Computer Case The Computer Case is the housing for all hardware components, except for those that have their own housing, the Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse. The Case is usually made from stamped and folded galvanized steel sheet with a plastic front and folded steel sheet cover. Other case manufacturers use aluminum sheet, which has a better heat transfer properties. What all of them have in common is a metallic skeleton that is tailor-made to house hardware components. It might sound like a trivial component, but a high quality case will be designed to optimize air flow and heat transfer throughout the case thereby easing the stress on the components residing inside the case. The purpose of the case is to securely hold the hardware in their assigned place and keep them in an shielded, controllable environment. Computer Cases comes in different formats, differentiated by their style and size. There are only two styles, Tower and Desktop. The Desktop style was very common in the early days of the personal computer, but it has been surpassed by the Tower style years ago. The Desktop style is made for putting on top of the desk (hence the name), while the Tower is made for standing on the floor. With the emergence of the Small Form Factor (aka SFF) the border has been blurred, although in general you can think of a desktop case as expanding horizontally and a tower case vertically. For you to get an idea of how the different Form factors relate to each other, have a look at the image below. Remember that these are relative sizes and there are sometimes large differences between cases within the same Form Factor. If you are interested in styling your Computer Case, usually refered to as Case Modding, then you should consider a type of Case large enough to contain all your mods as well as suited for Case modding. Some of the modifications that are popular include cool Case lighting and advanced bay devices. Case modding is in a world of its own pretty much like Gaming or Overclocking and if you are interested in this you can join a Case modding community after you have completed this course. Don't skip this course and go directly to modding, you will likely make serious mistakes. Remember, we crawl before we walk and walk before we run.
A Case can be equipped with or without a Power Supply. On inexpensive cases it is not uncommon to find a Power Supply integrated and, as you might expect, the quality of the Power Supply is not the best. If the Case in addition to the power supply also contains a Motherboard then it is called a Barebone. Barebones are normally low-end to mid-end systems, but high-end systems does exist.
How to choose a Computer CaseIf you are on a tight budget (< US$ 750), then a case with a Power Supply can be a valid alternative if you rather spend more money on the Motherboard or other component instead of the case and power supply. The same goes for a Barebone. Barebones are for tight budgets, although there are exceptions (for example Shuttle). For a Gaming rig you definately want a full ATX tower, because you must have a lot of air volume inside the case for cooling and also space for the Cooling device. Otherwise a Case costing > US$ 100 will be of good quality and design. And of course double check so your Case supports your Motherboards Form Factor.BrandsThere are many manufacturers of Cases. Some are very small with only a few models (for example XCLIO) and others have a complete line-up (for example Apevia) with a multitude of colors to choose from. The ones that I mention below are all well known and of good quality. Some include a Computer Power Supply, but most do not. Always check if a Power Supply is included or not.
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To open a Case is usually straight-forward, just follow the instructions found in the manual that came with the Case. In the old days, most case manufacturers had the same basic design and the Case opened by removing the folded cover. Nowadays, every manufacturer have several different ways of opening a Case. Some open on the side by removing the side panel, others have a “door” that opens, other still use a window approach. Basically, the larger the opening, the easier it will be to work inside the Case and fit various component in there. As far as I know you can remove the whole cover in one way or another on all cases, although it might be in two or three pieces.
