60 insanely neat photos of cables that belong in a modern art gallery Leave a comment
(Pocket-lint) – There’s a certain breed of IT worker who has a deep fetish for all things neat and tidy.
The result is a server room with hundreds of cables neatly organised, cable-tied and manipulated into perfect angles. Not only is the outcome aesthetically pleasing, it’s also technically practical.
We’ve collected some of the best images of these masterfully neat cables for you to enjoy. Perhaps some inspiration while you’re stuck indoors with nothing better to do?
Retro gaming setup
Perhaps the neatest gaming setup you’ve ever seen. This image not only features some next level cable management, it also includes all manner of retro gaming machines. Don’t believe us? Just take a look at the shelf above the TV.
Subtle gaming setup
This neat gamer went entirely the other way with their cable management. Going as far as installing not one, but two gaming machines on the back of their TV and keeping all the cables nice and neat and out of sight. Seems like a great way to sneak a new device into the house without your other half noticing as well.
National Energy Technology Laboratory
This cable porn comes from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy. It’s good to see that even Government bodies take cable management seriously.
Barcelona Super Computer
This super-computer is a superb work of art, you can tell this setup means serious business.
Pathtrack install
This copper colour wiring seems to give the impression of metal pipework and electrical/data wiring coming together in perfect unison.
Tiny circuit board wiring
This tiny circuit board wiring shows that cable management is a fine art, even at the tiniest level.
Micro wiring
This neat wiring could easily be present in your phone or tablet. Tiny attention to detail ensuring the best results from our digital world.
Braided cables from CERN
It’s no surprise that CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, needs some serious cabling to keep their research running.
White and blue is good for you
To the keen eye, this cabling boasts both velcro ties and zip ties to keep the cables neat and tidy and drive the cable porn enthusiasts insane.
Datacenter
Ceiling wiring racks help keep these neat cables out of view at this datacenter which you could argue is a shame, but it’s certainly neat and practical.
Living room pleasure
Neat and tidy cables don’t just belong in the workplace, here a piece of ethernet cabling has been turned into a work of art rather than just an eye-sore.
Mellow yellow
Bright yellow cabling curls and curves in satisfying ways, taking data off to where it’s needed most.
Google’s TensorFlow Cloud Service
A photo from behind the scenes at the inner workings of Google’s mammoth machine. This wiring is part of the machinery used for machine learning, so you can imagine the data that passes through these wires.
Mean green cable machine
We’re green with envy. This insanely neat cabling is a joy to behold.
Small but neat
This wiring is from a self-built PC and shows the dedication to cable management and neatness these enthusiasts have when building their own machines.
A rainbow of cables
This Redditor attempted to create a rainbow out of their cabling and the outcome is as neat as it is colourful.
Stairwell pipe-chase
This overhead pipework is pleasantly neat and easy on the eye. We wonder how many people take the time to stop and look up when walking down these twisting corridors.
Purple rainbows
These neat and arching cables clearly took hours of meticulous work to put together. You have to admire the handiwork and the dedication to cable perfection.
Up to the heavens
This is some seriously impressive wiring, wiring that even God would be proud of. A tubular mass of wires take all the data up through the ceiling to where it’s needed.
Power cable neatness
This photo had Redditors arguing as the angle of the photo makes it look like the cables are going in the wrong holes. Even the internet can’t be calmed by simple neat cabling and zip ties.
So many colours
So many colours and such precision all in one place.
Service loop
A mass of cables loop their way down a ladder, neatly tied and kept in place.
Interlaced insanity
A couple more colours and we’d almost have a rainbow of wiring in this photo.
Purple paradise
Thick batches of purple cable neatly line the walls of this rack. You can only imagine the amount of time and effort that went into this setup.
Insane cable management
Another neat snap of perfectionist level cable management. Again, this one had Redditors arguing about whether there were enough cable ties being used or too many.
Top down cabling
Neat cabling with curves flows down like a waterfall of data. Magnificent and intricate.
Cable or candy?
This colourful wiring could just as easily be mistaken for candy cane.
Digital TV wiring
This is what it looks like when someone with a high attention to detail wires an apartment building for digital television signals all originating from a single dish.
Pipework to be proud of
Neatness isn’t just for cabling. The organisation of this pipework is as admirable as it is beautiful.
Cables as art
This one looks more like a work of art than a photo of technology it’s just that neat and tidy. There’s no denying the symmetry is pleasing to the eye.
Purple cable porn
This magnificent purple cabling is likely co-axial cables neatly arranged on the inside of a mobile broadcasting truck. A magnificent feat of cabling and tremendous use of cable ties.
Electric meter neatness
This is a transformer rated electric meter for a 2000 Amp service. A neat piece of work by the installer on a powerful bit of kit.
