{"id":296,"date":"2020-08-18T19:23:47","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T20:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/?page_id=77"},"modified":"2020-08-22T19:26:42","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T20:26:42","slug":"this-is-the-page-title-toplevel-131","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/?page_id=296","title":{"rendered":"Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"\nCases<\/title>\n<p>\nA computer case is more that just something that protects the inside of\nyou’re your computer from spilled coffee and other dangers associated with the\ntypical computer user. It also protects you from the inside of your computer.\nThe 110 volts flowing through the power supply (220 in Europe and other places)\nis not something you want to meet up with unexpectedly.\n<p>\nIn addition, the\ncomputer case is both the skin and skeleton for your computer. It holds\neverything together and hold them in the proper location. You motherboard is\nattached to the case, so the expansion slots need to be in the proper position\nwhen you insert a card, the connectors on the end of the card are sticking out\nof the computer and not pointing in.\n<p>\nFortunately, there is a standard in both\nmotherboard and case design that helps keep things from pointing in the wrong\ndirection. However, idiots are getting smarter ever day, so this system will\nnever be idiot proof.\n<p>\nOne of the first things to look at is the physical\nconstruction of the case. Cases come in many, many, many different sizes and\nshapes. PCs cases are normally though of in terms of desktop, mini-tower, tower\nand maxi-tower, or something similar. As its name implies, a desktop case is one\nthat is intended to sit on your desktop. The smaller the better. In fact, a new\nterm “small footprint” case is used to refer to cases that are even smaller than\ntraditional desktop cases (XT, AT, and Mini-AT).\n<p>\nThese cases lay flat on your\ndesk and often have a set of four compartments (or bays) arranged in a 2×2\nsquare to hold hard disks, floppy drives and <glossary>CD-ROM<\/glossary>\ndrives. The obvious\nlimitation is expansion. The motherboard is often smaller and therefore there is\nless room for expansion cards. Plus, there is not much extra room in the case if\nyou wanted to add too much more.\n<p>\nTower cases stand vertically, with the bays\none on top of the other. With mini-towers, the case is small enough that it\nmight fit on your desk as this is generally just a re-arrangement of the desktop\ncase. That is, you have room for four devices. Big towers are just that. There\nare usually at least six bays for devices which could have some access slot at\nthe front (i.e. floppy-drive, <glossary>CD-ROM<\/glossary>,\n tape drive, etc.). However, this space\ncould also be used for hard disk, as the cases are usually provided with some\nkind of plate covering the front. In addition, there is room for a couple more\nhard disk.\n<p>\nHowever, this is a classic case of not judging a book by its\ncover. I have seen large cases before that had some really goofy construction.\nThe result was few bays and a lot of wasted space.\n<p>\nIn the last couple of\nyears, server cases have made it to the market, which are a lot larger than\ntower cases. This are normally the same height, but can be several times wider.\nThere is room for a dozen or more hard disk and many are designed explicitly\nwith the goal of have a large number of disks that you set up in some kind of\nredundant array (RAID). However, in every case I have seen, these were delivered\nwith a pre-built system.\n<p>\nThere are a couple of key aspects to consider when\nlooking for a case. First, the case and the motherboard need to fit together.\nThere are a number of motherboard types and for the most part, the holes in the\nmotherboard match those for the case. There are usually more hole than you need\nand some combination is likely to fit.\n<p>\nHowever, what you need to consider it\nthat the motherboard should not lay completely flat against the motherboard. It\nneeds to be spaced above the case so that none of the metal on the case can touch\nthe motherboard. This ensures that no short circuit is possible. Along with all\nof the motherboards I have purchased in recent years have been nylon spacers,\nwhich keep the motherboard away from the metal frame of the case.\n<p>\nThe next\naspect is the placement of the bays for the hard disks. I have met my share of\ncases, where you almost need to take the case apart in order to get to the bays.\nIf this is the case, you can end up spending a lot of time replacing the drives\nand a lot of money on band-aides for your scraped knuckles.\n<p>\nIf you have a\ntower case and can use one of the front-loading bays, it makes it much easy to\nget the drives into the bays. However, it may make getting the cables onto the\ndrives is another problem. Both of these issues become mute (for you) if you\nhave someone else doing the maintenance. If, however, you are the ones building\nthe machines or replacing defect drives, how hard it is to get access to the\nbays is an important consideration. DEC did it right for a few years until\nsomething caused them to change their minds. Drives were inserted into the case\nsideways and not front to back. Although they still laid flat, there was no\nproblem getting the drives in and out. There were typically enough slots for\nfour to six drives and several pairs brackets were provided that screwed onto\nthe hard disk. With the brackets in place, the drives slide in, locked into\nplace, with the plug end sticking out. It was also a simple matter to remove the\ndrives when you need. Unfortunately, just prior to being purchased by Compaq,\nDEC changed the construction of their cases and getting at the drives was almost\nimpossible. In fact, I have yet to see worse placement than I saw on some of the\ncases.\n<p>\nAlso consider how easy it is to open and close the case. There should\nbe no “trick” to opening closing the case. I have had some where you had to\napply just the right amount of pressure on the top and bottom of the side panels\nthat slid into the case from the back. First, this meant having to move the case\nfar enough away from the wall so you had room to pull the sides off. Plus “just\nthe right amount of pressure” was harder than it sounds.\n<p>\nThe next important\nissue is cooling. Unless you are running an old 486, you probably have at least\nthe fan on your <glossary>CPU<\/glossary>\n(as well as the one for the power supply). However, that may\nnot be enough. All electronic devices generate heat and it can build up pretty\nfast in the enclosed space of your computer case.\n<p>\nThe most common way for the\ncomputer cases to get cooled is simply letting the hot air escape out the holes\nin the case. However, I have seen places were the computer is hidden under a\ndesk, with almost no circulation at it overheated. Even if the computer is in\nthe open, you may still not have enough circulation inside the computer,\nparticularly if you have a lot of peripherals in your machine. If this is the\ncase, you might want to consider getting a fan card. As its name implies, it is\na fan that sits in one of your expansion slots and helps circulate air.\n<p>\nYou\nshould also consider the design of the case. I have seen many where an extra fan\nwas built into the case that blew directly onto the hard disks. In other cases,\nan additional fan would blow onto the <glossary>CPU<\/glossary>.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cases A computer case is more that just something that protects the inside of you’re your computer from spilled coffee and other dangers associated with the typical computer user. It also protects you from the inside of your computer. The … <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/?page_id=296\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-296","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/296\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}