With small 'Console sized' gaming PC's on the rise.... Do we actually need large PC cases any more?
More and more people are wanting to turn to Tablets, Laptops, small form factor PC's and all in ones, it begs the question, Do we actually need Large PC cases any more?
Is Bigger Better?
- The ATX standard has been around for a very long time now, and if you look on any number of PC web sites or in store, you will see there is a mountain of large ATX PC cases to choose from.
There are more gaming and professional laptops than I care to look at... MSI's Trident and Zotac's Zbox are very powerful Mini PC's that are similar in size to that of a gaming console or smaller. All of them having just under or equal performance of systems built into large ATX platforms. Recently there has been a huge increase in sales of this type of home computing, small yet powerful package that offers everything there bigger brothers can. So is there any need for these large and cumbersome machines?
- The answer, like many things relating to PC's, its complicated. But it all comes down to what you actually want to do with said ''PC''. While many users will want to choose the small form factor and be as minimalistic as possible, others will have a more specific need.
If you are a video editor, you will need large amounts of storage. While Solid State Drives are very quick and go hand in hand with powerful PC's, they are very expensive when compared to the mechanical alternative which have very large storage capacity in the range of 10Tb or more. These larger 3.5” drives take up much more room and if you need several of these drives, you will need the larger case to fit them.
The same situation applies to those that have a home server or NAS (Network Attached Storage) that contains media that is shared among a network in your own home.
With having a larger case, the larger motherboards that fit them also tend to offer more in the way of expansion so you can fit more hard drives than most things that are smaller in size.
- Then you get to those that like to tinker, experiment and just basically show off. This is where water cooling and overclocking comes into there own. Something that is almost impossible to do on other systems like laptops and pre built all in one PC's. If you are a user that likes to push there system to its limit, you will need a cooling solution that can cope with the excess heat that goes hand in hand with overclocking. Some requiring an AiO water cooler for the CPU and then another for the GPU to achieve that goal. In extreme cases, and this applies more to the enthusiast PC users, they will usually adopt a full, custom water loop for there overclocking shenanigans.
The custom water loops tend to go hand in hand with those users that want to show off there systems, sometimes in overly elaborate designs and heavily modified cases. These systems not only look good but can perform even better thanks to the cooling solution used.
These same water cooled systems tend to adopt large radiators that are on average 240mm or larger, and sometimes using multiple radiators. Because of the size of these radiators, it is almost impossible to use them in smaller platforms like the prebuilt PC's and Laptops. Only a very small number of laptops have ever used a water cooled solution, and usually relies on a large and loud expansion pack for the laptop, making it less mobile... negating the whole idea of having something small and light to take anywhere.
The larger cases also offer much better air cooling solutions too as some can have as many as 15 120mm fans or larger... with that type of airflow, you can help to keep all the components inside the case, including the motherboard and drives, much cooler. The larger fans also have the added benefit of being quieter than smaller ones found in laptops and All in One Pre built PC's like the MSI Trident 3.
Is ATX King?
- For the time being, larger cases are still a dominant force in the computing industry because of there versatility. Some cases, like the Fractal Design Define r6 have multiple use cases. In one instance it can be a full on gaming PC with dual graphics cards and a single drive, then just by moving some parts of the case around, it can become a full on gaming PC that uses a full custom water loop, and then again, move some bits again, and it can now be a home server or media production workstation that houses 100Tb of storage. This is the main selling point of large, ATX cases, they are mostly simplistic in there design, but they can fulfil a multitude of different platforms. Something that smaller platforms or pre built ones can not offer.
The ATX and mATX cases remain the most versatile style of cases on the current market, and even though there has been a rise in the sale of smaller pre built and all in ones, because of how limited they are in there uses and customization, the ATX will remain on top.... well for the time being any way.
- The ATX case gives manufacturers, designers, customizers and even end users more freedom to choose and create something unique to fit in with there own setup, whether that be for a simplistic workstation or full on, over the top gaming battle station, which is essentially what most people look for when choosing such a case. Something that will fit with there personality.
Do you have a large PC case/system? If so, which one?
Let us know and show it of in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
Stu @TechMojo
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