check out the links below. Don't forget to subscribe for more updates and behind-the-scenes insights into my tech adventures.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni gotta be honest guys but cable management is my least favorite thing about building computers about setups about managing my studio it's one thing to clean up the space for an instagram shot where everything is pretty and clean but it's another thing of actually living in the space working in it and it being as effective as possible of course when it comes to cables so like if i have to replace a keyboard or a mouse it's not like a 30 minute adventure of trying to reconfigure all the cables i totally get that some people find it therapeutic like hp when you're building my water cooled machine but i don't so mike nieber challenged me to spend 50 bucks on the most popular cable management accessories from amazon and see if i can do it right and so in today's video let's do some cable management and find a way for me to actually enjoy it too hopefully this should simplify things so good people come along let's clean this stuff up it's true what they say about the corsair a100 we've got water-cooled hardware for cool temperatures a cool design that stands out with plenty of good io it's whisper quiet with an efficient fan and occupies as much space on my desk as my plant the corsair a100 up to 16 cores with 2080 ti it does not disappoint check it out below ah so what started as a project that i was kind of dreading turned out to be actually quite fun i never thought i would say that about cable management many of the techniques we apply in dealing with cables inside a computer case apply here as well and actually a lot of the accessories that i bought were not as helpful as i thought they would be so first i have these really awesome adhesive clamps that you can put literally anywhere on your table under on the side or even above i also have these adhesive cable tie mounts and they're awesome because you get to decide how large the cable tie you should use of course i have large and small cable ties and velcro cable ties which are super important they also come in different sizes and the best part they are reusable so if you need to open up a flock of cables you don't have to cut anything just simply open it up remove a cable and tie this back down i also have a few of these adhesive rubber cable channels so if you're using a specific cable that you don't want to be reaching for constantly it's a nice way to get that secured on your desk and in the reach they always come in different sizes and different colors too and i will 100 use them all in the long run the last two items include this flexible velcro channel that you can cut to size and they're awesome because they can house large cables small cables whatever and the last item are these plastic cable channels that are great for security because it's super difficult to remove cables from them and because of the plastic design everything stays in place i have done a video on tips for cable management inside your computer case check it out which is super helpful and i'm gonna try to bring in some of those techniques on working with this thing so the first part with cable management as you would with the case is to remove anything that is unnecessary and in my case i definitely wanted to remove the nzxt q2 plus hub behind the monitor because not only was it adding bulk to the cables but it's been bugging on me and not really working properly so that has to go and looking in the back as you can see everything is such a mess there's absolutely no organization in cables and how they're channeled and where they're going it's a really good way to see what the before looks like because after we're done it's going to look pretty sweet i actually ended up removing the plastic housing because removing cables from it is a complete pain and i found a better way to hide all my cables one more item i forgot to mention is double-sided tape and this thing is your friend especially ensuring the power strip is in the right location below your desk so you can plug things in and one thing about this desk is that it comes with a cable management net that is right in the center but there's an actual like metal frame right in the center of it so populating anything in that space is absolutely useless eber has the same desk but an earlier model which did not have the support beams in the center which means that you can put stuff there but because this is what we're left with double sided tape for the power brick is actually a really good option the next thing i wanted to do is secure all the cables one by one so they're properly organized starting with my lighting cable i wanted the power on off switch to be in reach so i used the adhesive clamps to secure the cable and it has worked wonderfully the only thing to keep in mind with these adhesive clamp mounts is not to put too much tension via the cable because the adhesive might not be as strong and it will peel over time i decided against the plastic housing for smaller cables even though it's a great solution that will look clean removing cables from that will be an absolute nightmare i wanted everything to be accessible if i'm swapping out my keyboard if i'm replacing the display cable on the monitor for example everything is individual without being too bunched into this bundle if you are worried about really long cables from your usb accessories always remember that you can bunch up the stuff that isn't being used so even if you're not doing like a full-on maintenance job with making sure that the cable is routed properly you can just bunch up the stuff that isn't used at the end where you know your plug is so that's kind of hidden behind the computer and you minimize on like the cable being visible below the desk doing the rest of it really reminding me of doing cable management inside a computer case but doing something with the desk is actually so much more enjoyable because you have so much extra room plus i'm using the power strip to hide all the cables behind it after cutting off the tails of the zip ties