A Closer Look - Outside

The first thing that springs to mind when taking a look at this case is "industrial". A lot of straight lines, bars and metal mesh make the DF series look like a construction rig, for example. While this is certainly not a bad thing, such a design is of the "love it or hate it" variety.


Most design elements in the front are made of plastic and some only serve to complete the look, without any functionality. As you can clearly see, there are three red-bladed 120 mm fans in the front. Turning the chassis around, we can clearly see another two 120 mm units and a bottom mounted PSU bay.


The main side of the DF-85 holds a large two parted window, which does not cover the forward part of the case, as this is where your drives would be. You may install a single 120 mm fan on this window if you like. Turning the case around, the other side is completely solid without any air vents or other design elements. This is a somewhat stark contrast to the rest of the chassis.


Taking a closer look at the front, roughly 2/3 of the area is taken by the hard drive bays. Each of the three doors, which hold one fan each, can be opened to give way to the hard drive bays. While you do not need to open the chassis to gain access to these storage units, only four of the nine bays are hot-swap ready right out of the box - but more on that later. In the very top there are three 5.25 inch bays, covered by plastic bars. These do not really serve any functional purpose but are there for looks. All the plastic is noticeable, especially at this point, but it is of adequate quality. All the I/O and buttons are located here as well. Three USB 2.0, one USB 3.0 and a pair of audio connectivity is all you will find. While this may not seem like much, there is really no need for eSATA with a case like this.


Each of the three hard drive bay doors has a seperate little dial, allowing you to control the fan speed manually on each section. This is an awesome little addition and considering the fact that the DF-85 is overflowing with these cooling units, any way to keep the noise down is a good way.


Taking a quick look at the bottom of the rear, the afore mentioned PSU bay is located here and you install the power supply with the fan facing upward or downward. Above that are seven mainboard expansion slots. The very bottom one also has a special cover to allow you to route the USB 3.0 cable out the back. While this is good, the cover is clearly intended for a different connector. Two large water cooling holes have been placed right next to the expansion slots. Right above these you will find the two 120 mm exhaust fans. Antec has also placed a manual fan controller for all the other fans in the top left corner. This means that all pre-installed units are manually controllable.


A single 2.5 inch hot swap bay has been placed on top of the chassis, so you can easily access any data of an SSD or traditional drive without having to take things apart. Two additional, black fans in the ceiling round up the cooling capabilities of the DF-85. So, in total, this case ships with seven (!) pre-installed and manually controllable fans - pretty sweet as long as they are not too loud during operation.