Perhaps to say that today they seem to have fallen into oblivion is a bit of an exaggeration, but what is certain is that this sequence in which all the manufacturers constantly presented boxes with this format in the shape of a cube ended, leaving out the traditional type of tower a bit. boxes. Today, many manufacturers continue to have these boxes in their active catalogs and, in fact, some even continue to introduce new models, but certainly not at the rate we saw in 2018 and 2019.
We all know about tower boxes, but what do cube boxes look like?
The concept of the cubic box is nothing new, although it was not extended until around 2018. It consists of a box that, instead of rising upwards, expands widely, separating the hardware components into two separate internal chambers, leaving out the more attractive components such as the heat sink. , the card with the RAM and the graphics card, and “hide” devices that we don’t generally want to “show” like power or storage devices.
But this is only one of its faculties, because in reality the idea is not simply to separate the ugliest components or the wiring from the visible area but to separate the devices which generate the most heat (the processor and graphics) of the rest of the hardware with the objective of optimizing the internal cooling of the box as much as possible; This, however, is of little use in many cube-type boxes that came onto the market at the time because they left the storage area and source without active cooling.
So a cube-type box is called so precisely because it is (almost) cube-shaped, as a rule it is lower than a tower-type box (but not always, as for example with the gigantic Corsair 680X) and it is still wide enough to make room for that extra compartment.
Advantages and disadvantages of cube type boxes
Let’s start with the downsides this time, as there are two main “downsides” to these types of boxes. The first is the space they occupy on the table since they are generally quite wide; When you have the box on the table, you usually don’t care about its height, but the width has a lot to do with whether you can put monitors on the table, for example.
The second major drawback is that most manufacturers have neglected the cooling in the rear compartment where storage devices and power are usually located. For the source, that’s not a problem as they have their own internal fans and the cases obviously have a built-in grille for these components, but storage devices can suffer more from high temperatures as they lack active cooling in this area.
As for the advantages, in fact we have already explained them at the beginning because they are inherent in the characteristics of these cases and there are also two of them: the first is that the components which generate the most heat are separated, thus being able to favor the cooling of the box; In addition, this space left free by removing the source and hard drives from the main zone allows for greater cooling options. The second advantage is that it allows the material that we want to show through the window to be much more clear and organized, leaving much more striking and impressive material configurations.
Advantages and disadvantages of tower type enclosures
We all know or have had a tower case, in which, unlike the cube type, all the equipment is installed in the same “compartment”. These boxes have the advantage of taking up less table space as they grow in height rather than width, and all components also receive active cooling without a problem as long as the box is well designed.
In many tower type enclosures, like the one shown in the image above, it was chosen to incorporate a plastic cover that literally hides the source and its wiring, in addition to the storage devices, creating a visual effect. similar to the one we get with a cube type box. It is true that you can see that black plastic piece on the floor and the cooling options are reduced with it, yes.
Tower or cube, which type of box is better?
As always, it depends, although in this case it depends on the box and what hardware you intend to fit inside. As a general rule, a tower type box will always meet your expectations, while a cube type box is a bit more demanding in this regard in the sense that it requires more physical space to place it. Leaving that aside, both types of boxes have their pros and cons as we have seen, so it’s up to the user to discern whether they prefer one or the other.
We would tell you that a cube type box has more advantages than disadvantages over a tower type, but that will depend on whether you have a physical space to place it. Either way, with a good quality tower case, enough room to install your components, and good cooling options, you can never go wrong.
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