# midtower vs. full tower



## I7wish

How do you whether a full tower is needed? Im designing a 2600k machine at cyberpowerpc with either a gtx 570 or a ati 6970...


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## Aastii

A mid tower is usually enough and can fit any components. The only time a problem may arise is if you have a long video card, it can potentially conflict with the hard drive bays or with the SATA power/data cables going to the hard drives, though with a half decent mid tower, this still isn't an issue, they can fit 10"+ cards in no problem.

Full tower cases just give more room for everything. It helps to have extra room to work on your system, to fit more fans, and for fitting in water cooling, however it is more than possible to fit a decent water cooled loop in almost any mid tower case.

For instance, I upgraded from a mid ATX case to my Corsair 700D full tower. All components fit into the other case, however, the extra space is very useful when building, the internal temperatures are much lower, I can easily fit a hell of a lot more in the case, but the best thing is, I find generally it is much easier to get a plain full tower case than it is to get a mid tower. The majority of mid tower cases have some sort of design, be it colour, lights, random engravings/indentations, just something that prevents the case from having a clean, flat, professional looking finish


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## I7wish

Thanks for the response.

So with the cooling concerns in mind would you recommend going with the mid or full tower on this system:

Configuration

    * CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
    * HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)
    * MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (Corsair or Major Brand)
    * MOTHERBOARD: * [CrossFireX] GigaByte GA-P67A-UD3 Intel P67 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 3 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI
    * SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
    * VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [+190] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)

    * *BASE_PRICE: [+1089]
    * BLUETOOTH: None
    * CAS: * Raidmax Blade Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Side-Panel Window
    * CASUPGRADE: None
    * CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
    * CD2: None
    * CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600K 3.40 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
    * CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]
    * FA_HDD: None
    * FAN: Xion HP-1216B Five Heatpipes Direct Core Contact Copper Heatsink CPU Cooling Fan (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) (Extreme Silent at 20dBA & Overclock Proof) [-3]
    * FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
    * FLOPPY: None
    * GLASSES: None
    * HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)

    * KEYBOARD: (Keyboard & Mouse Combo) Logitech MK200 USB Keyboard & Mouse Combo [+16]
    * MB_ADDON: None
    * MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (Corsair or Major Brand)

    * MOTHERBOARD: * [CrossFireX] GigaByte GA-P67A-UD3 Intel P67 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 3 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI
    * MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
    * MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
    * NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
    * OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
    * OVERCLOCK: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more) [+49]
    * POWERSUPPLY: 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TX 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+112]
    * RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
    * SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
    * SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
    * SPEAKERS: Logitech Z-506 5.1 Surround Speakers + Subwoofer System [+92]

    * VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [+190] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)


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## 87dtna

mid tower covers a WIDE range of sizes, but for a 6950 I would go with atleast a bigger mid tower.

The cooler master 690 II advanced I highly recommend.  I know I only have a gtx460 in here but look at all the room-


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## memory

If you have the space and can afford it, I would go with full tower.  It gives you more room to work with.  It also lets you upgrade easier in the future.

If you are going to be moving it quite a bit, then I would go for a mid tower.  A full tower can be pretty heavy with everything inside it.


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## daisymtc

Go for large mid-atx, e.g. CM 690II/ HAF 922


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