Cade Moding 101: #1 - How to select a case.

I'm going to be posting some how-to's concerning case modding. I have been modding cases for a good 3-5 years. From ghetto mods to fancy mods, I've done it all :P

Today's Case Modding 101 will concentrate on selecting a case for your PC. There are alot of aspects that are overlooked when people buy cases, such as: Space, Organization, and Size. Today I'm going to go over those aspects and many more.

The first thing you should do before buying a case is decide what your going to put in it. Maybe you want 6 hard drives, or dual video cards. Anything that could take up alot of space need to be put into account. Some cases can have too much space ,and end up weighing too much. If you a LAN goer you probably don't want to be lugging around a 50lb case, right?

Any case with added space behind the motherboard is a great case. Why? Because you can use that extra space for excess wires, and cable organization. Cable organization will increase airflow throughout your case and lower your temps. Unless if your trying to reduce space, go for a case with added space between components, to allow for optimal cable organization.

Another thing to look at is Capacity. If you planning to go with 10 hard drives and a dual GPU setup, get a big full tower case. Also if your wanting to get into water cooling, buy a case that can accommodate the extra water cooling components.

Some cases configure the organization of components very oddly. For instance the Antec 900 has it's psu on the bottom, which can be bad if your cables aren't long enough. Some cases put the PSU directly over the cpu area, so you would have to put the power supply somewhere else to use an aftermarket heatsink.
Some cases put the hard drives to where the ports are facing the side of the case. This makes it easier to organize cables, and gives space to bigger components.

When ever some one buys a case, they always look for the features. Remember that you can always add features by modding. No firewire ports? Add a 3.5" expansion bay with extra ports. Not enough places for fans? Just cut out some holes with a Dremel. You can do anything to the case, so if It lacks a feature, simply add it.

Well thats about it. Remember to spend alot of time researching about the case you want, and make sure it will accommodate your needs. The next article will concentrate on tool of the trade and some cool case mod suppliers.