if you've ever built a PC you probably know the community has a massive focus
on how computer components perform you know FPS go bur but here's something
very important you don't want to forget about will everything you know fit you
wouldn't be the first person to order a bunch of parts for your spiffy new rig
just to discover that one or more of the components simply is taking up too much
space once you start putting everything actually together so today we're going
to tell you how to avoid this kind of unpleasant surprise first things first
know what form factor you're working with motherboard's mostly come in one of
three standard form factors which you can think of as sizes from largest to
smallest they're called ATX microatx and
Mini ITX why micro and mini are switched so annoying I don't know don't ask me
larger form factors will give you more expansion slots and oftentimes more
features but a smaller form factor will obviously take up less space if you're
going for a compact build and don't need all that extra connectivity once you
decide which motherboard form factor you want make sure to pick a case that can
fit it most mid Tower cases out there will fit a full-size ATX board no
problem but there are plenty of cases out there that can only fit a Micro ATX
or mini ITX board and unless you look carefully at the product's description
it can be easy to buy a case that's too small as it can be hard to tell exactly
what kind of motherboard a case will fit just by glancing at a couple photos next
let's talk about your heat sink if you're going with a stock CPU Cooler or
a water block this probably isn't something you need to worry about too much cuz they're pretty small but if
you're installing an aftermarket air cooler this is where things get a bit
tricky air coolers can keep you from installing RAM in the slots closest to
your CPU especially if you have RAM sticks with tall heat spreaders and just
as bad they can keep you from reinstalling your side panel depending
on how far the cooler sticks off from your motherboard the way to prevent this
is to carefully look at the listed dimensions for your cooler case and any
potentially conflicting components some case spec sheets will tell you straight
up what the tallest cooler you can fit inside them is which can help eliminate
some guess work and if you absolutely must have a super wide cooler some of
them can play nicely with low profile RAM sticks so check those out this leads
us right into another cooling component that can be problematic which we'll tell
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Safeguard your family's digital world today as we mentioned water blocks don't
usually cause too many space issues but what about the radiators they're
attached to you'll want to make sure your radiator and case are compatible
though the good news is that radiators tend to come in one of several standard
sizes and which ones your case support should be clearly listed on the spec
sheet however you'll also want to verify that the radiator along with with
attached fans isn't so thick that it'll hit other components for example it's
possible for a top mounted radiator to interfere with your RAM or even make the
headers at the top of your motherboard inaccessible in that case you might be
able to make things work if you opt for Slimmer low profile fans give it a shot
but an even more likely part to cause you issues is perhaps your most prized
component your graphics card higher end gpus need lots of cooling and adequate
power delivery and all of that supporting Hardware can take up lots of
space the most most common problem when installing a chunker of a graphics card
is that the card is simply too long for the case so if this is the situation
you're in see if you can get your hands on a shorter card with the same GPU on
it though this could be a little tougher for very high-end gpus like an RTX 490
or 90 who knows when you're watching this considering the relative prices of
things though maybe just get a bigger case but that's not it with graphics
cards it's also good to think about how many slots your graphics card will be
taking up obviously you only insert your card into one PCI Express slot but I'm
talking about the slot on the back of your case most gpus with any kind of
gaming horsepower take up at least two slots and there are a good number of
them on the higher and they take up three or even four so find out whether
the card you have your eye on is a dual slot triple slot or quad slot and pick a
case that matches keep in mind that multi-lot cards also usually physically
block at least one more PCI Express slot so it could limit your ability to
install other adapter cards like capture cards sound cards or Wi-Fi cards so if
you need another slot free check your motherboard's layout out to ensure there
will be a slot available for you or maybe investigate whether a PCIe riser
can help solve your problem somehow your mileage may vary are there other
headaches that you've run into when filling or upgrading a PC where something just wouldn't fit let us know
down in the comments and if you'd like to specifically know more about building a tiny PC including how to fit in a
power supply go watch this video next