There are variations on these sizes between manufacturers, as there are no standard sizes
associated with these three case sizes. Figure 15-11 shows a tower case family from one ven-
dor, HungTech Industrial; Figure 15-10 showed the tower cases of Enlight Corporation.
What one vendor calls a minitower, another may call a mini-midtower. After you pick the
brand of computer you wish to purchase, look to the sizes and styles of cases available.
Among the tower style cases, the primary difference is usually the number of external drive
bays and the size of the power supply included in the case design. As more external bays are
included, the tower case gets taller and, typically, the power supply gets more powerful.
Here is a brief overview of the popular variations of the tower case style: Full tower Full tower cases are the largest standard PC cases available. They
offer the most of any case style in the way of expandability, typically having
three to five external drive bays and a few internal bays as well (see Figure 15-12).
A full tower case will normally have a high-end power supply under the
assumption that the case will be filled with devices. This style of case is
popular among high-end users and for servers.
Midtower A midtower case is a slightly shorter version of the full tower
case. This particular size seems to vary the most among manufacturers, but
within a single manufacturer’s line it represents a good compromise of size(^354) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
Figure 15-11. A family of computer cases showing a full AT Tower on the left down to an ATX
minitower on the right. Photo courtesy of Hungtech Industrial Co.