IDE Cable Rounding Made Cheap

In today's era of case mods being all the rage, a clean case can be very important to your modding work. The part we are going to focus on here is the IDE cables. These days rounded IDE cables are the craze for those who want that unique look to their systems... nothing says "that looks like a complete bag-o-ass" like ugly unruly IDE cables running amok behind the nice etched cutout in the side of your case.

So without further ado.... lets get started...

Here is what you'll need.

Flex guard, a cutting blade, and of course... an IDE cable. The cutting blade should be something that you can easily handle. I just used my regular old utility knife with a sharp blade. its easy for me to handle and I am used to working with it. Make sure that you feel comfortable with the blade that you do choose because this is not a good place to make a mistake.  Take an old IDE cable and make a few test cuts before you slice into your good IDE cables.

First start by cutting the cable into smaller strips of about 5 wires each. This will make it easer to deal with than just cutting each one individually, which is how I attempted to do it the first time. It is a good thing that I had extra cables.

Now its time to cut the individual leads. Be sure to take your time on this part. Making a mistake when cutting the leads will leave you with a dead IDE cable. Once you are done, you will have this:

Once you get done cutting down the cable, its time to get it rounded. I used regular old black Flex Guard tubing for mine. I was not too worried about the looks as much as functionality. This tubing does come in other colors though, incase you are wanting a matched color scheme.  Cut a piece of the tubing about a half inch shorter than the length of the IDE cable.  Open up the tubing and start stuffing the wires into it.

Ok... we have the cables ready to go now, all we need to do is slap them in the case now to create a 'finished' product. (in reality...case mods are never really done ;) )

For the total cost of 3.50, and about 20 minutes of work and patience, we have our own rounded IDE cables.