i think we are looking pretty clean especially versus what we started with since i'm using external ssds to capture all my footage i routed an additional usbc cable to the front and using one of those adhesive look clamps so i can simply remove my hard drive from the camera plug that into the front without needing to access the back of the computer and yes i know it's a sin to keep the pc especially of this caliber on the floor but i just feel like it's kind of a little bit too bulky to be sitting in the corner on my desk i still haven't found a good pedestal but hopefully that will come later as you already can tell i've added additional lighting to replace my hue two lighting setup and these are the corsair iq lt100 the new light towers they're unconventional but they look fantastic but of course when it comes to lighting we have a power cable we have a cable that routes both light towers and we have a usb cable going into the pc so i had to redo all the cable management but again because i'm doing everything individually it's a super easy job follow the same type of technique and procedure to hide all these cables now you put in a few hours to make sure everything is clean what is next for this editing station i've settled on my peripherals and the only thing i might swap out later might be the light towers maybe the monitor so that will be an easy job to do but the before and after i am very happy with how things turned out a super clean under the table super clean top table as well and everything just kind of is collected and bunched up right behind the pc and then it was time to move on to my gaming station and that actually was a bit more challenging because there's nothing underneath the desk and all the cables are completely exposed above and below i use the same technique with the adhesive cable tie points and use a larger cable ties to bunch up some of the cables like the power cable the display cable uh mouse and keyboard as well it is a more permanent solution but if i do have to swap something out i will have to cut the cable ties the last thing i did was use a velcro cable tie on the monitor stand to collect the cables so they exit right down in the middle and they're not visible to you when you sit on the computer and the end result above and below the desk is absolutely clean as all the cables are actually on the edge of the desk and nothing is visible below so cable management on both stations is complete and i'm very happy with the results i realized that i was projecting my frustration with cable management from working inside pc cases but when it comes to doing setup cable management it's a lot easier because you have so much extra room to work with so don't be super intimidated a couple of zip ties a couple of the adhesive zip tie mounts and you'll be fine i'll link all the products down below that you should check out if you're looking to cable manage your space as well but yeah let me know what you think of my uh my first attempt at doing something proper with the setup i'm dmitry thanks so much for watching check out this other relevant content subscribe for more i'll talk to you in the next dayi gotta be honest guys but cable management is my least favorite thing about building computers about setups about managing my studio it's one thing to clean up the space for an instagram shot where everything is pretty and clean but it's another thing of actually living in the space working in it and it being as effective as possible of course when it comes to cables so like if i have to replace a keyboard or a mouse it's not like a 30 minute adventure of trying to reconfigure all the cables i totally get that some people find it therapeutic like hp when you're building my water cooled machine but i don't so mike nieber challenged me to spend 50 bucks on the most popular cable management accessories from amazon and see if i can do it right and so in today's video let's do some cable management and find a way for me to actually enjoy it too hopefully this should simplify things so good people come along let's clean this stuff up it's true what they say about the corsair a100 we've got water-cooled hardware for cool temperatures a cool design that stands out with plenty of good io it's whisper quiet with an efficient fan and occupies as much space on my desk as my plant the corsair a100 up to 16 cores with 2080 ti it does not disappoint check it out below ah so what started as a project that i was kind of dreading turned out to be actually quite fun i never thought i would say that about cable management many of the techniques we apply in dealing with cables inside a computer case apply here as well and actually a lot of the accessories that i bought were not as helpful as i thought they would be so first i have these really awesome adhesive clamps that you can put literally anywhere on your table under on the side or even above i also have these adhesive cable tie mounts and they're awesome because you get to decide how large the cable tie you should use of course i have large and small cable ties and velcro cable ties which are super important they also come in different sizes and the best part they are reusable so if you need to open up a flock of cables you don't have to cut anything just simply open it up remove a cable and tie this back down i also have a few of these adhesive rubber cable channels so if you're using a specific cable that you don't want to be reaching for constantly it's a nice way to get that secured on your desk and in the reach they always come in different sizes and different colors too and i will 100 use them all in the long run the last two items include this flexible velcro channel that you can cut to size and they're awesome because they can house large cables small cables whatever and the last item are these plastic cable channels that are great for security because it's super difficult to remove cables from them and because of the plastic design everything stays in place i have done a video on tips for cable management inside your computer case check it out which is super helpful and i'm gonna try to bring in some of