The computer case that you will use for PC building is also referred to as cabinet, tower, system unit, or chassis. This item houses almost every part of your computer, and obviously, it doesn’t include the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. There are things that you need to consider when choosing one like the airflow, and your components should fit inside the chassis.
It is also essential that you choose a roomy case so that your GPU, processor, or other parts won’t overheat. Overheating what’s inside the chassis is the worst thing that could happen to anyone, that’s why you need to be careful. Besides this guide, you can also visit the best pc cases that you can use to build your gaming PC. So here’s a list of what you need to know about PC cases.
What’s a PC Case?
A typical PC chassis is built from aluminum, plastic, and steel. Other materials are also viable like wood, acrylic, Lego bricks, and glass. Some cases are sometimes home built and customized.
Layout
Computer cases commonly have metal cover sheets for the PSU and drive bays. For the rear panel, you can find the peripheral connectors sticking out from the PC case, like your motherboard and some expansion slots. Some of these cases have a built-in restart button, power switch, and LED indicators for power, network activity, and hard drive activities. There are also cases with I/O ports, such as the headphone and USB ports that you can view in the front panel.
PC Case Form Factors
First and foremost, what you have to know about a PC case are its different sizes and shapes. The common name for this is the form factors. Your PC case’s size and shape are commonly determined via the form factor of your motherboard because it’s sometimes the most significant component of every PC.
PC Case Size
A case that will fit the ATX motherboard and PSU can take on different external forms such as a pizza box-looking case, flat desktop cases(width>height), or the vertical tower case(width<height). Desktop cases are usually smaller compared to full tower cases, and they have lesser room for expansion slots, drive bays, and some custom parts like the liquid cooling system. On the other hand, mini-tower and desktop cases are only under 18 inches tall that people use for business environments.
Small Form Factors
Today, the trending desktop PC form factor is ATX. Also, microATX and some small form factors are becoming more popular for different purposes. There are XL-ATX mainboards capable of increasing the width of the mainboards to add more room for Memory PWM, CPU, and even for the 2nd socket of CPU.
Tower Cases
A full tower case is enormous and stands in 22 inches, and people usually make it stand on their floors. You can access from six to ten external drive bays. But as computer technology shifts from the CD-ROMs and floppy disks, the full tower case today commonly has 1 or 2 CD drive outer bays. Now, people use a full tower case to showcase their powerful liquid cooling system, RGB lighting, and more stuff.
Takeaway
Choosing the right PC case is essential when you want to build a gaming PC. You need to consider the size and the airflow to avoid overheating of the components inside the chassis. If you want a PC case with RGB lights, it’s also possible, but you need to pick the right one capable of housing every component you need.