The first thing you need to decide is how much space you have for a case. Are you going to tuck it away underneath a desk or showcase it next to your monitors? Will it be in your living room or proudly displayed as the centerpiece of your game room? If it will need to fit under a desk or in a cabinet, carefully measure the location where it’s going to be so that you can buy a case that will fit the available height, width, and depth.
As an aside, be careful throwing a computer into a tight shelf or cabinet. You could end up choking the cooling flow, significantly reducing component life and performance. If you can’t comfortably get your hand in between the case and the cabinet then the case is too large for that space. Smaller cases tend to work best on desk tops where there is limited space. Larger cases are often placed on the floor, but pay attention to how air flows through your case. If you have any inlets or exhausts on the bottom of your case, try to elevate the case off of the floor to help it breathe better. Carpets are particularly bad as they can block inlets or clog filters.
Obviously you must also keep in the mind the size of the motherboard that you chose. You made this decision based on things like the size and number of graphics cards that you want to use, any other peripherals you might need, or a desire to build the smallest, quietest computer possible. If you are building a high performance gaming system, then you are likely looking at larger graphics cards, perhaps even more than one. This will require a bigger case, so check the manufacturer’s spec for your graphics card and those for your case to make sure they are compatible. Sometimes you may have to remove hard drive cages to allow larger cards to be installed. A handy tool for checking size compatibility is PC Part Picker. Just start a new parts list and enter the components that you want to use. It will automatically tell you if there are any compatibility issues.
You may have selected a particular motherboard size because it provided additional expansion slots for your peripheral/accessory cards. Make sure that the case you are considering offers the correct number of rear expansion slots for your needs. These are generally grouped together on the back of the case for the attachment of things like video and audio cables and access to knobs and switches. Occasionally the case will offer one additional slot next to these slots that is not part of the motherboard standard. This would be shown as a +1 in the specs.
Perhaps you have no need for any expansion and will use just the functionality provided by the CPU and motherboard. This is likely for a small, quiet build, so you won’t be needing a bunch of extra slots taking up space. This is ideal for a light duty Home Theater PC (HTPC) that needs to be quiet and inconspicuous.
If,on the other hand, you are planning to push your computer pretty hard for gaming, folding, CAD, or video rendering, you may want to look into overclocking your CPU and graphics card(s). This can be accommodated with air cooled accessories, like CPU coolers, that require a fair amount of room inside the case. Essentially this a large heatsink with many rows of fins that you bolt to your CPU with fans that blow across it to remove the heat from your processor. Again, check the specs on the cooler as well as the case to make sure the cooler will fit. This will also require a decent amount of air flow through the case. You will want to make sure that you have enough inlet and exhaust fans to deal with the amount of waste heat generated inside your computer. This extra heat goes up considerably when overclocking, so do your homework and make sure your case provides enough fans in the correct locations to provide the necessarily cooling.
Another option to air cooling is water cooling. This basically takes the heat from your processor and dumps it into a liquid coolant which is then pumped to a heat exchanger (radiator) attached to the side of your case. Fans blow air over this heat exchanger dropping the temperature of the coolant which is then pumped back to the processor. Pay attention to what size of radiator(s) you will need to make sure your case will be able to support these. Look at both the area of the radiator as well as its thickness. Some cases will support a push-pull configuration with fans pushing air into the radiator and fans on the other side pulling air out of the radiator for better efficiency. Some cases won’t allow this without modification or will only support thinner radiators. If this is key to your build, you will want to check online forums to see what others recommend for your particular case as this information isn’t always provided by the manufacturers.
All-in-one liquid coolers (AIO) offer a sealed solution that can be easily bolted into place, whereas custom water cooling solutions will require you to custom make the coolant tubing to fit your build. Your case will also need to support mounting of a coolant reservoir up high in the case and a pump (usually located on the bottom near the power supply). The AIO solution is very convenient and offers decent cooling performance, but for the hardcore overclockers a custom water cooling solution is preferred.
If the most common use of your PC will be for general web surfing, accessing email, creating/editing documents, and the occasional Skype call, this can be handled by virtually any size case as this doesn’t require much in the way of expansion slots or cooling. Oftentimes you will want a case that doesn’t take up too much space and is reasonably priced.
DIFFERENT CASE SIZES EXPLAINED
FULL-TOWER
Full-tower cases are the full-size sport utility vehicle of the computer industry. You can pack a ton of equipment into them. They are best used for high performance gaming rigs and workstations with demanding processing and graphics requirements that require additional cooling. They can typically support 2 x 140mm (or 280mm) and 3 x 120mm (or 360mm) radiators on the front and top, with some supporting up to 4 x 120mm (480mm) radiators.
