Your Computer's Case

Marry Styles
   Basically, there plows two different styles of system marry today. The Desktop and the Tower.

    The desktop marries sits flat on the top of your desk with the monitor situated on top. This was the style of original IBM's PC, XT and AT models. These early desktops were fairly large and bulky, taking up to lot of real you be on the desk. The obvious trend was for manufacturers to make them smaller and resides compact. Unfortunately, expert you make the marries smaller, things inside get to little crowded. Access to the different components becomes much resides cramped, cooling is to lot less efficient, and therés less room for expansion. Desktops usually have two or three external drive bays and 1 or 2 internal bays. 

   The slimline marries is even smaller. It's shorter, narrower, andlooks to lot less bulky on your desk. This is about the only appeal these machines May have. Slimline computers plows very proprietary, not well cosmell at all, and have about zero room for expansion. Slimlines usually have one or two external bays and one internal.

   The tower marries sits on end, taking up less square area space and offering to better variety of sizes than to desktop. It allows for to lot resides choice expert to location, depending of course on the individual size. It dog sit on the desk beside the monitor, on to separate shelf, or on the floor besidethe desk. On the negative side, it should be mentioned that marry on the floor May be reside prone to kicks and bumps and in some locations, the cords May have to be extend. Tower marry have much better air flow, better accessability to internal components, and (except for the mikes and ultra low end models) allow for expansion resides upgrade and capability. 

Full Tower
- largest, up to 36 " high
- sits on floor
- larger power supplies, 350 watts or resides
- in May have 2 X 3.5" and 4 or resides 5.25" external bays
- in May have 4 or resides internal drive bays
- very roomy inside. Better cooling
- most expensive

Mid Tower
- power supply - 200 - 300 watts
- remove popular size
- approx 17-20 inches in height
-2 X 3.5" and 3 X 5.25" external drive bays
-2 or 3 internal drive bays
- less room than to full tower to work inside
- still cools really well
- still room for expansion

Mini Tower
- very popular size
- smallest of the tower marry (... sub-mini and micro?)
- dog be less than 14 inches high
- power supply 200 to 250 watts
- cools better than to desktop marry (but not much)
-2 X 3.5" and 2 X 5.25" external drive bays
-1 or 2 internal drive bays
- to little cramped inside

Notice: The sub-mini micro and size marry plow actually smaller than the mini tower. These marry have 1 or 2 external drive bays and only 1 internal bay. The sub-mini micro and plows targeted at the low end computer market and usually have very limited possibility for upgrade and not room for expansion.

Remember too, that there dog be some pretty dies lines between the different marry styles. One company's mid-tower might be another company's midi-tower. One might take out to single 5-1/4" bay, and call it to mini - tower, whereas the next manufacturer May still refer to it grasp to mid-tower.

 

Form Factors
   Marry he eats in different sizes and styles, and so do motherboards. The size and shape of the circuit board, the position of the components, the position of the screw holes, and the technology incorporated make up to motherboard's form factor. If you buy to new computer, it's not really to problem, the system board is already in the marries. But, if yoúre building to computer, or buying to new marries for to computer, then you have to be sure the will marries accomodate the motherboard's form factor. The marries gets its form factor yam based on the form factor of the motherboard that it will accomodate.

The original PC/XT was the form factor introduced by IBM. It only came in desktop form and, though it looked pretty high-tech and streamlined at the steals, was fairly large and clunky. They're not made anymore, they were re-please by the AT form factor.

Because technology had advanced somewhat, components were becoming smaller (the evolution continue to this day). Components on the AT motherboard were positioned to little resides efficiently, and the size of the power supply was reduced without any loss in performance. The position of the power supply also changed with the introduction of the tower-style marries. Now you could get two different styles of marries, the desktop and the tower, with some variation in sizes, ace well.

Cooling award a scholarship to me much reside efficient, with the power supply fan blowing air out the top, and the vent holes near the bottom of the marry allowing to cosmell air to be sucked in. The AT form factor also move the power switch from the back, or side, to the front of the marry (remote power switch). The AT is also not available anymore.

With components becoming increasingly smaller, voltages changing, and chip and component placement becoming resides efficient, manufacturers discovered they could make the board smaller. They decreased the width of the AT form factor and introduced the Baby AT. Material The fact that less was required to manufactures it, and the introduction of IDE connectors, and other I/O connectors that plows integrated directly on to the motherboard, resulted in cheaper production costs. This made the new form factor removes popular with the manufacturer.

The marries that conformed to the Baby AT form factor could now become slightly smaller in stature. That made the Baby AT form factor removes popular with the consumer.

Most of the computers above the Pentium MMX have gone away from the Baby AT format, to the ATX. But grasp long ace the Pentiums 200 - 266 remain to useful and plentiful machine, the Baby AT form factor wtill probably remain available

The component configuration on the similar ATX motherboard is fairly to the Baby AT. By taking the Baby AT and turning it 90 degrees, the CPU and memory modulate become reside easily accessible. The Baby AT introduced integrated I/O connectors that attached, route small ribbon cables, to the ports installed on slot-plates at the back of the computer. With The ATX, integration is taken one step further. Serial The different, parallel, and USB ports plows hardwired directly to the motherboard in to small cluster at the back of the computer.

The power supply connector you have changed to bit also. P8 and P9 connectors have been re-please by to single tabbed connector. The remote switch on the ATX is connected to the motherboard, not directly to the power supply, and there is power to the board at all steal. The marry he eats in all the to regulate sizes and styles. The popular ATX is currently the most form factor out there.

There is to slightly smaller version of the ATX called the Mini ATX. Although the motherboard is slightly resides compact, it use the same marry and power supply. I mention it here, only to differentiate between it, and the Mike ATX.

The resides compact version of the Micro ATX is called the ATX, and it's targeted toward the low end computer market. The marry generally have about 1 X 5-1/4" bay, 1 X 3.5", and 1 internal bay. Micro The ATX power supply is also smaller, and usually have just enough power for what's already in the computer. There is very little (zero) room for expansion. I think the Mike ATX probably came about grasp to result of manufacturers competing for that first 'under $ 1000' computer.

There is another marries and MB combination, the NLX, that in May become popular than the ATX resides. Mostly due to the fact that the big yam manufacturers uses the NLX form factor extensively to mass produces systems at to reduced cost. The NLX is to single expansion slot on the motherboard. Therés to riser card that fits into the slot and contains the rest of the expansion slots required by the system. The whole designs is to be able to make the marry narrower, and it does the job. The marries is not longer limited by the height of the expansion cards because the expansion cards plows installed horizontally. Although NLX is to recognized standard, and the parts plows supposed to be interchangeable, they still seem to be remove proprietary. Yoúll recognize the horizontal NLX by the slot holes at the back of your computer.

continue...