System Unit

Desktop System Unit

Tower System Unit

The system unit (some times called a box by the less computer literate) is where all the main parts of your computer system can be found, it hold all the cards and drives and places to plug in your monitor, keyboard, mouse and other devices. The two main tpyes of system unit are shown on the right.

The Desktop system unit was the original type and sat comfortably underneath the monitor. This meant that all the facilities on the computer were readily available and within easy reach and use, including the connections at the back.

The Tower system unit is the modern eqivalent of the desktop type and mostly sits on the floor or underneath the desk as it is not suitable for sitting the monitor on. As with the desktop type the disk drives and connectors at the back are accessible.

The only difference between these two types of systems units are the shape and the tower unit can facilitate more compnoents, for example more than one hard drive. I have noticed that the desktop type are becoming increasingly replaced by the tower type of system unit and it would be very difficult to find a desktop type these days.

If you are a DIY computer person, there are considerations when purchasing a system unit, the biggest being is it upgradable, for example, if you installed a new motherboard and super fast processor, would the case facilitate any exatra cooling fans you might need.

Now, a lot of system units these days are not supplied with enough cooling fans. I have been called out to many computers that just shut down without warning part way through the startup sequence and after 10 - 30 minutes, started up again. This is because the supplier(s) did not ensure that there were enough fans to take the heat of the processor (CPU) away and the processor (CPU) is shutting down to avoid overheating and getting damaged and starts up again when it has cooled down enough.

Without facilties ot install extra fans to deal with this your super duper fast computer is effectively useless.

Another consideration for the DIY computer person is the power supply, the power supply in the case that you have may not be powerful enough for the new motherboard and / or cards you have installed and they won't work, is your system unit power supply easily replaced? Faster motherboards and faster graphics cards means more power to operate them so the power supply that powered you 133 Mhz pentium won't touch the modern day cards and motherboards.

So the main considerations when paurchasing a system unit pertain to upgradability, if you ar enot a DIY computer person, then the only considerations will be will the colour of the unit match my wall paper and similar things.