They offer up to nine rear expansion slots and motherboards up to E-ATX or XL-ATX (a slightly less common large variant of the ATX motherboard). Most cases also provide mounting provisions down to mini-ITX, but this is real waste of the space offered in such a large case and looks a bit silly in my opinion.
Though less common these days, the sheer size of full-tower cases allows them to carry five or more external bays. This is important if you still use CDs or external fan controllers.
Completely outfitted full-tower computers can easily weigh over 50 pounds, but you’ll still see people lugging them around at LAN gaming parties. For those that don’t know, a LAN party is where a bunch of friends get together to play video games over a local network. Full-towers offer an uncompromising build experience that is ideal for people that don’t want to worry about whether something will fit or if they will be able to upgrade in the future, even if they aren’t maxing out every component in their machine. But there’s also no better time to show off your build prowess than when your friends are around, so these machines can get quite expensive (and heavy). Some full-towers come with built-in handles to make them easier to carry, but please lift with your knees. No one wants to have to jump out of a game just because you got a hernia and need someone to drive you to the emergency room. NZXT cares.
Full-tower cases are also used for home or small business servers as you can typically install upwards of 10 or more drives in them, though there are a few unique cases that can support 20 or more.
MID-TOWER
If full-towers are large sport utes, then mid-towers are like sedans. You can get most of your family and stuff in there, but it’s still easy to find a parking spot in the city. These can be used for everything from decent gaming rigs (though cooling provisions will be slightly less than in full-tower cases) to everyday office workhorses. ATX is the most common size of motherboard and is right at home in mid-towers, which are also the most commons size of tower.
You get up to seven expansion slots, which is overkill for most people these days. But with the growing popularity of NVMe internal solid state drives, this real estate might start becoming more valuable to builders.
You’d be surprised at how many drives you can stuff into a mid-tower. The H440 can hold up to eight drives internally, plenty for most people. Mid-towers offer a great deal of flexibility and good balance between size and the ability to show off your build. They also tend to be more affordable than comparable full-tower offerings. Most people will find a mid-tower case that suits their needs.
MINI-ITX TOWER
Getting back to the car metaphor, Mini-ITX towers are like two seat sports cars. They tend to be very small and highly optimized, but oftentimes limited in what you can do with them. Ever tried to take a Miata off-road? Not a pretty sight, unless it’s a rental. If you’re looking for a small, quiet build, but aren’t generally pushing your equipment too hard, then Mini-ITX might be a good option for you.
You only get up to one expansion slot so you can’t run multiple video cards. The small dimensions of the case can limit your choices in graphics cards, but the forthcoming AMD Fury Nano may be an enticing option for this market. In this form factor your needs may be better served by using the onboard video, which can support up to 4k, and onboard sound.
Components intended for Mini-ITX builds tend to be more efficient, requiring less noisy fans and coolers. This is ideal for an HTPC build where the last thing you want to hear during quiet parts of the movie is your case fan spooling up.
Recently retailers and manufacturers have been offering more promotions on Mini-ITX cases and motherboards, so you may be able to snag a quick deal. Lots of companies started developing products for the Mini-ITX market a little over a year ago, so these promotions may be tied to a glut of product. This could be due to lots of enthusiastic manufacturers jumping on board a new trend, waning consumer interest, or a little of both. Time will tell where Mini-ITX washes out in terms of long term popularity.
CHOOSE YOUR CASE
Having said so much, the final decision is up to you. After comprehensive trade-offs, if you want to buy a MID-TOWER chassis, you can take a look at GIM MB8 ATX Case, Mid-Tower PC Gaming Chassis, which may just meet your needs.
GIM KB-23 RGB Case Fan, 3 Pack 120mm
Synchronizable RGB lighting via motherboard
Sync ready with all mobo houses including Gigabytes, Asus and MSI
Extreme Cooling Performance
33.5 CFM, GIM Fan optimized heat dissipation and hydraulic bearing to ensure ultra-quiet operation
Smart Music Modes
With built-in high sensitive sound sensor, this fans can change different lighting modes with the rhythm of music, make you enjoy the feast of sight and hearing when you play intense computer games playing or listen to any music with strong rhythm.
New Blade Design
Revised curve blade design to improve airflow and air pressure. A refreshed blade for improved lighting.
