Buying a Motherboard - Cases

A rather short section this will be because the choices are rather small. AT or ATX? Well if its new I'm 99% certain it will be ATX. some older socket 7 boards will be AT and so you will have to buy the case accordingly. 

Today you will find that everything is made to the ATX standard and you will need to have a case that houses an ATX board. There are however Full ATX and Micro ATX. Motherboards can come in either of these two sizes. The only thing you have to worry about here is making sure that your case is big enough for the motherboard to fit in and there is enough power in the PSU. For example the AMD Athlon should be put in a case with a 300W PSU as a minimum (you can only get away with 250W if you have few other components, not worth the risk though) Also the new P4 requires to have a special platform as well as a PSU that supports ATX 2.03 specifications.

Some newer components like top end graphics and S-ATA hard drives require the correct connectors on the power supply in order for them to work. Cases with PSU's included will state the power rating and the connection types available from it.

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