whats the benefit of having a full tower case? if any?

[kendogg]

i built an Athlon system inside a InWin Q500 and iam starting to regreat that i did.

The most significant reason is it consumes too much space. The worst is that it wont fit under my desk so its placed in front of it.... kinda gets in the way but its not too bad.

should have gone with a mid tower inwin. but honestly the Q500 does look nice.

 

[Dan]

As I see it, the benefits to a full tower are three-fold:

1. Better ventilation/cooling;

2. More bays = room for more toys;

3. Much easier to work in.

 

[Possessed Freak]

4) looks better than a wussy mini tower

 

[mechBgon]

I like having room to space the various drives apart from eachother for better cooling, plus room to add bay coolers or hard-drive coolers if I want to. The Q500's are also a good case to put blowholes onto, if you are so inclined. I know what you mean about the size, however. Mine fits under my desk by only about the thickness of a floppy disk!

 

[MF1]

room, room, I need more room. Yup, same opinion as Dan's.

 

[Goi]

Definitely more room to work with. I didn't want a huge full tower, but I still wanted a full tower, that's why I made a comprimise and got the Addtronics 6896A. Its kinda short for a full tower(21&quot, but the internal layout is still like that of one, and there's plenty of space to work with inside.

 

[JellyBaby]

I'm not so sure a larger case automatically gives you a cooling benefit. More important to have proper ventilation. I'd be curious to know what the internal temp of a 6896A is vs an identically configured 7896A.

Anyway I've used full tower cases before. The extra room is great if you actually need it. Ran into one problem once or twice where the IDE cable would not reach from the motherboard to the drives! Had to special order a super long (and out of spec I might add) cable.

 

[0beron]

KeNDoGG

When I was building my system, I too was debating full or not. I went with a Q500N. When I got it, my dad took one look at it and was like "Isn't smaller better?".
Then I started taking stuff out of a mid-tower to put into my Q500 and knew I made the right choice. The extra room made it much easier to work inside the computer. I also love the expandability.

So anyways... my suggestion:

Get a bigger desk.

 

[Left nut]

It saves money in the long run.

 

[Mday]

more room. i now have all 6 of my external 5.25 bays filled.

 

[Descend492]

Full towers make you look like a computer god. You can wow the ladies and impress the techies with your huge case. Size does matter. I used to have some little low-riser...not even a mid-tower, because I liked the compactness. Then I upgraded to the supermicro SC750-A, and I feel tough whenever I look at it. Go big.

 

[kendogg]

hehe well ok i must say bigger is better~! lots of room to work with up in this Q500 monster. Taking into consideration my previous computer was about 12.5" tall, it was a real bitch trying to install hardware and such. Well about the desk (http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Browse/SKU.asp?BCFlag=False&PageType=1&SKU=390768) i mean if it was a few inches shorter it would have been perfect. I looked at the dementions in a magazine and the bottom portion where you would put your tower was 29". so i just assumed it was plenty of space, then when i got it i finally realized there was a pull out keyboard drawer attached to this then started to wonder if my case would actually fit. overall this case is really wonderful ive only had it for about a month now and already i have heard woah's from people.

Oh ya and a Thanks to Dan for sending me an Athlon sticker for my Q500

 

[DO97]

Yes, if cases could box my SuperMicro 760A would be like Mahammad Ali. Also bragging rights is always nice. Really tall cases are useful as secondary tables. I can put my pop on it while I game. I also got my headphones, some cds and other junk on top of it, it's like a mini table. I go to LAN parties alot so it's a bit of a hassle to move it around on a weekly basis. But I'm used to it. I strap it in my front seat and put the seat belt around it .

dave

 

[Rankor]

You can hide behind the full tower and look productive.

Seriously though, it's a great case. I bought 3 of them and have no complaints w/them.

Well, there are some issues like removal of the front bezel requiring both side panels to be taken out, removal of the bezel to unscrew the hdd cage, the plastic cage that houses the front intake fan seriously impedes airflow, but that's all personal gripes.

These are great cases with tons of real estate to work with. Rounded-out edges to ensure that your fingers don't get cut while working in it is a plus. There are plenty of places to install extra case fans. Their slide-out motherboard tray is one of the best I've worked with. Construction quality is also top notch.

I recently bought a mid-tower, an Inwin S500 case and its a decent performer, but space is down considerably. It's a great little case. The one I bought came with a 300W PS @ $60 US.

The personal gripes that I had with the Q500 full towers were almost resolved with this S500 case: Front bezel can be removed w/one panel off, hdd cage can be unscrewed and removed from the interior side, and design of plastic cage housing the front intake fan provides better airflow.

One gem that I noticed about this case design is the inclusion of drive rails that simply attach to the sides of a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive or screwed easily onto a floppy drive/Zip drive. This makes installation and removal of these drives simpler and faster. Just attach the rails and slide it in from the front.

 

[Eug]

You can get some full tower's that are smaller than others. I got mine partially because it fit under my desk. A few of the other ones were too big.

Four of my five 5-1/4" drive bays are filled by the way.

 

[whizler]

Full tower here, fits perfectly under the desk.

Another benefit: MUCH harder to haul away if some robber breaks in.

 

[Jhhnn]

Full tower? Never had one, seems to me that only scsi raid systems could even begin to fill up that much space, and really loaded ones at that. More room is nice, remember those miserable baby-at cases? Makes me squirm, and check my scars. Anyway there are several cases that are bigger than most midtowers, with lots of room for most of us. Some are sold as entry level servers, or as workstation-class enclosures. Chenbro has a new model,addtronics has the 6896, Antec has the sx830 and sx1030, Lite-on has the fs020, and a bunch of others. No point in suffering daily for that occasional "Oh my!You have a really BIG one!"

 

[Imaginer]

It really shows you have a RIG! Got to love the interior leg room and the carrying capacity.

But I am satisfied right now with a mid size. Conventional.