Closer Look: Dark Fleet Exterior

Seeing that the Antec DF-30 is a Mid-Tower case, I expected it to be somewhat lighter. When I lifted the red and yellow box, it was much heavier than I had anticipated. That's not necessarily a bad thing. A heavier case usually means that it is sturdier and that less plastic has been used. That means the components inside will be well protected. It also means that you probably won't be carrying the computer around with you a lot. The Antec DF-30 has a dark, foreboding look to it. I found the style and appearance of the DF-30 to be quite to my liking.

The included accessories were few, yet sufficient. Two bags of screws, two cable management ties, and a sheet of paper explaining how to install an 2.5" drive on the bottom panel under the hard drive cage was it. That may not seem like much, but there really isn't anything else needed. The case also comes with 4 case fans (3 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm), all with adjustable speeds. We will look at those more closely a little later, but for now I must say that they more than make up for any lack of fancy accessories.

The body of the case is almost completely metal, explaining the 15.1 lbs. The front panel is plastic and the left side panel of the case is fitted with a large window. The case doesn't come with any sort of a manual, but to be completely honest, I kind of appreciate that. I hardly ever use the manual, and putting in online means one less thing for me to lose; or throw away. I downloaded the manual to take a look at it and I was greeted on the first page of information by a diagram labeled with numbers. The numbers at the bottom of the page explaining the diagram, however, didn't match up in any way. If you aren't familiar with the parts of a computer case, the manual may be quite confusing.

As I stated earlier, the Antec DF-30 case comes supplied with four case fans. This is actually a very rare commodity. Most cases I have worked with might come with one, or maybe up to two fans. Very few come with four. There are two 120mm intake fans mounted in the front panel. There are also air-intake slots on the window on the side panel. Here, another 120mm fan can be installed if you choose. In addition to the front fan, there is a top mounted 140mm fan. On the back of the case, you will find the rear 120mm fan. Both the top and the rear fans are exhaust fans.

The entire case, external and internal, is painted completely black. This gives the DF-30 a sleek and elegant look that is unmarred by a contrasting, unpainted metal that is often found on the inside of a case. The right side panel (the one without the window) follows suit and is painted completely black. The only feature on the right side panel is the Antec Design logo in the bottom right corner.

The rear of the Antec DF-30 case has a pretty standard layout as far as mid-tower cases go. The I/O panel is pretty standard and you can see the fan controllers at the top of the case here, just above the rear exhaust case fan. There are seven card slots for expansion cards and next to them are two circular holes. They appear to be punch-out holes for inserting water cooling hoses. No mention is made of these two holes in the manual for the Antec DF-30 and no rubber washers were included with the case. With all the attention given to air cooling in the DF-30, it seems unlikely that many users will be installing a water cooler on this case. The power supply hole at the bottom of the rear panel is a little different than the norm for mid-tower cases, though many case manufacturers are catching on to the idea of a bottom mounted PSU. The difference here is that Antec has provided a design that allows for both normal mounting of the PSU and upside-down mounting. We will get into the reasoning behind this when we take an in-depth look at the interior features of the case.

Let's take a closer look at some of the exterior features of the Antec DF-30.

DF-30 Detailed Exterior Features

The 5.25" drive bays on the Antec DF-30 Mid-Tower case all have hinged drive bay covers that swing out to give access to the drive bay. The drive bay covers swing open easily and give the case a kind of futuristic style look. There really is no function for the covers and they are purely cosmetic. The drive bay covers are very easily opened, or can be removed entirely. While I don't access my DVD drive very often, I took the drive bay cover off the top bay just so I wouldn't have to mess with it if I need to get to the DVD drive.

The Antec Dark Fleet Series, and specifically the DF-30 here, has a new feature that I haven't seen before. There is a hot-swappable 2.5" drive bay located on top of the case. This is a very interesting addition to a case. Though it is intended for an SSD, I am not really sure if SSDs have come to point of hot-swapping yet. With the relatively high cost of SSDs compared to other means of storage, it seems that fast transfer speed of the SSDs might be better used as a static part of the computer assembly. I don't think many will be using an SSD as a thumb-drive at this point. Many people might find the drive bay to be quite convenient, however. Either way, I think that this is an awesome feature. Since I use the same SSD for multiple builds during testing, this will be a convenience for me.

