How To Hide GPU PCIe Cables So They Aren’t So Ugly

The graphics cards are one of the most powerful – and complicated – bits of a PC build. That’s because while plugging them into the motherboard PCIe slot is easy enough, cable managing the various PCIe cables (that run from your PSU to your GPU) is NOT easy.

This is especially true if you have a pigtail (y-splitter) PCIe cable because there are multiple ends that hang around your case looking a bit rubbish.

So in this video I discuss loads of different ways that you can improve your graphics card’s cable management.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbrvxqN8XOU

If you prefer text over video, please read on for the guide/transcript version of this video.

Video Transcript And Guide

Hey, everyone! I’ve finally done it. I finished my computer build. It’s a 12-core Ryzen CPU with 64 gigs of RAM and an RX 6700 GPU, and I’m really excited about it. Let’s take a look. Tada! Why aren’t you cheering? What’s the matter? Yeah, fine. I know this cable management isn’t the best, but clearly, there’s no alternative, right? Well, yes, obviously, there is. This is pretty horrendous, but actually, many people end up getting really confused about how to cable manage their graphics card and how to make it look good, so in this video, I’m going to give you a bunch of tips so that you can turn this monstrosity into something better. So, let’s get started.

Cables Down, PCIe Up, That’s The Way We Like To…

The first thing you need to actually decide with your PCIe express cables is how you’re actually going to run them. You’re going to run it from the top, you’re going to run it from the bottom, or maybe from the side. And to be honest, this depends on your case and your motherboard configuration and how far your PCIe express cables run. But often, running it from the top can work, but usually, the graphics card is further away from some of the top cable routing holes, so if you were to run it all the way from the top, that’s quite a long run for your cables, and that might look quite messy. But if you need to do that, then you need to do that.

Another option that some people do is actually run the cables from the bottom, and that can work really well, especially with smaller builds like Micro ATX, because there’s not going to be that much room between your graphics card and the PSU shroud, so you can just literally have both of your cables, not just one of them, but both of your cables running below your graphics card through the cable routing holes there, assuming you have them, and that can look pretty good. But of course, you still kind of got cables poking out here, and you have to kind of bend them a little bit to get them in, and some people are also concerned, especially with the 12 volt power adapter, they’re actually concerned about put stress on the cable because if you’ve got this really tight bend coming down just so you can make things look a little bit better, some people are concerned about that.

Avoid This Color Mistake

But one… the other popular option is to actually run the cables to the side, so you’re not going to have them come out here, you’re going to run them all to the side, so one the cable routing holes here, and that’s generally going to look a little bit better. But before you do that, don’t be an idiot like me and go to buy a black computer case and a black motherboard and a black graphics card and then get a white PSU. I actually bought this because it was like $5 cheaper than the black version, and I’ve regretted it every day since because they’ve got really bright cables that just don’t fit in at all. If these were black cables, it would have fitted in a little bit better, to be honest.

But whichever color you end up with, if you decide to run the cables under your graphics card, which is quite a good option to be honest, you’re still going to end up with a bit of a mess, like even with that cable, if I get it out the way, it’s still going to look a little bit messy because, practically, you’ve got all of these cables, maybe pigtails as well, and I’ll talk about the pigtail devil spawn connector in a minute. You’re still going to have lots of cables there.

Shielding/Hiding Cables

One of the things you can actually do to prevent that is actually buy a PCIe express cable shield or hider. There’s a few different terms for them. They’re not that common, but sometimes you can buy them, or even some people 3D print them. It goes under your graphics card, and then you’ve actually got a little bit of plastic or metal that literally hides your cables away, and then all you’re going to see is something like that, and that can look a lot neater. That’s one option open to you.

The other option is if you’ve got, you know, GPU supports or anything like that, you can maybe get two or three of them, have them in a row, and actually hide your cables behind that as well. Or some people actually use a toy or something to prop up the graphics card, and if the toy is big enough, then you can actually use that to hide all your cables as well. But of course, you still have the problem of pigtails, and as much as you try to hide them away, sometimes they’re just there, staring in your face like some horrible devil spawn connector that they are. I really don’t like pigtail connectors to be honest.

Ziptie The Pigtail

So, there’s a few options open to you. One of them is simply to keep the whole pigtail connector there and then use cable ties or zip ties to just hide them a little bit, so you literally just come along and you would zip tie them out the way. Obviously, cut that with scissors. You should get multiple as well, just so you hide in every single bit as well. And at least it’s a little bit better than having one of the ends just flailing around your case, looking really messy. So, that can actually be a good alternative, but as I said, it’s still not ideal. You’re still ultimately going to have the pigtail there, and if you are trying to bend the cable, you’ve still got bits popping up, and it doesn’t look very good.

