Choosing a Good Case

Sir Joltalot writes "There's a great guide at Tom's Hardware about choosing a good case. They also look at a few very interesting and slick cases you can get and discuss recent trends in modding. A good read if you're new to building computers or thinking about modding a case for the first time." I've been planning to build a new machine for a few months now, so this is timely for me.

Comments

The Ideal Case

[donnacha]

What I really need is a case big enough to fit Tom inside it so that he can continually keep my machine up-to-date without my needing to waste so much time reading all these hardware websites.

At the very least, he'd probably be quieter than my fan.

Re:The Ideal Case

[Spazntwich]

I wouldn't ask him to cool your CPU if I were you. He blows out too much hot air.

Information about cases from a noise angle...

[wherley]

Scroll down to the "PC Cases" section of this Silent PC resources page for some good ideas about choosing a case when its noise qualities are a factor.

Re:Heavy power supplies

[handsomepete]

Here ya go... From Directron's website:

Why Weight Matters?

The more appropriate question is why size matters.

The weight of a power supply is directly related to the quantity, quality, and size of the material (thus cost) used to build the power supply. We opened a light and a heavy 300W-labeled power supplies. The heavy one has larger capacitors, thicker wires, larger transformer, larger heat sinks, more connectors, and more capacitors than the light one, all of which are important factors for the overall cost and quality of a power supply. The difference is illustrated below:

Lots of pics and interesting info. Go look if you're interested.

Apple's G4 flip open cases are still a joy to own

[crovira]

I have yet to find another case as easy to open, get at all the components and make whatever mods are required and flip closed than the Apple tower cases.

Man I hate opening up my PC case to get at stuff. The Mac case just flips open and everything's exposed. There's no reason for it either. I'm sure PC makers could offer the same convenience. Why do we secure our drives on BOTH sides of the unit? An L shaped snap-in plate that hangs on to ONE side would be just as effective.

And the handles molded into the unit make moving it around securely, specially when lifting it up on a higher shelf, a real breeze. Ever dropped a PC? Ever come close and only scraped a couple of knuckles?