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So, the motor is being fed impulses of power. Imagine it the same way as if you were to turn the wheel with your hand. You can push the wheel every 5 seconds with the same amount of force, and you will keep the wheel spinning. You can also speed up the interval when you are pushing the wheel; let’s say you nudge it every 3 seconds. In that case, you would notice that the wheel is spinning a bit faster, and in almost the same way is how the Pulse Width Modulation works. The speed of the motor, i.e. the fan or pump, is determined by the width of the PWM signal – the length of the time it is powered on.
As seen on the chart above, a 10% duty cycle gives just a few impulses of power over a period of time, meaning that the motor will spin slowly, and a 100% duty cycle means that the fan/pump will work at full speed, constantly being powered on.
It is important to know that there is no voltage regulation involved here, and by using PWM regulation the motor is constantly being fed 12 volts. For that reason, the 4-pin motherboard header should be used only for one fan, or eventually two, by using the Y-splitter. Pumps for water cooling have significantly bigger power consumption, so the power is mostly hooked up to the molex connector, and the other two tach and PWM wires are connected to the motherboard header for PWM control and speed readout.
If no PWM signal is present, almost all fans will work on 100% of power, while most pumps used in water cooling will operate at some medium speed. Meaning, if you want to run the pump on full power, you need to hook it up to a PWM signal that is set on 100% duty cycle.
More quality fans have their own special IC driver chips within the motor hub that generate a sloped PWM signal instead of a flat square one. Flat square signals tend to create unpleasant clicking noises when the fan runs at low speeds. The sudden rise of power when the motor is given +12 volts results in the rotor being jerked, which in some cases creates the clicking sound. The use of special ICs makes sure that the motor is powered on more gently each time an impulse is given. This is not something you really need to know, but it’s here for you to understand why quality PWM fans cost a bit more.
Why is PWM so important? Well, almost all fans „die“ if the voltage is lowered under 5V, but with PWM control, the fans can reach really low operation speeds of 300-600 RPM. They don’t die literally; they just shut down and stop spinning, and that is why often the declared speed range of the fan can only be achieved by using PWM regulation. At these speeds, the fans are dead silent, and some fans can even be turned off completely via PWM regulation. One more very cool thing about PWM regulation is that you can use one PWM signal to govern all of your fans. Since the fans are getting 12 volts all the time, you can use special fan hub splitters that will send one PWM signal to all of the connected fans or even pumps. This way, all of your fans and pumps will work in harmony.
Let’s take a look at some software that motherboard manufacturers provide for PWM regulation. Almost every motherboard manufacturer has got the PWM regulation story very serious, and that’s why we have very detailed settings available, which is really good. All your „noise producing“ components can be kept at low speeds and you can set the PWM duty cycle curve according to the temperature readouts. In the Gigabyte EasyTune example given above, the PWM profile is set to run the fans on about 55% of speed when the CPU temperature is 60°C or lower. When the temperature reaches 70°C, the fans will speed up to 100% duty cycle. Simple and very efficient way to get a silent computer, of course, if you are equipped with quality PWM fans and quality PWM pumps.
All EK products, for example, fans and pumps, have PWM feature and you just have to look for the following icon in our Shop. Here we provide our recommendation GIM KB-7 PWM Case Fan 120mm.
Almost all keyboards made during those times were what we would call mechanical these days – solidly built hunking behemoths of hard, thick plastic fitted with a separate switch under each key. These beasts captured your eye, whether you wanted it or not. Unfortunately, little by little after the incorporation of the mouse to systems in the mid-1980s, the keyboard started losing meaning as an input device and subsequently, capitalism won out.
The result was the membrane keyboard. A lot cheaper to make than the carefully engineered mechanical keyboards of the time and best of all – nobody would really care to notice the decline in build quality and feedback until the early 2010s.
Now we’re nearing 2020 and we’ve made a full circle – mechanical keyboards are once again as popular as they were in the past. With new technologies for the switches emerging all the time (though most resurrected from their dusty 1970s graves), it’s a good idea to go over the differences between mechanical and membrane keyboards and whether membranes still have redeeming qualities to them.
These days, almost all keyboards you see marketed for gamers are mechanical and often use Cherry MX switches under the hood to deliver the satisfying thonk you’re used to. Sometimes companies will come up with a membrane keyboard and line the box up with reassurements of their “mechanical feel” or something along those lines. Some companies try to blend in with models that utilize switches called mecha-membrane, memchanical, or other portmanteau of words that try to confuse you even more. It’s clear membrane keyboards aren’t exactly the hot option. Can you even be sure what’s what these days?