The external SSD bay is flanked on each side by the Power and Reset buttons. Below those, just above the 5.25" drive bays are two USB ports. Also on the front I/O panel are the microphone and headphone ports. They sit to the right of the USB ports. Which one is which is a mystery, as they are unlabeled. To the left of the USB ports are the Power and HDD LEDs. The Power LED is the far left hole and the HDD is the right hole.

Both of the 120mm case fans located at the bottom of the front panel of the Antec DF-30 have a couple of interesting features that you don't always find in a case. Just the simple fact that the DF-30 comes included with two intake fans on the front panel is a rarity. The fans have a small knob protruding from the front of the case at the bottom right hand corner of the fan cage assembly. The knobs are for controlling the velocity of the fan. Since these two fans are the only two intake fans on the case (unless you install another on the vented side-panel window), being able to control the speed of the fan is a quite useful feature. Not only will it allow you to control the amount of air that is taken into the case, but it will allow you to control the amount of noise your computer generates. The fans are also very quiet. I had to get down close to listen for a change when trying to find out which way to turn the knob to increase the flow. Just so you know, clockwise turning of the knob increases, counter-clockwise decreases the flow of air.

Another handy feature associated with the two front panel fans is a removable air filter. I have seen a number of case manufacturers starting to use air filters for intake fans in a lot of cases. The filters here on the DF-30 are easily removed for cleaning, allowing you to limit the amount of dust and foreign material that gets into the case. This can save a lot of heartache in the future when a seemingly well-ventilated system starts to overheat due to the accumulation of dust. The third intake area on the DF-30, the vented side window, does not provide an air filter, which is somewhat unfortunate.

The 140mm top fan and the 120mm rear fan on the Antec DF-30 Mid-Tower case also provide the end user with the ability to adjust the fan speed. These exhaust fans, however, only provide the option of high or low speed operation. It would be nice to see an adjustable knob for these fans as well, but even just the option of high or low speeds is more than you will find in a lot of cases. It is important to note here as well that the speed controllers on all four of the included case fans are hard-wired into to the fans themselves. This means that, should you have to replace one or more of the fans at some point in the future, you will have to find a fan with the controller imbedded. I looked on Antec's website in their cooling section to see if they offer replacement fans for the Dark Fleet series of cases, but I didn't see any. Hopefully they will offer replacement fans soon, and at a reasonably affordable cost.

As with the Antec DF-35 case reviewed here at Benchmark Reviews, I too had trouble fitting the side panel into place on the DF-30 model. This isn't surprising, since the only real difference between the two cases is the "Fleet-Swap" feature on the DF-35 that will cost you a little more money and the white fans and LEDs rather than blue. Anyway, the windowed side panel doesn't quite fit all the way into place on the DF-30 and there is a small gap between the edge of the panel and the back of the case.

Now it's time to explore the inside of the case.

Closer Look: Dark Fleet Interior

On the inside, the Antec DF-30 Mid-Tower case provides all the essentials needed for operation and little else. As I mentioned previously, I was delighted to find that the interior of the case had been painting black to match the exterior. With the windowed side panel, the matching paint is really a necessity, and a nice touch on Antec's part.

The layout of the DF-30 is very similar to most mid-tower cases. Antec strays from the recent trend by not going "tool-free" with their Dark Fleet series of cases. While this may be a negative point for many consumers, I was actually relieved by the fact that the DF-30 goes back to the way things were. I'm sure somewhere, someone who wants to build a computer doesn't have access to a screwdriver, but that person isn't me. Having dealt recently with a few different "tool-free" case designs, I was happy to go back to using a screwdriver. Maybe it's my fat thumbs.

The 5.25" drive bays have room for three drives. Just below that is a 3.5" external drive bay for a card reader or, if you are really old fashion, a floppy drive. Below the external 3.5" drive bay are five internal 3.5" drive bays. On the bottom of the case, beneath the last 3.5" drive bay is an area for a 2.5" drive. The second bag of screws included with the case comes with rubber washers for the installation of a bottom mounted 2.5" drive.

The case features, supplied by Antec, state there are 11 drive bays. Three 5.25", six 3.5" and two 2.5" bays. This isn't exactly accurate. While those are the correct numbers, using the lowest 3.5" internal drive bay or the bottom mounted 2.5" drive bay will make the other unusable. This means that, while there are 11 drive bays, only 10 are usable at any given time. That's still plenty for me.

