Anyone know why motherboards are mounted vertically in towers?

[woltej1]

A random question that I couldn't answer with a quick google search.

What's the rhyme or reason to mounting it vertically. From a pressure load point, it'd be better to have it lay flat. Also cooling would work better.

 

[logang]

Otherwise we couldn't call them towers

 

[quas]

Towers are designed to be vertical structures.

 

[mickypheonix]

Hi woltej1 ,
That used to be the case once upon a time , but not anymore these days there are quite a few cases where the motherboard lays flat
example - the coolermaster Haf xb , i think at the end of the day it is so that you can place all your components in a case without having the case extremely wide , most people dont want to take a a lot of room on their desk , going verticaly solves this issue.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Because otherwise they'd be ~12" wide, and essentially a desktop.

Cooling actually works quite well in towers, because convection pulls the air up the side of the board.

 

[Nada190]

Just like buildings in cities, you can only build up. Takes up less space with a tower on your desk.