Somewhat recently, I built a new desktop computer. I have a work specific laptop, so this PC was primarily for gaming. However, I will also use it to browse the web, check email, as a print server, and as another place to backup my files. In the past, when I have built a PC, I have gone with a mid ATX tower. However, with my latest built, I decided to opt for a full ATX case. Specifically, I went with the Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower Case. As a side note, I would definitely recommend this case. Let’s take a look at the advantages of a full ATX case, in particular, when compared to a mid tower.

Better Cooling

If you go with a well-made full ATX case, in general, you should get better cooling right out of the box when compared to a mid tower. With a full sized tower, your case has more room for airflow. To go along with that, the case will have room for larger fans as well. For example, my Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower Case has 3 x 230 mm (about 9 inches) fans located on its side, front, and top. These huge fans, along with a few other smaller fans, can really generate a ton of airflow. If you are an overclocker, this great cooling can really help you to achieve better speeds at safer temperatures. For a mid tower to compete with this type of cooling, it would have to be really well designed or it would need water cooling.

More Room for your Video Card

These days, video cards are really starting to get huge. On top of that, many people are starting to buy two video cards and hook them up in an SLI configuration. One more advantage of going with a full ATX case is that you will have more room for your graphics card(s). Due to this extra room, cable management and cooling will be much easier. As an example of how this can help, with my last mid tower, my video card cables needed to bend very awkwardly since the card was so long and the cables were right on top of the hard drive bays. With a full sized case, I had much more room for these cables.

More Hard Drive and Optical Drive Bays

One more advantage of a full size case is that you should have more hard drive and optical drive bays. This is particularly helpful if you will be looking to setup any type of raid configuration. Even if you aren’t setting up RAID, it is always nice to have the extra slots if you ever need to use them.

Easier to Troubleshoot and Manage Cables

With more room inside the case, you will find it much easier when you actually need to get into the case and make changes or fix issues. Also, with the extra space, it is much easier to manage cables. If you have a problem, it is quite simple to follow a cable all the way from input to source. With a smaller case, you may end up so many wires in a small space that it looks like spaghetti. In this instance, it is much harder to dig around the case.

Disadvantages and Other Notes

The main disadvantage to a full ATX case is that it is quite large. If you have space restrictions, then this could be an issue. Also, they can be quite heavy as well. So, if you plan on moving this PC around a ton, then a full ATX case might not be for you. One last thing to note is that you will want to check the size of any case you are looking at. Lately, there have been a few mid towers that are almost the same size as a full size tower. With these specific mid towers, the advantages above are mostly negated since the towers are about the same size.