Cable Management

The most important factor to consider when it comes to air cooling is air flow. Generally, you want front to back and bottom to top air flow. Your also going to want the most airflow possible, which means bigger or faster fans. Most systems will have one front fan, one side fan, and one rear fan. Additionally, some cases may have another side fan, more front fans, and even a top fan. Regardless of how many fans you have, you still need to make sure your air flow is unimpeded. The best way to obtain maximum airflow is to manage your cables. Most modern cases have cable management holes that allow you to take your unused cables and hide them behind the motherboard tray. These holes also allow you to reroute cables such as your front usb, front audio, pci-e, cpu power, and sometimes even your 20/24 pin power cable behind your motherboard tray. This not only makes your case look better, it increases airflow. A system with proper cable management can obtain a temperature difference of up to 5 degrees Celsius! Note, that is it also handy to have cable ties (zipties) handy. Sometimes, if your case doesn't have cable management holes, simply using these ties to minimize their surface area and impedance. If your case doesn't have cable management holes, you may want to considering drilling them.