| Antec DF-35 Dark Fleet Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Wednesday, 07 July 2010 | |
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Closer Look: Dark Fleet ExteriorThe Antec DF-35 box calls out the main features of the case. Part of Antec's new "Dark Fleet" series, the DF-35 has a 2.5" SATA drive bay at the top of the case, swing-out front fans with removable filters, and two pluggable drive bays (aka "Fleet Swap") at the bottom of the chassis.
The accessory kit is minimal: two bags of screws and two cable ties. The bag of screws and white rubber mounts on the right is for mounting a 2.5" device at the very bottom of the case. No manual is included; purchasers are advised to go to the Antec web site to download it. As of the time of this writing, Antec has not posted a manual for the DF-35.
The DF-35 case body is steel and painted black, inside and outside, with an elaborate black palstic front bezel. Weighing in at 15 pounds, it has three 5.25" drive bays, one bay for an externally-accessible 3.5" device, and room for six 3.5" hard drives, three behind each front fan.
From this view we can see the rear 120mm fan and the top 140mm fan, as well as a mounting spot in the window for a user-supplied 120mm fan. The window mount only accomodates two screws (Antec supplies two longish self-tapping screws in the accessory kit that thread through the white rubber mounting points at opposite corners of the fan opening); the clear plastic mounting points have pins that fit into the screw holes on a fan's case. In this view you'll also notice something a little odd: although the power supply mounts at the bottom of the case, there are no ventilation holes or grill below the power supply.
The right side of the case is a simple black panel, relieved only by the "Antec Design" stamp.
The top of the case comprises a 140mm exhaust fan and the 2.5" SATA drive bay. The clear cover of the drive bay reveals the small SATA backplane board.
At the rear of the case we see the 120mm exhaust fan, 7 card slots, the power supply mounting area, and two punch-out holes for water cooling hoses. If the mounting area for the power supply looks a little odd, it's because it's designed to allow you to mount the power supply in two orientations: "normal" and "upside down".
Let's take a closer look at some of the exterior features of the Antec DF-35.
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Comments
Other revisions are in the oven :).
Also, Lian Li is using louvres on some of their new cases to reduce the risk: #benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=526&Itemid=61&limit=1&limitstart=3
"The side panel fit is a little sloppy: even with the panels fully in place, there's about a 1/4" gap between the back of each side panel and the back of the case. "
I would like to point out that this is for cable management... which makes the air flow in this tower so much nicer. For the complaints on the drive bays there is also a FULL tower keep in mind this is mid and is trying to support optimal air flow because the better the air flow the better the entire machine will run.
Went with Lian Li PC-60FNWX instead
As the owner of 3 antec nine hundred cases, I can tell you there is nothing wrong with the way the power supply being mounted the way it is. If you cannot understand the logic behind the engineering, perhaps you should not even be reviewing cases. I actually PREFER this design over the old "over the motherboard" design. traditionally with the powersupply mounted up high, it was sometimes the "only exhaust fan" running in the computer. With 140mm fan up top and 120mm in the back, let the fans do their job and let the power supply fan do the job its suppose to do, which is to cool the power supply. As for the hot swap 3.5" being useless without rails, does the harddrive not sit in the "slot" once inserted? I don't know about the df35 but on the full tower, when you slide a drive in, it just clicks and stays there. So having this the idea is so you can put in a hdd for "temporary use" quickly, where you don't need to open the case to connect sata / power cord I think it serve its purpose just fine.
I agree the price could've been lower and I didn't exactly like the looks of it at first glance, but once I finish building for my friend I liked the case enough to look into this. So if anyone reading this is interested in this case, check out the DF 85, If you have the space, its a much better case for not so much more.
I ordered the 35 as it was $79.00 with free UPS shipping for the case & the rest of the order,
I to thought it was not that pleasing to the eye but after popping a few of the plastic swing brackets off & growing on me its really a half decent looking case along with its better attributes.
Big Case
Good Cooling, airflow
Holds lots of Hd?s
Bottom HS Bay made just for my SSD Drive
Top Hot Swap 2.5" Bay perfect for my media player HD (made just for me)
Bottom PS great with Sandy Bridge build
Installed the 2 SATA 3 on front of case rather than out the back, easily have both
fan filters are great, work well
Does ANYONE who has this case know which plug is which?
I must say that this case isn't that bad as you guys think.
I admit it's kind of cheap material used for the case, but the hotswap on top is pretty cool. My only problem is the light produced from the led fans... It's a bit to much IMO. I like to watch movies on my pc, but with the amount of light produced it isn't so great.
Except for that i think it's a great case for stronger pc's.
The cords are easily to put away.
And in black it looks so much better.