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Also important is whether the case supports the length of your graphics card, and the number of potential PCIe cards installed. Graphics cards can be equipped with one, two, or even three fans, depending on how much cooling is needed to keep the GPU stable and efficient. Cards with three fans can be very long, even larger than the width of the motherboard.
Finally, it is highly recommended to use a case with cable management, especially if you plan to show off your PC. Most mid- to high-end cases have very well-designed seams and holes to hide and organize the dozens of cables that connect various components.
Cooling
Cooling can be difficult to determine because of the wide choice and price of air coolers and water coolers for processors. Air coolers can work well for low to high end processors, but tend not to be as efficient or quiet as water coolers. Air coolers draw heat away from the processor, but if the case isn't properly ventilated, that heat will eventually get trapped and affect other components.
Airflow planning for the casing becomes very important in this type of heatsink, with front fans positioned to draw in air from outside, and rear or top fans to push hot air out. Also consider the location where the PC will be placed later. If the PC is placed in a bedroom or office that is not well ventilated and the ambient air temperature may become warm or hot, then an air-cooled heatsink may not be the best choice. Water cooling was previously only attempted by professionals due to the complexity of line setup and assembly, not to mention the potential danger of leaks.
Today, however, water-cooled All-In-One (AIO) are a relatively inexpensive and efficient option for all levels of PC builders, although some additional installation steps are required when compared to air-cooled systems. Low-end models may feature only one or two fans on a shorter radiator, while high-end models may have three or more fans housed on a longer radiator.
Models with one or two fans are sufficient to cool mainstream processors as well as PCs running light to moderate workloads and games. Models with three or more fans should be considered for high-performance PCs.
Storage
When considering storage options, it's usually how much storage you need and what storage speed you want. A regular Hard Disk Drive (HDD) would be the option for the lowest price per gigabyte and potentially for the highest capacity option per drive, but at slower speeds. Since traditional HDDs rely on rotating internal disks to store data, noise and vibration can sometimes be a nuisance.
Today HDDs are primarily used for large data storage, such as photos, music, videos, and backups, while the main operating system and applications are housed on Solid State Drives (SSD). SSDs have no moving parts because the data is stored on flash chips. SSDs are available in a variety of form factors and feature options for high-speed interconnection.
The 2.5” SATA-based SSD fits inside the case and connects to the motherboard via cables for read/write performance in the 500 MB/s range. Some high-end motherboards also support PCIe 2.5” NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) drives using the U.2 interface/connector, which can provide up to 14x faster read/write than SATA.
However, most NVMe PCIe U.2 drives are targeted towards data center use so it can be difficult to find a cheap option with features aimed at PC users. It's safe to say that the best SSD form factor for desktops and laptops is the M.2 SSD drive. M.2 drives are caseless and plug directly into the motherboard, much like memory modules. M.2 drives come in a number of different interfaces so it's important to know what type of socket you have on your motherboard: SATA, PCIe AHCI (older), or PCIe NVMe.