The motherboard tray for the Antec DF-30 Mid-Tower case has the now-standard CPU heatsink hole. Almost all newer cases will have this feature, as it is increasingly common to install third-party CPU heatsinks and fans. Also, the upgrade and replacement of such fans is becoming popular as well. The hole in the motherboard tray makes it possible to change out the heatsink for your CPU without having to remove the motherboard from the case.

Unfortunately, this is the only real hole in the motherboard tray. Many cases are adopting cable management holes in the motherboard tray for use in routing the cables to a less noticeable area. While the Antec DF-30 doesn't provide these holes, they are mostly for cosmetic purposes only, and Antec does offer a cable management compartment behind the internal 3.5" drive bays.

There are still a few surprises inside this case, though...

DF-35 Detailed Interior Features

While Antec did not go "tool-free" with the Dark Fleet series, they did provide two thumbscrews for use with installing internal 3.5" drives. From just looking at the case, it appears that Antec wants the user to only use the screws on one side of the drive cage. The back side of the drive cage doesn't appear to have appropriate holes for a 3.5" drive. I checked out what they have to say about this in manual, and in reality, they want you to use one screw on each side. If you line it up correctly, a single screw hole on the back side of the 3.5" drive bay matches up with a standard 3.5" drive. The two screws provided are to be installed one on each side. Unless you are continuously removing your hard drives, I recommend using normal screws, also provided with the case. Also, remember that if you screw the drive in on both sides, you will have to remove both sides to take it out.

One nice feature that Antec provided with their Dark Fleet series of cases for the installation and removal of drives is the "fleet-release doors" feature. The front panel opens up where the two fans are. Not only is this convenient for removing the fan filter for cleaning, but I have often gotten frustrated trying to remove a drive or install one after the rest of the components are installed. This is especially difficult with extra long video cards. Sometimes you will have to remove the video card prior to installing or removing the drive. Antec's "fleet-release doors" makes this a lot easier.

The Antec DF-30 Mid-Tower case is designed to fit motherboards ranging in size from ITX to full ATX. Six motherboard standoffs come pre-installed in the DF-30, ready for you to add in a micro-ATX motherboard. If you are using a full ATX motherboard, you will have to manually add in the three remaining standoffs. The motherboard tray itself is not removable, as we have seen in the past. I am not very concerned with this, as I have found that I don't often remove the motherboard tray even when it is removable. I am more concerned with ensuring there is a way for me to install or remove a CPU cooler without removing the entire motherboard, which there certainly is.

Instead of traditional mother board holes or plug-ins for cable management, Antec provides an area behind the 3.5" drive bays for this purpose. This area is available on a lot of cases, but sometimes the motherboard tray extends all the way to the front panel, leaving this area relatively inaccessible. There are three small clips on the back side of the 3.5" drive bays where the cable ties provided with the DF-30 can be attached to the case itself. Once all of your components are installed, you can re-route any excess cabling to this area and secure it with the cable ties. Be careful not to run any cables over the support bar here, or behind the motherboard tray. There is precious little space there for anything and you will find difficulties closing the back side plate correctly if you have cables between the motherboard tray and the side panel.

My biggest complaint with Antec's DF-30 Mid-Tower case isn't a huge one, but isn't small either. The card slot covers at the rear of the motherboard compartment are punch-out style. I suppose the circular holes for water cooling hoses are too, though I will not likely ever experiment with them. It's the card slot covers that have me puzzled. The punch-out style covers have been going out of style for quite some time now. In fact, I can remember the last case I used that had them. It was in 2005, and the case cost me $25 at Newegg.com. In a case that costs $109.99 at Newegg.com now, I wouldn't expect this style of slot cover. I really had a lot of difficulty removing the slot covers in order to install my components. I wasn't able to simply push on them with my fingers to manipulate them out. I had to take a screwdriver and twist them to get them loosened, then maneuver them back and forth in order to finally get them out of the case.

The other issue associated with this style of slot covers is my lack of visualization. I didn't accurately guess which slot covers needed to be removed to install my video card, so I ended up having to remove three instead of two. This leaves an open slot above my video card as there are no screw in slot covers provided with the case. Also (and this one I attribute again to my fat thumbs), I cut myself on the sharp edges of the case twice while removing the slot covers. All in all, I did not have a very happy experience when trying to install my component cards.

