The computer case is basically the "bare-bones" shell that encases the motherboard and expansion cards. A fully filled case is shown above. There are two orientations of cases - the Tower case (shown above) and the "Desktop Case, or Slimline case" - which sits on the desk with the monitor atop of it. By far, the tower case is more popular, because it is larger, has more room and therefore more expansion slots. Also, even though it is large, the sideways dimensions are small, so it sits either off to the side, or underneath the desk
The bare-bones case itself comes with a number of components :
Power Supply
Much like the two "form factors" for cases and mother boards (see way down below) there are basically two form factors for power supplies to match the motherboard/case form factors. There is no need to go into detail, other than to tell you, if you ever put together a home-grown PC, order the power supply as either an AT or an ATX rated supply and you will be fine (actually the case almost always comes with a supply already preinstalled). 225 to 240 watts is about average for a Baby AT supply and 240 watts is required for an ATX supply.
As shown, the supply has it's own cooling fan - which does not help to cool the rest of the case. Supplies come with extra 5 volt modular plugs (as shown on the right), in case you want to add another hard drive, or an extra fan. If you are in a situation where there are no extra plugs, a "Y" plug is available at any computer store, which turns a single plug into two. Don't worry about too much drain on the supply - it has plenty of extra power available. Generally if you think your supply may be out - listen to the fans. If they are running, the power supply is "usually" OK, but not always.
Here is a reputable dealer of quality power supplies : PC Power Cooling
Cooling Fans
I cannot stress enough, the importance of cooling the
motherboard and the cards. The chips, and especially the CPU, run very hot, and require
a constant flow of air. This is not something you should have to worry
about, except if you ever notice your PC suddenly starts running very quietly -
check to make sure the fans are going. If they are not, turn it off
immediately.
Typically, there is one heavy duty fan in the back of the unit, or in the front - and sometimes, especially on older Socket 9 type PC's, a fan mounted directly on the CPU. The newer video cards have become so fast that they also require a fan mounted directly on the video chip.
Intelligent Cooling - all new motherboards have a fan jack mounted that has a linkage with the tempurature of the CPU. When a certain tempurature is exceeded, the fan comes on, and goes off when the tempurature drop below that level. I have not found this to be effective, since the fan typically stays on all the time anyway. In addition, you want the main case cooling fan to stay on at all times, since it cool all the cards, and the hard drives - as well as the CPU.
Fan Noise - this can be a problem, and the majority of fans are quite loud. The amount of air flow that a fan generates is over-rated . . . almost any standard cooling fan is sufficient. Therefore, the quieter the better. Here is a couple of links that supposedly have quiet fans - but I cannot speak for them :
PC Power Cooling Sunon Quiet Fans
Power On and Reset Button
These buttons have been perfected over the years. The power button used to be a 2-stage (ON/OFF) device. All new PC's have a momentary contact power button, that simply sends a quick signal to the motherboard. To turn off the system with these buttons, you generally have to hold it in for several seconds.
The Reset button should only be used when the system is hopelessly locked up, and requires a "hard boot", as opposed to a soft boot, which is done by hitting CTRL-ALT-DELETE. Always try a soft boot first, and if unsuccessful, hit the reset button. You may want to run Norton Utilities "Disk Doctor", or if you don;t have it, run "ScanDisk", which comes with the Windows operating system (Start/Run . . . scandskw . . . then hit "OK").
The Primo Case
There is no answer to this. There are a few decent $50 cases out there, however, stay away from them since there are so many poor ones as well. The cheaper cases are made of flimsy metal, and they are not rigid enough. In addition, the pre-bored holes for the motherboard need to be in the exact right position - and the cheapies are often off by a sixteenth of an inch or more.
Ballpark - spend at least 80 bucks for a case. Be careful not to buy the large cases with 5 large bays - they are extremely tall and you simply do not need all those bays. Go for two or three 5 1/4 " bays, and two 3 1/2 " bays. The large bays are for CD and CDR drives, but can also be used to house a hard drive inside. The small bays are for your floppy drive and a tape backup if you decide to purchase one.
Here's the best place I have found to buy cases (as well as Motherboards and Memory, for that matter) - although if you buy it locally, you don't have t pay S&H :