PC help?

[D2theHass]

I'm going to buy a case from TigerDirect or NewEgg for my computer. How can I tell if it will fit and how do I figure if I have a Mid Tower or Full Tower? Also how do I switch the cases?

[phreekopath]

There's really only a few different types of mounting for motherboards. ATX, mATX, and BTX are the most common...

ATX motherboards are usually longer, top to bottom, due to extra expansion slots (pci, pci-e, agp, etc) usually 6 or 7
mATX cases have fewer expansion slots, usually 3 or less
BTX boards are mounted upside down and backwards... they're pretty rare, i haven't seen many, but they're hard to describe also, so the best i can do is say that the case will open from the right hand side (if looking at the front of the case) instead of on the left hand side

both mid tower and full tower should support ATX boards, but the full tower will give you more optical drive bays, maybe more hard drive bays, and more internal airspace for cooling. MICRO towers will be mATX only. you can also mount mATX boards into either of the larger cases.

If you have an HP or Dell that you're thinking of frankensteining, be aware that some manufacturers will often use proprietary mounting systems and nonstandard board layouts to prevent you from doing stuff like this, i've run into a lot of problems trying to relocate a dell board into a standard ATX case.

[Eclipse]

Why are you wasting you rmoney on a new case?