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With a myriad of IDE, SCSI and floppy drive cables inside your computer case, they will often increase the clutter and restrict the airflow. With a little bit of work, however, you can easily tidy the mess and greatly increase the airflow through your case. Rounding cables reduces the area the cables take up and not only does it look much neater, the increased airflow should make things much cooler inside your machine. Rounding cables typically involves slicing them into small strips and binding them with cable ties, but there are a couple of other ways to round your cables as well.

If you are afraid of the damage you may do to your cables with a razor blade, you can always fold them instead. While this is not the optimal solution, it does work to reduce the area they take up. Simply mark every 5 or so wires and neatly fold the cables along their length - as shown below - using some electrical tape will stop them from unfolding as you work. This is often a good option for those expensive ATA66 cables that you don't want to risk damaging.

Folding cables is a useful option if you don't want to cut them.

Now that you have your cables nicely folded, you'll need to ensure that they don't unfold themselves. While you could use cable ties, there are several other ways to keep them together. One of the simplest and easiest options is to wrap them in electrical tape. This does the job well enough, but the resulting cables are quite stiff and hard to bend or shape. Also if you want do remove the tape at a later date, it will leave sticky stuff everywhere.

Electrical tape can be used to keep folded cables compacted.

A second and more elegant option is to use some 'spiral loom' - this is available at most electrical shops and is typically used to keep electrical cables neat and tidy. After the cable has been folded or cut, simply wrap the 'spiral loom' around the cable, to give a neat and compact result. The 'spiralled cables' are still quite flexible, but also tend to hold their shape when put into place. The left-over spiral loom can then be put to good use tidying up the rest of the electrical cables inside your machine.

Spiral loom makes for tidy looking cables.

While folding your cables is adequate, a much better result can be found if you take a razor blade to them. A little care is needed, but it's surprisingly difficult to actually kill them. All different types of cable can be split - IDE, SCSI, ATA66/100 as well as floppy drive cables. Since standard IDE cables are easiest to work with, it's probably a good idea to start with those.

If you don't have half a dozen of these lying around, you can buy them for a couple of dollars each, so even if you manage to stuff one up, it's no big drama. As usual, a little bit of planning will go a long way - a nice sharp razor blade (or a Stanley Knife in my case), a chopping board, numerous cable ties and a pen make a good start.

What you'll need.

Standard IDE cables and SCSI cables are fairly easy to split and round, but ATA66 cables - with the additional ground reference wires - require a little more care. My floppy drive cables also had middle connectors for additional drives, but since I don't need more than one floppy drive in my machine, I removed the connectors before rounding the cable. A small screwdriver, slipped under the connector was enough to loosen the clip, and allow me to pry it free. After the cable was split, a little bit of electrical tape wrapped around the joint, should be sufficient to protect it.

Removing the internal connectors from the floppy cable.

Marking out where you intend to cut - will make it much easier - and will save trying to work out where you have to cut, when you have the knife in your hand. For standard IDE cables I cut them into 4 wire strips, strips of 5 wires for my 50 pin SCSI cables and 8 wire strips for my ATA66/100 cables. Run the tip of the pen over the top of the cable and count the 'number of bumps' and then mark off the appropriate position. Doing it this way is much easier than trying to do it visually - especially if you are the kind of person who can't thread a needle.

Preparation makes the job much easier. (Marking out my SCSI cable)

Now that the cable is marked out, its time to attack it with the blade - I found the simplest way is to not actually 'cut' or 'hack' at the cable. Instead, rest the tip of the blade in the valley you've marked between the wires, and push it through the cable and into the chopping board. Now use your other hand to slowly push the cable upward, and make a small slit between the two wires. The upward pressure should draw the knife between the wires, cutting at the weakest point; this will save you slicing through anything you don't really want to cut.

Gentle upward pressure should slice the weak point between the two wires.

Continue along and cut a small slit between the wires where you have marked. With that done, simply use your thumbnails and tease the split wider. When it's wide enough, slide your finger along and split the cable all the way along its length. A little care is needed, just in case you have not cut straight and you expose some of the internal copper wire. If you did expose some of the wire, continue to carefully split the rest of the cable, and then patch up the exposed areas with a little electrical tape. As long as you don't actually sever the copper wire, or yank it free of the end connectors, everything should be fine.

ATA66 spaghetti anyone?

Now, starting at one end, gather the split wires up, lay them on top of each other, and secure - loosely at this stage - with a cable tie. I find it easier to choose the central group of wires, and gather the edge ones in, working from the centre out. This keeps the cable nice and 'straight', as they can get kinked and tangled quite easily. Work your way down the cable and use as many cable ties as you need to keep things tidy.

Half way there.

With all the splits piled neatly on top of each other, straighten the cable to make sure everything is aligned and simply tighten the cable ties (an extra set of hands help here - or you can use your teeth) making sure you don't 'pinch' the outer cables in the wrong position.

My neatly rounded - floppy drive cable.

While the rounded cables will have lost some of their flexibility, they are still easy to manage. Some adjustments near the connectors may be needed to get them fitted snugly to your hard drives or the motherboard connectors. But the end result should be a much neater and compact cables leaving your case with much improved airflow.

The final results - folded and taped, split and tidied with spiral loom, and the split and cable tied cables.