Guide: Choosing a Case

While choosing a your computer case is a fairly simple task and helps to give your PC it's customized feel, it's important to choose a case that meets all of your needs. This article will go over the primary features of cases that you should look at, as well as give some suggestions for each case size.

1) Case Form Factor (Size)

This is the most important thing to look at in your case as if your motherboard doesnt fit in your case, you may have a problem. The four major case sizes are; ATX full tower, ATX mid tower, MicroATX, and MiniITX

ATX full tower: These cases are the largest consumer aimed cases you can get. They are gigantic and generally accommodate large amounts of air flow. They will generally accommodate Extended-ATX, ATX, MircoATX, and MiniITX motherboards. Most of these cases will allow for larger air coolers such as the often used Cooler Master 212 EVO.

Suggested cases: NZXT Phantom, Antec Twelve-Hundred

ATX mid tower: These cases are smaller than the ATX full tower cases and will accept the same motherboards with the exception of the Extended-ATX. Since most motherboards are ATX and smaller this will not be an issue for a vast majority of builds. These cases very somewhat heavily in level of airflow, clearances, and cable management. Most quality cases will offer adequate levels of all three however.

Suggested cases: NZXT Phantom 410, Cooler Master HAF, NZXT Source 210 Elite

Micro-ATX: These cases are generally very small and many do not accommodate larger coolers. The fact that it will only accept Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, hinders a good amount of upgradability. However these cases are compact and much easier to transport, and tend to be fairly cheap. Some of these cases may be slim form factor which will prohibit you from using most video cards.

Suggested cases: Fractal Design Core 1000, Xion Performance 560, NZXT Vulcan

Mini-ITX: These cases are generally very small and many of them are slim form factor. There is generally very little room for larger CPU coolers and video cards may not fit well in cases not designed around accommodating large video cards. cheaper ITX cases are almost always slim however BitFenix, Cooler Master, and Silverstone all make ITX lines that accommodate full size video cards

Suggested cases: Cooler Master Elite 120, BitFenix Prodigy, Silverstone Sugo SG05

2) Internal Clearances and Cable Management

Ensure that the case you choose has ample room for your chosen video card and room for your aftermarket coolers if you have chosen to purchase one. Many cases have room behind the motherboard tray to allow you to route cables out of the way of any airflow and keep the case looking neat and tidy. Other cable management features include hard points to zip tie cables to, and rubber grommets where you pass cables behind the motherboard tray.

3) Airflow and Fans

Take your build into consideration when looking at the present cooling available in a case. Most cases will include enough fans to ensure adequate airflow for mid-range builds, but for extreme overclocks and multi-GPU setups, additional cooling considerations may be needed

4) Other features

Ensure that your selected case has all the features that you want present in your finished product. Examples include; USB 3.0 front panel (requires a motherboard with 3.0 front panel header), Sound dampening, dust filters, toolless bays, etc.

5) Build Quality

Just because a case is full of features doesn't mean it's more structurally sound than a tin can. Higher quality cases will generally be much more structurally sound and just generally feel more solid than their cheap counterparts

6) Cosmetics

Make sure you like the way the case looks. Your case is one of the defining features that sets apart a custom build from something pre-made.