Description
What To Look For
Recommendations

Already know what a Case is and what to look for?  Then skip to the Recommendations. 

What To Look For:

• Make sure the case has enough room for all your components.  A bare minimum of external drive bays is 3, but this number will depend on what you want to use in your computer. My main computer's case has 7 full size drive bays (5 1/4"), all of which are in use - a CD-ROM Drive, CD-ROM Burner, DVD-ROM Drive, 3 Hard Drives with cooling fans, and a Zip Drive. Hard drives can be mounted deep inside the case, so make sure you have extra room for 3 and 1/2" drives inside. 
• The number of drive bays usually increases with the size of the case.  Available case sizes include desktop, mini tower, mid tower, and full tower or server tower. Desktop and mini tower cases usually don't provide many expansion bays, so the mid and full towers are really the only choices to consider.
• You want to have a sufficiently powerful power supply so that all your components will function properly. 250 Watts is a bare minimum, and 300 Watts is the sweet spot.
• In addition to the wattage, you really need to look at the voltage ratings.  Look at the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v ratings. The higher the better!
• For adequate cooling, there should be at least one fan in the front bringing air in, and at least one in the back, blowing hot air out (there's usually 1 fan in the power supply).  Make sure you have 1 fan blowing out for every 1 fan blowing in.
• There are two different case types - AT and ATX form factors.  Almost all newer computers, motherboards, and cases are ATX standard now.  In older computers, AT was more standard, and for awhile there was quite a few of both.  At any rate, make sure your new case (and power supply) are ATX and your new motherboard is ATX as well.
• Some nice extras are screwless design (where everything pops open without the need for a screwdriver), a locking mechanism so that you can prevent people from getting into your computer, swing out side doors for easy access, and a slide out motherboard tray for easy installation of the motherboard.

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Description
Recommendations