those techniques on working with this thing so the first part with cable management as you would with the case is to remove anything that is unnecessary and in my case i definitely wanted to remove the nzxt q2 plus hub behind the monitor because not only was it adding bulk to the cables but it's been bugging on me and not really working properly so that has to go and looking in the back as you can see everything is such a mess there's absolutely no organization in cables and how they're channeled and where they're going it's a really good way to see what the before looks like because after we're done it's going to look pretty sweet i actually ended up removing the plastic housing because removing cables from it is a complete pain and i found a better way to hide all my cables one more item i forgot to mention is double-sided tape and this thing is your friend especially ensuring the power strip is in the right location below your desk so you can plug things in and one thing about this desk is that it comes with a cable management net that is right in the center but there's an actual like metal frame right in the center of it so populating anything in that space is absolutely useless eber has the same desk but an earlier model which did not have the support beams in the center which means that you can put stuff there but because this is what we're left with double sided tape for the power brick is actually a really good option the next thing i wanted to do is secure all the cables one by one so they're properly organized starting with my lighting cable i wanted the power on off switch to be in reach so i used the adhesive clamps to secure the cable and it has worked wonderfully the only thing to keep in mind with these adhesive clamp mounts is not to put too much tension via the cable because the adhesive might not be as strong and it will peel over time i decided against the plastic housing for smaller cables even though it's a great solution that will look clean removing cables from that will be an absolute nightmare i wanted everything to be accessible if i'm swapping out my keyboard if i'm replacing the display cable on the monitor for example everything is individual without being too bunched into this bundle if you are worried about really long cables from your usb accessories always remember that you can bunch up the stuff that isn't being used so even if you're not doing like a full-on maintenance job with making sure that the cable is routed properly you can just bunch up the stuff that isn't used at the end where you know your plug is so that's kind of hidden behind the computer and you minimize on like the cable being visible below the desk doing the rest of it really reminding me of doing cable management inside a computer case but doing something with the desk is actually so much more enjoyable because you have so much extra room plus i'm using the power strip to hide all the cables behind it after cutting off the tails of the zip ties i think we are looking pretty clean especially versus what we started with since i'm using external ssds to capture all my footage i routed an additional usbc cable to the front and using one of those adhesive look clamps so i can simply remove my hard drive from the camera plug that into the front without needing to access the back of the computer and yes i know it's a sin to keep the pc especially of this caliber on the floor but i just feel like it's kind of a little bit too bulky to be sitting in the corner on my desk i still haven't found a good pedestal but hopefully that will come later as you already can tell i've added additional lighting to replace my hue two lighting setup and these are the corsair iq lt100 the new light towers they're unconventional but they look fantastic but of course when it comes to lighting we have a power cable we have a cable that routes both light towers and we have a usb cable going into the pc so i had to redo all the cable management but again because i'm doing everything individually it's a super easy job follow the same type of technique and procedure to hide all these cables now you put in a few hours to make sure everything is clean what is next for this editing station i've settled on my peripherals and the only thing i might swap out later might be the light towers maybe the monitor so that will be an easy job to do but the before and after i am very happy with how things turned out a super clean under the table super clean top table as well and everything just kind of is collected and bunched up right behind the pc and then it was time to move on to my gaming station and that actually was a bit more challenging because there's nothing underneath the desk and all the cables are completely exposed above and below i use the same technique with the adhesive cable tie points and use a larger cable ties to bunch up some of the cables like the power cable the display cable uh mouse and keyboard as well it is a more permanent solution but if i do have to swap something out i will have to cut the cable ties the last thing i did was use a velcro cable tie on the monitor stand to collect the cables so they exit right down in the middle and they're not visible to you when you sit on the computer and the end result above and below the desk is absolutely clean as all the cables are actually on the edge of the desk and nothing is visible below so cable management on both stations is complete and i'm very happy with the results i realized that i was projecting my frustration with cable management from working inside pc cases but when it comes to doing setup cable management it's a lot easier because you have so much extra room to work with so don't be super intimidated a couple of zip ties a couple of the adhesive zip tie mounts and you'll be fine i'll link all the products down below that you should check out if you're looking to cable manage your space as well but yeah let me know what you think of my uh my first attempt at doing something proper with the setup i'm dmitry thanks so much for watching check out this other relevant content subscribe for more i'll talk to you in the next day\n"