Computer Cases

By Owen Jones

Is your computer's case or casing of any significance to you? You might be asking yourself the question: why should it be? The fact is that the computer case is vital to the computer itself and also to some people.

Let's begin from the computer's point of view. One, if not the main causes of computer failure is excessive heat. Which is why, when computers were first used in factories and large offices, the specialized computer room was cut off from dust and was air conditioned, if not cooled especially. In those days, thirty-forty years ago, computer parts were very fragile and tremendously costly.

Nowadays, they are very, very much cheaper but they are still subject to jip from heat. Excessive heat will warp the boards, especially the motherboard because it is large, inside the computer case. They are not made for these gymnastics and sooner or later the very thin connections soldered onto the surface of the board will crack and prevent the flow of electricity. It will die.

In order to inhibit this happening, manufacturers put fans inside the computer so as to increase the flow of air. There are usually at least two in a desktop computer case, one built-in to the external casing and one directly on the CPU (the chip), which is often the hottest and most expensive single part. In laptops, where air flow is even more restricted, there may be three or four fans.

So, these fans boost the circulation of air within the case in an attempt to cool the chip's environment down. Therefore, it also stands to reason that there must be sufficient space for that air to flow. If it was left up to the computer to design itself, computer cases would be larger and with more fans. A little like you might like to live in a larger house with air conditioning, if money was no problem.

Now from the human's point of view. People agonize more about looks and fashion and about how much space the computer is taking up. Manufacturers have to listen to what people would like if they want to sell their computers. People wanted less prominent computer cases, so producers made half-size cases; people wanted less noisy computers, so manufacturers put fewer fans in the cases. And the result was unsurprising: computers housed in cases like these broke down more often and the only person who was happy about that was the producer.

There is also a trend towards beauty in computer cases. Acrylic, see-through cases are very popular with gamers. Now games machines are some of the most powerful home computers on the market, because of the power required to run the graphics at a life-like speed.

See-through cases promote the use of size and fans, because they are often themed, which means that the interior may have green, blue, yellow or red LED's to light it up. So, for instance, when the DVD player kicks in a red LED comes on inside the case. Similarly with fans, which may also be painted. Some of these themed computer cases are ideal for the chips that reside in them and the individuals that own them - 29854

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