How to route cables neatly in the chassis?

This is a very difficult area to assess, except for reviewing and actually building a PC into problematic situations. It includes two key areas: the cutouts in the system board tray, for cables behind the chassis tray, and (typically) the gap behind the right side panel. The latter is often overlooked but important. If there is not enough space behind the right panel and it needs to cross with other cables, it may be difficult to lay thick cables (such as 24 pin main power cable) behind the right panel.

Therefore, you will want to pay close attention to our test build experience to see how cable manipulation works in a given situation. In some cases, there will be a good pre wired cable or Velcro constraint to control the excess cable, or a good location to hide the extra length or unused cable. Some products, such as Razer Tomahawk ATX, even have an inner cover behind the motherboard tray to collect and cover up messy cables. You can clearly see both sides of the chassis through the side panel glass.

If you plan to install liquid cooling for your processor or graphics card, you need to check the specifications of the heat sinks (or multiple heat sinks) that you can install. There are two aspects: the thickness of the radiator and the total length of the radiator, in millimeters.

The thickness specification is to ensure that heat sinks, fans, and other hardware do not protrude and interfere with the components on the motherboard. The length is usually expressed as a multiple of the standard size fan you have installed (120 mm or 140 mm in most cases). As a result, you will usually see specifications for installing 120 mm, 240 mm, or 360 mm long radiator units. Match what the case can accept with what you plan to install. The huge 360 mm radiator is one of the main reasons why old and really big towers still exist.

As for air cooling, the number of fans in the chassis and the number of fans you can install are completely different. In most tower enclosures, at least two fans are pre installed; Extra cheap, so we won't let the fan count the deal breakers. (If you are doing liquid cooling, you may need to remove some installed fans, however, to make room for the radiator hardware you need to install.) That is, pay attention to the size of the included and supported fans. Compared with the more standard 120mm and 140mm fans, it is more difficult to obtain non-standard size alternatives such as 200mm giant fans used in some of the largest or widest towers.

There is also a fan filter. Anyone who has disassembled a cheap rack case PC that has been used for several years knows this dust, this dust, this eternal dust: it lumps on the fan filter of the chassis, rolls around in the chassis, and condenses on the fan blades. It is better to clamp it in the cleanable filter: look for the removable filter above the intake fan (usually the front fan) and the power intake (not the exhaust), which will be located at the bottom or top of the 2 space rack case.

 So, which PC aluminum electronic project box should I buy?

Once you have selected your case, please check out our top video cards, the best 4K game video cards and our top M 2 Comprehensive report on solid state disk. These are the parts you are most likely to purchase next. We have listed our recent favorite computer cases below, focusing on the simplicity and attractiveness of manufacturing.