Question about these seemingly new ATX cases

Dogoid · 3 Apr 2015 at 12:16

i haven't built a rig in years and having regained interest in Gaming i decided to build one .

i noticed a trend with a lot of cases is that the PSU's go at the bottom of the case, is there any reason for this? space , cabling?

also i noticed the front USB and audio inputs are at the top, to me this seems flawed as i don't want hanging cables from either inputs especially when drive bays are situated underneath and would get in the way.

katinacooker · 3 Apr 2015 at 12:24

The PSU at the bottom design lets the PSU suck in its own air from outside the case & exhaust it out the back. Means that it isnt in taking warm air from the inside of the case, and means that cables aren't drooping down from the top of the case.

For the front panel headers i would assume that its because a lot of the cases are large and sit on the floor/low down, so the cables would directed up to the desk. A lot of people don't even use drive bays any more, so its less of an issue than it would've been a few years ago. Some cases have the inputs on the side of the case though. These are generally smaller cases that are meant to sit on desks

Dogoid · 3 Apr 2015 at 12:46

thanks, and of course most towers would be on the floor , i always had them on the desk, i hated always having to bend down to configure , open it up etc.

PSU position makes total sense now regarding getting its air from the outside.

pieman109 · 3 Apr 2015 at 13:02

It also lowers the c of g, so the case isn't so top heavy.