Antec DF-85 Review 6

Antec DF-85 Review

(6 Comments) »

Value & Conclusion

  • The Antec DF-85 will set you back €129.90, while the DF-30 goes for 80, the DF-35 carries a price tag of €85 and the DF-10 costs €60. US readers will see identical pricing in US Dollars.
  • Very good price for the feature set
  • Interesting industrial look
  • 4x 3.5 hot-swap bays
  • 1x external 2.5 inch bay
  • Seven fans included
  • All fans can be controlled manually and seperately
  • Loads of space inside the chassis
  • Screw-less hard drive installation
  • Single, rubber mounted 2.5 inch bay inside
  • Can fit long PSUs
  • Loads of space for the biggest and longest graphic cards
  • Lots of room for large CPU coolers
  • Front hard drive doors can be locked shut
  • USB 3.0 included
  • Plenty of holes for cable routing
  • Cable management possible, but no good way to hide them
  • No additional hot swap brackets to buy as accessories
  • Not the quietest case out there with fans on full throttle
  • No CPU power expansion cable
  • Weird implementation to route the USB cable out the back
  • Plastic feels ok, but could be better
The entire Darkfleet series from Antec looks very interesting. You will either love or hate the extraordinary design and that is probably the only question you have to ask yourself because the feature set is excellent. Seven included fans, yes seven - all individually adjustable, plenty of hot swap bays and easy assembly are just some of the cool things. If that is not enough, the internal and external 2.5 inch bays and quiet operation should make it clear that the DF-85 is a clear winner if you can befriend the exterior design. The only real issues I have with the case is the lack of dust protection and the slightly messy cable management - that's it.
In sum, the Darkfleet line is a testament to the fact that Antec is willing to try new ways in terms of design and include modern, up-to-date features, resulting in a spacey and very very functional case series. If the DF-85 is too big, you still have the choice of going with the DF-35, with similar specs in a smaller package or - if budget is an issue, the DF-10 should be a steal in terms of price, but still deliver the cool looks.
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Dec 22nd, 2024 20:05 EST change timezone

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