The Cat5-o’-9-Tails
A bored network admin has turned some CAT5 cable into a cat o’ nine tails. This photo gives a whole new meaning to the term “cable porn”.
The seriously neat server room
Photographer Alejandro Cynowicz says he hates cables, but their company takes the matter of neat cabling extremely seriously.
Contrived conduits
This beautiful pipework made its way onto Reddit under /r/conduitporn/ and shows that it’s not just wiring that people get obsessive about.
Colourful completion
You can almost feel the satisfaction of a job well done when looking at this photo taken at the end of a completed cabling mission. Neat and tidy and everything in its correct place.
German efficiency
This cabling and pipework dates back to the 1930’s and hails from Germany. It’s no surprise to see the Germans being as efficient with their pipework as they are with everything else. Everything in its place and a place for everything.
Curvaceous cabling
You have to admire this curvaceous cabling, magnificent lines and a high attention to detail.
Baby Rack
It might be tiny compared to some of the other racks we’ve seen, but the cabling here is still impressive.
The internet
This photo is simply labelled “the internet” but despite the neatness, we’re not too sure there are enough cables here to hold the whole internet.
All the colours of the internet
Wonderful domestic wiring captured in a simple photo of a number of ethernet cables neatly arranged on their journey from the home broadband router.
Cable management is an art
Seeing this cable management, Redditor Bitwaba commented “Cable management is an art, but if to maintain it you have to be an artist, then you’re making it more complicated than it should be.” This single comment sums up almost all the photos in this article.
Multi core power cable
This multi core power cabling shows that even power cables can be neatly organised.
Video routing needs neat cabling too
Even video streaming and routing needs neat cabling. This Redditor is understandably impressed with their work and with good cause too.
Attention to detail
From massively neat and satisfying cable constructions down to tiny works of art like this. Cable management beauty is everywhere. This photo shows the results of a fine piece of working hardware modding a PlayStation 2. Neat cabling running away from the freshly installed chip.
4 days of work
This impressive mass of cables apparently took Reddit user T—Ham four days to put together this neatly. He said there were at least 378 cables in this setup and his hands were raw by the end, but oh boy was it worth it.
TV production levels of awesome
This incredibly beautiful cable view shows a mass of cables being used at a large TV production facility. A total of 576 ports filled with all the necessary neat cables.
Service loops
Some might argue that this is unnecessary and some of it could have been done out of sight, but we have to admire the craftsmanship of these service loops. Wonderfully neat and organised cables separated and controlled in the most magnificent of ways.
The Cloud
Is this what the cloud really looks like? A magnificent view of cable heaven.
A musical instrument
Where most of these tidy cable images involve great swathes of cables being neatly tied and bundled together, this one went the other way. This image comes from Facebook’s offices and shows a cable setup that looks like it could be played like a musical instrument.
Before and after
Many of these images feature some seriously neat cabling, but you rarely get to see any insight into the level of effort that goes into these photos. Well, now you can as this Redditor has shown off what the cable mess looked like originally before they “fixed” it. This fine craftsmanship took six hours of human effort to complete.
PC gamers do it best
As PC gamers and builders ourselves, we can always appreciate a bit of neat cable management when it comes to a gaming PC build. This Redditor is clearly a master of sleeved cables and zip ties. It’s stunning.
Mobile cabling exposed
A snap of a mobile broadcasting van captured at the London Marathon. Exposed wiring and innards no doubt help with air flow and cooling during the hot days.
The neat green machine
This sort of cabling gets the wiring nerds arguing about what a nightmare it would be if a single cable needed replacing.
Mapped out cable art
This work of cable art looks like someone tried to map out the London underground using power cables and wall tacks.
Neat and colourful
When airflow is important, there’s even more value to neat wiring than just being easy on the eye.
Barcelona Super Computer
Super-computing in Barcelona is serious business.
More mellow yellow
There seems to be a theme with these cable enthusiasts with a passion for yellow cables.
Before and after
You don’t often get to see the before and after results of these cable tidying efforts. We’d recommend reading the backstory on this one too as it shows why this work is so important when important services rely on system functionality. If one thing (or several things) go wrong, finding and fixing can be a nightmare in a mess of unlabelled cables.
Here, an Emergency Veterinary Clinic had to be rescued from the depths of IT hell as their network was down and they were forced to resort to paper and pen rather than their precious systems.
Movie power
Though perhaps not as satisfying or as colour as other photos on this list, this image is still interesting. It shows the power cables required to run a movie set, all the lighting and everything else that’s required obviously need a lot of power and that means a lot of wires and potential health hazards if not well managed.
Writing by Adrian Willings.
