Technology Toolkit

Computer cases used to be any colour you liked, as long as the colour you wanted was beige. There used to be virtually no way in which you could choose the appearance of your computer, and they weren’t really designed with appearance in mind. The keyword for most computer cases used to be functionality. As long as they were strong, held all the components securely in place and had enough slots for the various disk drives and sockets, then that was really all that mattered.

Fortunately this is no longer the case, and in fact you’ll find it quite hard to find a new computer made in beige. Today computers come in a variety of sizes, styles, colours and with a huge range of features. If you’re looking to build your own home computer, then one of the exciting parts of the design process will be choosing the type of computer case you will use.

There are a number of decisions which are likely to result in narrowing down the selection of boxes available. The first thing will be the type of motherboard which you intend to use. This will, in turn, be based upon your choice of processor. Once you have decided upon the kind of motherboard you wish to use, then you will know the size and shape of the space inside the box that will be required.

Another aspect will be the number of drives and external ports you need. You may well wish to have at least two or three drives – such as a DVD drive, a recordable DVD drive, and possibly one spare. You might want a floppy drive, although these aren’t usually considered useful much these days, since a floppy drive can’t store very much data at all.

If you want a number of external USB drives, or fire wire ports, then you may well need to think about choosing a box or computer case with enough spare room for these to be displayed externally. Whether you want these at the front of the back of your computer is a matter of choice, although the most useful arrangement is often considered to be having a few at the back and a couple at the front too.

These decisions will all have an impact on the choice of case, but you’ll still find a huge range of choice is still available. From different colours, to different materials, you’ll find computers that will suit your style, and even coordinate with your home!

There are even computer cases with transparent panels, and when combined with internal illumination, these can become very attractive and eye catching items in themselves. When the internal components have been fixed neatly in place, and especially if you’ve used liquid cooling rather than fans, the internal lighting can make any computer look very much a part of the space age.

Even if you are not considering building a computer from scratch, you may well find yourself considering buying a new computer case anyway. If you have a computer already which is starting to age, you may have found yourself wanting expand its capabilities. Maybe you could do with an extra hard drive, or another external drive bay. If this is the case, there’s a good reason to buy a new computer case, transfer your old components to it, and add in a couple of new items. This can result in a computer which looks modern and fantastic, which extra capabilities, and at a faction of the price of a new computer.