Starting with the definition, the general consensus for mechanical switches is more or less the following:a mechanical switch uses an dedicated spring and switch under each key
Breaking it down, a mechanical switch needs two things: a way to make and break a circuit, and a spring to provide the force needed to reset it. The electric circuit is usually completed through means of two or more metal leaves that touch each other, and the resistance through an internal dedicated spring that is tensioned to some amount of centinewtons (cN) or gram-force (gf) (these two are very close to each other). Some type of mechanical switches use light-sensing, capacitance or magnetism (hall effect) to send a signal.
The functionality is very much similar to the desk lamp switches you probably have at home, except in a mini-format. Having one of these under every key is advantageous for a few reasons:
Mechanical switches are very reliable, often lasting a lifetime of normal use – and then some. Manufacturers have even taken it so far as to try and make it a competitive advantage, reporting lifetimes of 60 million, 70 million and 80 million presses. Quite frankly, the standard 50 million is more than enough – unless you’re a hardcore rhythm gamer.
As mechanical switches consist of distinct parts, any malfunctioning one can be replaced with some soldering skills and a bit of time. Sometimes it’s necessary to swap out the entire switch, sometimes just a part. This modularity also lends itself well to customization; swapping the spring for a more resistant one gives the switch more substance, for example. Increasingly common these days is the hotswappable switch, where each switch can be pulled out and put back in without the need of soldering it onto the circuit board.
Other times, a simple cleanup is necessary. By popping off the keycaps, you easily access between the keys to vacuum out those breadcrumbs and other gunk that easily collects in-between.
Even if you’re not one to break out the soldering iron, you can still benefit from the modularity. Many mechanical keyboards come in multiple variants of switches, meaning that you can pick a heavier, tactile one for typing and a lighter linear one for gaming.
Similarly, you’ll find many different form-factors and layouts available for mechanical keyboards. Maybe you need the numpad day-to-day, or maybe you’d do better with added mousing estate – mechanicals have got you covered.
The customization options also extend to keycaps – which you can find plenty of online. The cross-shaped mounting post invented by Cherry for their Cherry MX switches decades ago has become the standard for keycaps and for this reason, keycaps are both widely available and interchangeable. Both high-quality customs as well as mass-produced cheapo-sets are available in millions of different keycap profiles and colorways to suit your mood.
Perhaps the most importantly of all for people who enjoy competitive or even casual gaming, mechanical keyboards offer a more consistent keypress that is sure to be registered quickly, thanks to their innately lower latency. In short, while lots of factors affect the total latency pipeline from intention to registering the input in-game and on your screen, you can trust a mechanical keyboard of any kind to consistently beat out its membrane competitors.
In addition, while most membrane keyboards can only offer around 10-key-rollover, mechanical keyboards can often offer NKRO, or N-key rollover. This means you’re able to press every single key at once with all of them registering. Doesn’t sound that useful but for some games that require you to keep both hands on the keyboard at all times, 6 keys can often fall short of the requirements.
Membrane keyboards offer your fingers a rubbery cone that collapses under pressure, with the stem of the keycap pressing two printed membranes under it together to complete a circuit. The membranes are usually thin plastic sheets printed with a kind of conductive ink, forming the electrical pathways. When released, the now-tensioned rubber dome underneath pops back up, resetting the key for another press.
When compared to the “miniature lamp-switch” that mechanical switches are, membrane keyboards are really more like connecting two loose wires together. There is no actual mechanism that completes the circuit other than the pressure of your finger holding the wires together. This is unreliable and weak in the long run, cumulating with other disadvantages membranes have:
The rubbery cone inside is likely to start loosening up and losing feeling over the years as the rubber gets tired of constant bending. Similarly, the thin plastic membranes rub against each other with each keypress, eventually wearing out. This will most likely happen much sooner than the 50, 60 or 70 million keystrokes mechanical switches usually last – maybe somewhere between 10 and 20 million presses.
As membranes are built not by soldering together individual parts, but rather trusting the operation of the keyboard to the membrane sheets, any key that wears out or otherwise stops working, will be dead forever. You can’t buy replacement parts and you can’t easily fix them either – making them fodder for the landfills…
Same applies to keycaps – as membrane keyboards don’t have a standardized keycap mounting system like mechanical switches have, you can’t swap out keycaps for any reason.