180 Degree Connectors

I actually don’t use these PCIe express cables. I’ve actually bought separate ones, but before I mention that, I wanted to mention one other thing. As I mentioned earlier on in this video, hiding the cables under your graphics card can be quite a good way of getting rid of the cables, but you’ve got this really tight bend, and that’s not really ideal. So, what you can do is actually buy a 180-degree adapter. So, basically, you would remove your PCIe express cables completely from the slot, so let’s get rid of both of them. You’d basically then get a 180-degree adapter, which plugs into your PCIe express port and your graphics card, and then it literally routes to under your graphics card, and then what you would do is literally plug your PCIe express cables into about a 180-degree adapter, and that can be a really good way of hiding them because you’ve got this nice, sleek shield, effectively acts as a shield. You’ve got this nice, sleek shield there. The cables go into it, and then you can hide all your cables straight out of the cable routing holes, and that can work quite well.

But in general, same as when you buy PCIe express cables, you need to be aware that you shouldn’t go out and buy some random no-name 180-degree adapter because the graphics card is one of the highest voltage parts in your computer, and you really don’t want to just buy an adapter that might potentially catch fire or melt or anything like that. And that brings me to the next point, which is as I mentioned earlier, I don’t actually use these cables. I use something different, a lot better than these cables, so I’ll just get rid of them completely for now.

Premium Or Single Ended Cables

Okay, maybe they don’t look better if you just randomly mash them in like that, but I’ll actually cable manage them more after this video, but I’ll also give you some tips for how to manage this big watch of cables. But the really nice thing with these types of cables is you can actually choose to have them single-ended, so on the Corsair website, if you’ve got a Corsair PSU, but I’ll talk about other PSUs in a second, you can have double-ended, which are basically ones with a horrible devil spawn pigtail connector, or you can just have single-ended ones like these ones. They come with a single end, it’s called a six-pin or an eight-pin, and you can just choose which one you plug in, and it does look a lot neater because then you don’t need to worry about the pigtail or zip tying it to the rest of the cable or trying to hide it.

Now, if you don’t have a Corsair PSU, other PSU makers do also often have the option of buying single-ended PCIe express cables, so that’s a good option. But if your PSU maker doesn’t sell these single-ended cables, what you can do instead is go to somewhere like Cablemod, and they support loads of different power supply units, and often, you can configure exactly what you want in different colors, and it can look really nice. And in that way, then, whether you run your cables from the top or the bottom or the side, you’re almost making your cable the statement piece. It’s actually not something to be ashamed of. The cables shouldn’t be hidden away. They should actually be shown off. So, that’s kind of the idea of going out and buying really nice cables.

But, of course, you do still have the issue, even if they are going to be a statement piece, you still don’t want them to look really messy like this, because there’s just loads of individual wires in this particular case. Would there be 32? No, let me think, 8 + 8 is 16, not 32, 16. You can tell I have a maths degree can’t you? [edit sound] So, you got 16 different wires, and you need to cable manage them in some way.

Cable Combs

Now, of course, it does give you these little cable comb things, which can help a little bit, but ideally, you want to manage all of the cables in one fell swoop. So, what some people actually do is they go out and buy ATX 24-pin cable combs, and they can look a lot better because, although they’re actually designed to cable manage the big monstrous motherboard connection, you can actually use them for graphics cards, individually sleeved cables too, and it ends up looking a lot better.

Lian Li Strimer Plus

But another option, if you want to make your PCIe express cables the statement piece, is Lian Li’s Strimer Plus, and these RGB-based cables that look absolutely amazing. This is what you see a lot on TikTok and places like that. There’s loads of PC builds that actually use these Lian Li Strimer Plus cables because they got the built-in RGBs. They often run under your graphics card, and they just look really nice. Obviously, they do require an ARGB header in your motherboard to actually operate the RGB and get the full capability out of them, but they can be a really nice way of actually making your cables a statement piece.

PCIe Extensions

But if you’re not a fan of RGB or you just don’t want to buy the Strimer Plus for any reason, which is totally cool, if you’ve got these cables, what you can actually do instead is buy PCIe express extension cables, and that’s a way of hiding the pigtail as well. So, that’s my last tip, is basically you’d have your cables in the back of your case, which this bit connects into your PSU, but then instead of running this end to your graphics card and everything looking a bit rubbish, what you’d get is an extension cable, so you literally plug the extension cable into this particular bit, and then you run that single cable through to your graphics card. And in many cases with the extension cables, you can choose to have like an eight-pin if you know that your graphics card has an eight-pin slot, or a six-pin one if your graphics card has a six-pin slot, and the benefit of that is it’s really clean because you’ve got your horrible pigtail cable in the back of your case, and then you’ve got your extension cable plugging into that, and then you’ve just got, in this case, you’d have an eight-pin cable and a six-pin cable coming out, so two separate cables to make sure this is properly powered, and it will look a lot neater. You don’t even then need to worry about little split ends on your PCIe express connector, which doesn’t always look very good.

Now, I’ve mentioned a few times in this video that you need to properly power your graphics card. If you’re not sure what the heck I’m talking about, then I’ve got another video which you can check out here that talks through all of this. And I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please click the thumbs up button. Please subscribe to see more videos like this. Thanks for watching.