| Antec DF-35 Dark Fleet Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Wednesday, 07 July 2010 | |
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Page 3 of 6
DF-35 Detailed Exterior FeaturesThe Antec DF-35's three 5.25" device bays have snap-down, swing-out trim pieces (I'm not sure what else to call them). These snap down very firmly and your optical drive drawer will not be able to push them open. They're easy to release, though: just press lightly in on the left side where it snaps down into the case.
At the top front of the case, on either side of the 2.5" drive bay, are the power and reset buttons. Just below are two USB ports, unlabelled microphone and headphone ports, and, just visible to the left of the USB ports, two tiny holes through which shine blue power and HDD activity LEDs. The left hole is for the power LED and the right hole is for the HDD activity LED. The two USB ports are spaced far enough apart so that interference between two items plugged into them is unlikely; I see too many cases with the USB ports placed so close together that you can really only use one at a time.
Each of the two front 120mm fans has its own fan controller knob, visible in the lower right of this photo. The fan controller is hardwired into the fan body, so you can't replace these fans and retain the controller.
A nice touch: each fan swings open easily to reveal three drive bays; a removable dust filter pops out for easy cleaning.
2.5" drives slot easily into (and out of) the top SATA drive bay (the picture below shows the drive fully inserted). But given the amount of space on top of the case, why didn't Antec make this a 3.5" SATA bay? That would have accomodated both 2.5" and 3.5" drives, and most enthusiasts I know have a lot more 3.5" drives laying around than notebook drives or SSDs.
These two switches on the rear of the case allow you to set "Low" and "High" speeds for the top and rear fans...so every fan in the case has a fan controller! Nice. But as with the front fans, the controllers are hardwired directly into the fan body. Each of the case's four fans has a four-pin Molex pass through connector for power, with no three-pin connector, so you'll need to connect each fan directly to your power supply rather than to motherboard headers.
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.
Now it's time to explore the inside of the case.
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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.