Since membrane keyboards are impossible to fix or get replacement parts for, it follows logic that they aren’t built to last a very long time. Membrane keyboards are often made with the cheapest materials available and with the lowest standard of quality control. As long as it lasts a year or two, it has done its job.
Of course, they can last a long time, and they probably will if you treat them carefully enough. Statistically though, you’re much more likely to face a keyboard malfunction with a membrane keyboard as your companion, rather than a mechanical one.
The sole redeeming quality of the common membrane keyboard is its cost-effectiveness. You can get decent membrane keyboards at the 30-50€ pricepoint, whereas an average mechanical keyboard will set you back in the 80-100€ region.
If you’re on a tight budget, nothing beats the membrane keyboard.
This is a particularly sore point for me, as companies take advantage of the information drought to push these keyboards to the market. Mecha-membrane and mem-chanical are some names for these types of switches – what’s important is to know that all mechanical/membrane combo switches are just membrane keyboards in disguise.
The circuit is completed by membrane sheets touching each other, while the “mechanical feel” is accomplished with an additional clickbar inside. Basically it’s a membrane keyboard with an added doorbell of sorts that let’s you know you’ve clicked a button. Same flaws, just more bells and whistles.
Much like the pirate code from the Pirates of the Caribbean, here’s where the definition of “mechanical” starts to function more like a guideline.
While Topre switches are rubber domes, they aren’t membrane-actuated. Even then, the rubber domes that provide the resistance and feedback are much thicker and purpose-engineered when compared to your run-of-the-mill domes you find on office keyboards. They are also serviceable by swapping out individual domes if you so choose. Topre handles actuation through capacitive sensing, which is a very reliable no-contact way of sensing an electrostatic field to trip a sensor.
Topre delivers a highly-refined rubber dome typing experience without the drawbacks of the actuation mechanism (membranes) usually associated with rubber dome keyboards. I find the 55g weight works best to really extract the rubber dome tactility. If you enjoy the feel of rubber domes, Topre might be a buy-once solution for a lifetime.
Similarly, but in reverse, Model Ms aren’t rubber domes, but they are membrane-actuated, landing them a spot in the mechanical lineup. Model Ms utilize a buckling spring mechanism that delivers a crisp click, with a lever pressing down on the membranes inside and actuating the key. I know I criticized the lifetime of membranes before, but clearly they can be made to last a lifetime – I guess they just need to made in the 80s.
If you enjoy a vintage aesthetic and a LOUD clickity-clack, you should try a Model M. I find the feel of Model M buckling springs a bit lacking in the crispness department, but otherwise it’s a nice tactile and especially audible switch for typing.
For typing, anything goes really. One person prefers linear switches, other a loud and clicky one and the third a silent but tactile one. Some might even prefer an old membrane Keytronic from the 90s. As long as you enjoy how it feels, nothing else matters. If you need pointers, I’d personally start with a medium-weight (55-70cN actuation) tactile switch.
For gaming however, I will always recommend going mechanical for a few reasons listed down below:
With mechanical switches, lower latency usually follows. Traditional metal-leaf-contact keyboards come with latencies (sometimes called with the bucket-term input-lag) of 15-25 milliseconds, whereas membrane keyboards usually score in the 30+ milliseconds. Lower latency means quicker reactions, and quicker reactions mean more kills and less deaths. With hall-effect and optical switches, latency can be brought even lower, to around 2-4 milliseconds from actuation to getting the signal out of the keyboard and into the USB cable.
With membranes, the actuation isn’t very exact. It takes some amount of force to press the membrane sheets together enough to send the signal, but it’s not necessarily the same amount of force every time. In mechanical metal-leaf-contact switches, the metal leaves touch each other at an exact amount of force each time. A consistent keypress is important in rhythm games like osu! or VSRGs. Optical or otherwise sensor-based designs can similarly trip the sensor at exact points along the travel of the key.
I eluded to this already with advantage number two of mechanical keyboards in general, but I feel like it’s such an important part of my own gaming that I wanted to include it here. As mechanical keyboards come in smaller form factors like 60%, 75% and TKL, you can save mousing space on your desk. This allows you to turn down your DPI and gain mouse accuracy for competitive FPS games like Apex Legends, CS:GO or Overwatch.
I’ve left out the specifics of how each distinct type of technology operates because quite frankly, it would have made this already long article into a full-blown novel. I do feel like I’ve reasonably explained the general advantages and disadvantages between mechanical and membrane keyboards, based on both factual information as well as my personal experience owning all types of keyboards and switches mentioned in this article.
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