Maybe this should be titled Part 2.5, but I don't know how to do a
.5 in Roman Numerals (IIi ?). I'd like to highlight a few things I've
learned during this project to counter some bad advice I've found
lurking around the internet. There's all sorts of silly arguing on
those forums, and than you have people writing articles that don't
seem to have a clue what they're talking about. Sometimes I am one of
those people, admittedly.
First of all, when planning to build a computer, do not cheap out
on the case! I've seen a couple articles where the author says "Buy
the cheapest case possible." That's terrible advice, and I'll
tell you why. Investing in a good case will allow you to upgrade, add
parts, keep your hardware running cool, keep static electricity out,
and even completely rebuild the computer one day, reusing that case.
I'd even go so far as to recommend that you buy a cool looking case,
because that will make you love your computer that much more, and
motivate you to keep it functioning well. A little love goes a long
way. However, one should find a good balance between aesthetics and
functionality when choosing a case.
For example, my tower was originally custom built by a friend and
came with a black steel gaming case. This case was not quite as cool
looking as this Cooler Master case that I had lying around. The
Cooler Master had trippy, quiet 80mm blue LED fans, and a pretty
transparent blue acrylic side that allowed you to see all the
components in action. It looked badass, but unfortunately it was not
even close to a master of coolness due to a lack of fans and a poorly
designed air intake. I ended up putting everything back into the
original case, because that case has two 120mm front intake fans, a
120 mm side exhaust fan, a 136 mm top exhaust fan, and a 120 mm
exhaust fan on the back. In contrast, the Cooler Master only has two
80mm front intake fans (with steel holes for intake that don't draw
easily and get clogged easily too), and another 80 mm LED fan on the
back. It'd be fine for a system that doesn't produce a lot of heat,
but I like to over-clock my machines, so I wanted as much air
circulation as possible. This is especially important when you have
an Nvidia GPU, because those things freaking cook themselves to
death, idling between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius and hitting upwards
of 90 when doing these like even watching an HD movie when there are
two monitors plugged in! Like, wtf Nvidia? Can't you, idk, maybe use
higher quality heat sinks or something?
Keeping things cool isn't the only characteristic to look for in a
case. One should also look for a heavy duty, big metal box. The metal
encasing acts as a barrier to everything around it, keeping static
electricity away from your fragile hardware. There's probably some
conspiracy with the computer manufactures to use plastic housing in
order to wear the machine out faster so you buy a new one. In
retrospect, I've had a few laptops with mostly plastic exteriors, and
those are ones that always have something die after 3 or 4 years for
no reason, most notable, the LCD display and hard disc. Also, it's great to have a hole to put a padlock through so that you can lock your computer. Remember, anyone with physical access to your machine can reset the bios and bypass many of the security restrictions you may have in place. But, it's a lot harder to get away with when you have the case locked. Yes, this is something that you should be worried about in this day and age. It also prevents theft and tampering. To summarize,
you want a big metal box not a half metal, half plastic, static
attracting piece of junk.
Finally, it's a good idea to buy a case that has lots of room to
work with on the inside. It's no good having things cramped. It
impedes air flow, makes maintenance more of a pain, and puts
limitations on the types of upgrades you can perform. For instance,
you may want to put an after-market heat sink on your CPU, which may
require more room because good heat-sinks can be big. BTW, if you do
buy a nice air cooling heat-sink, I'd recommend looking for something
that allows you to blow the air in any direction you want. Sometimes
you might want to shoot it out the top fan, sometimes the side fan,
and if you don't have a top or side fan, you will want to point it so
it all blows out the back fan.
In my case (eh ha), i will probably end up painting some trippy
shit on my black steel case, to liven it up a little. I'll also
probably get some LED fans, because.. why not? As long as their still
good quality fans it doesn't matter. That way I'd have colored light
dancing through the fan grills, which would look pretty cool. Which
brings me to my last point-- you can always modify your case, if
you'd like. For example, if I cut out two big holes on the top of my
aluminum Cooler Master, than I could add two big powerful exhaust
fans, which would dramatically help the airflow situation.
Unfortunately my camera broke recently, and I need to find a USB to
Compact Flash card adapter (if they even make those anymore, it's an
old Canon), so I don't have any pictures for you right now.
Buy a good case, just in case. One day you may find yourself in a place, where
you wish you'd bought a better case...
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