Review: The Dark Fleet - it sounds like it should be something out of a Star Wars spin-off, except this new case is actually good!
The Dark Fleet range is Antec’s latest assault on the serious gaming space. It’s also a direct result of serious brainstorming and consultation with the gaming public – in other words, it’s either going to be a mess of contradictions trying to please everyone, or a highly focused, remarkably well featured beast of a box.
Thankfully, Antec’s managed to land on the beast side of the equation.
The DF-85, reviewed here, is the top of the Dark Fleet range. If we were going to continue the whole fleet thing, we’d call it the ImpStar Deuce of the family (and if you get that reference – bravo) – it’s large, powerfully cooled, as well as dramatically and aggressively styled. The front fascia in particular is very idiosyncratically designed, and even Antec, when we met up with some of its reps recently, admit it’s not for everyone.
Antec’s gone for a barred-and-mesh motif for the case’s design – plastic bars cover the optical drive bays, and swing open to provide access to drive caddies. Below these three bays are three mesh inserts housing three red LED intake fans. These inserts are also hinged, including the fan – this means the entire front fascia can be opened up. The mesh inserts can also be removed for washing, which is a nice touch for those of us with stupidly dusty houses. Finally, the front fans also feature fan control knobs. Touching on the internal build for a moment, these fans are hinged because the DF-85 boasts a total of four internal swappable bays. On top of that, there’s another 2.5in hot swappable bay just above the IO ports on the case’s leading edge – if you’re constantly borrowing friend’s drives, or attend a lot of swap meets at LANs, this is an awesome amount of flexibility.
The left side-panel features two in-set windows, while the right panel is of a more plain design. The rear of the case is heavily meshed, with two water-cooling grommets, two more LED fans, and seven expansion slots – though one of these is dedicated to a USB 3 pass-through. On top of the case are two more fans, this time a slightly larger 140mm design, and non-lit.
With the panel off, we’re treated to a blackened interior and a lot of room. Also, returning to the swappable drive bays, the mounting points can be unscrewed and moved at any point in the bay area – a nice touch. There’s also a mess of room behind the mobo plate – we can almost stick our entire hand behind there, so snugging even thick power cables out of the way should be a cinch. There are a couple of other cable cut-outs, and a large CPU cut out to make heatsink installation a breeze.
Annoyingly, while there is a dedicated SSD mount on the case’s bottom, the HDD mounts are a little lacklustre. HDDs are secured by a single screw and a tension bracket – there’s no sound dampening in play. Of course, if you want to use these bays to swap drives in and out, you’ll just be relying on the tension bracket. The PSU, though, is mounted on rubber supports, so at least that box is ticked.
The Dark Fleet DF-85 is a roomy and well-featured case, and for the modest asking price you’re getting a lot of cooling and high-end features. It’s solid and well-made, though if – like us – you like your PC sitting on your left, the rightward opening bars will get annoying. That said, we think Antec’s on another winner with this new case.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012