How To Choose The Right PC Case For You
If you’re about to commence an exciting PC building project, you’re probably already overwhelmed with all of the excellent components on the market today. Although you might already have committed to some parts, like your CPU or graphics card, there are some other parts that might not be as easy to pick. One of these is certainly the case for your PC – what you need in a case can differ wildly, despite it having the same basic function no matter what you choose, so making the decision can be a struggle (particularly with the price range also varying considerably). In this article, we make it a little bit easier by providing a few helpful tips to help you choose the right PC case.
Finding the right case
A desktop PC case is, by design, a way to house and protect all of your expensive computer components, and in many cases (particularly as the price of a case rises) they are also designed to ensure everything stays as cool as possible. Although choosing might be difficult at this stage, there are a few ways to instantly rule out quite a few cases on the market – the easiest one by far is understanding what kind of case is compatible with your PC components (as well as the space your PC will occupy). This is because there are four different sizes of PC case – from largest to smallest, there are full tower, mid tower, micro-ATX and mini-ITX. It is usually the motherboard and graphics card that you’ll need to be factoring in with this decision, as these are usually the bulkiest components in a PC build. An indicator of the kind of case you might want is often in the name of the motherboard – a mini-ITX motherboard will be suited to a mini-ITX case, for example. Graphics cards and cooling units can be a little bit more difficult, though, as you’ll need to measure them individually in order to see whether they can fit.
Cooling and cable considerations you’ll need to make
For many PC owners, and particularly gamers, a PC is about more than keeping components safe – a good case should prevent all of these components from heating to the point of cooking. A good PC case will keep components cool, particularly when they’re under duress, as the longer your bits can run, the longer they will typically last, and the fewer problems you’ll have to deal with in the future. A good PC case can demonstrate high air flow and good cooling capability in a few ways. These are options for fans (adding to existing fans), the design of the panels on the front, side, and top and the ability to contain large cooling units (such as liquid cooling). Build quality should, of course, still be a high priority as well. As they should be able to house cooling units, good cases should also have the option to provide a good cable management solution, as keeping all of your cables contained can help to not only manage them in the future, but help your PC look less messy.
Choosing something that you think looks good
While all these technical things are important, it’s also quite important to ensure that your case looks aesthetically pleasing (to you, at least). Whether it be a sleek profile or a heaping of RGB lights, a PC case that looks the part can be a fantastic thing to look at.
