How do you manage your cables?

[Nodoyuna]

Hi

My setup is becoming a big mess... I'm starting to have many cables on the back of my monitors and I think the sooner I start ordering this mess, the better

Also, I'm getting some interference on my monitors, that I think comes from the cables

I think shielded cables should work, and I'd like to start replacing them... But I don't know any good brand with good quality shielded cables

So, how do you manage your cables for your setup? Are there any tips for grouping them?

Thanks in advance

[gray117]

Interference:
No speakers near monitors, try and have a bit of separation between monitors, beware of big metal supports in walls, try to avoid coils, try to avoid cable bundles/coils, try to ensure power cables are away from audio/video leads ... and ... er ... avoid microwaves? ... if you do have some industrial sized bundle of equipment try and make sure the rest of it is powered down when not in use and any supply of power isn't overlapping/crossing back over your analgue output.

Do you have a switcher/extension/adapter? - don't overlook the interconnect as a possible weak link... But, also consider using one if you don't yet to simply help in separating and organising your setup (and avoid swearing at behind the monitor fumbles).

... Although honestly there's only been a handful of times where this has ever been a noticeable problem: grounding issues + physical faults, are more common issues imho.. More often than not 'interference' is totally self contained within a bad connection or bad cable: So yes, cable shielding is better than not, but with any cable make sure to test it in isolation before thinking its interference from anything else that is fucking it up - so most commonly a issue in closely packed scart/vga cables ... Never really had too much of an issue with rca/bnc breakouts probably just because a bit more space, individual grounding and rubber means individual shielding (or not) is kind of redundant.

[RottenToTheGore]

try to avoid coils, try to avoid cable bundles/coils

What would you suggest when cables are too long? I use Velcro ties and avoid wrapping cables tightly, but if I couldn't bundle cables at all I'd drown.

[Nodoyuna]

I Was thinking about grouping power supply cables and Signal cables with some kind of velcro or plástic brackets... Is It a good idea?

[nmalinoski]

I Was thinking about grouping power supply cables and Signal cables with some kind of velcro or plástic brackets... Is It a good idea?

Personally, I think it's fine. I don't remember where I read it, but the cabling recommendation is to run your power cables low and your AV cables high, which means to me that your power cables are in one group, and your AV cables are in another (and may be network in a third?). I do know that, at least when it comes to server racks, network and power are definitely run separately.

[bobrocks95]

I Was thinking about grouping power supply cables and Signal cables with some kind of velcro or plástic brackets... Is It a good idea?

Personally, I think it's fine. I don't remember where I read it, but the cabling recommendation is to run your power cables low and your AV cables high, which means to me that your power cables are in one group, and your AV cables are in another (and may be network in a third?). I do know that, at least when it comes to server racks, network and power are definitely run separately.

I happen to have a post from donluca saved that offers some advice on this:
viewtopic.php?p=1310548#p1310548

EDIT: Lol this is still generally helpful, but the "power low AV cables high" that I was remembering wasn't from that post, but nmalinoski posting about it back then. Whoops.

[Classicgamer]

It's impossible to organize cables as, every night, the gnomes come out of hiding and tie knots in all of our wires.

You can lay two wires flat at opposite sides of the room and in the morning, it will be spaghetti junction. They are evil!

There is no known way of preventing this. The only option is to hide all your cables somewhere you won't see them to make it less stressful. Run them under the carpet and, whatever you do, don't look....

Another idea is to hide everything inside an arcade cab and build a control panel with everything you need so you don't have to keep switching controllers - a sure way to tie the cables in knots....