Buying the right PC case matters because you want one that is capable of housing all your hardware. You wouldn’t want to buy one and find out that your graphics card can’t fit or one that doesn’t have enough ports for your devices to connect to. We have outlined some of the tips to guide you when looking for the PC case that’s right for you in this article.
Featured photo by Anthony Roberts on Unsplash.
Form factor
First off, you’ll want to consider the form factor of your motherboard. Motherboards come in 4 primary form factors:
- Extended ATX
- ATX (standard ATX)
- Micro-ATX
- Mini-ATX
Based on your motherboard’s size you’ll be able to determine which case size (Full Tower, Mid Tower, Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX) will be perfect for you. The case sizes may support one or more motherboard form factors.
Airflow
Next you’ll want to consider a case that will allow for good airflow within the case for proper cooling of your components. You don’t want to have a case where your components are overheating and getting damaged due to lack of proper airflow.
Dust filters
It is possible to find some PC cases with good dust filters. This will be good for keeping your PC insides clean. When your PC components, especially fans, are clogged with dust and other particles, they tend to overwork leading to throttling.
Sound dampening
Some cases come with materials which assist with soundproofing your PC. Meaning your PC runs quieter. Though some times you may find that the ones built for sound dampening tend to retain heat and impede good airflow. You can still find nicer soundproof cases that have been well designed for good airflow.
Support for liquid cooling
With liquid cooling becoming more popular due to its efficiency when it comes to cooling the CPU, PC case manufacturers are starting to include support for installation of the coolers. You can find good cases (probably Mid Tower and Full Towers since the others are smaller) with support for the coolers.
Integrated RGB lighting
It is possible to find cases that will allow you to customize the RGB lighting and integrate it with other components with RGB lights such as GPUs or even some RAM sticks.
Tempered glass panels
A lot of cases nowadays come with a see through side made of tempered glass for you to look at your awesome PC build. With its fancy RGB light show as it delivers high performance for your gaming (or working).
Cable management features
A good case with cutouts and grommets for cable management is a plus. This ensures your cables aren’t all over the place.
Drive bays
You should make sure your PC case has enough drive bays (2.5 inch & 3.5 inch). This is for HDD and SATA based SSD storage. Though recent trends show people moving towards NVMe SSDs.
Connectivity
Last on our list is connectivity. This mostly means front panel ports such as USB-A and USB-C, 3.5mm jack and any other ports you need.
Let us know in the comments if we missed a tip you think should be in this list. You can check out other articles here.