When installing my system into this case, I used the NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 video card, which is a 10.5" card. It easily fits into the case with some room to spare. Antec states that the DF-30 will accept up to 11.5" video cards, and my measuring tape concurs. It will be a tight fit, however, and will be impossible if you try to install the video card behind a hard drive.

Since my PSU has an intake fan on the bottom, I needed to install it upside down in the DF-30. While this did cause me some concern for cooling matters since my PSU intake will be pulling air from the case, my concerns were somewhat alleviated by the low-set vents on the windowed side panel. I installed a fan on the vent and the side panel still fit into place easily, even with my GPU. On many occasions, it has been impossible to install a fan on the vented window simply because it won't fit with my GPU. This is not the case with the Antec DF-30. This side-intake fan now feeds cool outside air directly in to where my PSU can capture it. It's not an ideal situation, but Antec has said that they do it this way to avoid any legal problems that have occurred when fires were caused due to things falling out of the case from the PSU and onto the ground.

Antec Dark Fleet Final Thoughts

The Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 Mid-Tower case was fun and interesting to work with. A lot of new features have been included in the Dark Fleet series that are new and different from anything I had worked with before. Especially to my liking was the "fleet-release" doors on the front of the case. These doors provide easy access to the 3.5" internal drive bays making the installation of new drives, or the removal of old ones even easier. The doors also give access to the removable fan filters when they are in need of cleaning. The "fleet-release" doors were designed around the fans that Antec uses in the front of the case. Each fan, and thereby each door, has a fan control knob protruding from it so that the end-user can easily adjust the flow of air and noise level of each fan based on their needs.

I was also pleased to find that the Antec DF-30 comes pre-installed with four case fans. From past experience, I almost always have to buy extra case fans when I buy a case, but with the DF-30, they are provided. Not only do the front two fans have controllers, but the top 140mm fan and the rear 120mm fan also have controls, albeit only a switch for "hi" or "lo" fan speeds.

The Antec DF-30 has an interesting look to it that I really liked. The LEDs on the fans gave the case a nice glow and looked really cool. There were some purely cosmetic features, such as the 5.25" drive bay covers, that added to the look of the case.

There were some things about the Antec DF-30 that I think need to be looked at again, as well. The punch-out style card slot covers have got to go. It is rare to find these in cases now, and the reasons are clear. They are hard to work with, and once they are removed, it is permanent. If we can't get rid of the the punch-out card slot covers, then some screw-in slot covers should come with the case in the event that your add-on cards might change eventually. Also, I was a little concerned about the heat issues with the upside-down mounted power supply. The GTX285 creates a lot of heat, most of which is now directed right into my PSU. I am glad for the vents on the windowed side panel, and I immediately installed another 120mm fan to offset the hot air coming from the GPU.

Overall, I very much enjoyed working the Antec DF-30 and, while $110 doesn't make it a cheap case to buy, the features that are offered put it solidly in a mid-range enthusiast level of workability. The DF-30 will be replacing the case I currently have housing my i7-920 machine, the Lian-Li PC-K56W, as it provides me a lot more features and much better cooling. It also costs $50 more.

Antec DF-30 Conclusion

The Antec DF-30 offered, for me, the superior performance that comes with the Antec name. Antec holds a top place when it comes to computer cases, and with good reason. While I did cut myself twice installing my system into the DF-30, the features outnumber that slight pain and I must give Antec high marks for this case. Any case that comes pre-installed with four adjustable fans deserves some recognition. Without much addition, the DF-30 offers great cooling ability to any level of computer user.

The appearance of the Antec DF-30 Mid-Tower case immediately appealed to me. The completely black enclosure was elegant and futuristic and contrasted perfectly with the blue LED lighting provided with the case fans. The front of the case was completely unmarred by writing except for the Antec logo at the bottom. That includes any sort of indication on the I/O panel for which port is which in the case of the audio ports. Other than that, however, the I/O panel blended nicely with the case. The purely cosmetic 5.25" external drive bay covers added to the austerity of the DF-30, almost looking like barred doors, impeding the entrance or exit of any vital component.

The Antec DF-30 is very sturdy. The hard plastic front cover is extremely well secured to the body of the DF-30. Antec thought ahead, however, and used their "fleet-release" doors to help avoid any need to remove the front faceplate. The punch-out style card slot covers are outdated and need to be removed, and the windowed side-panel didn't fit securely into place. I must have spent a good 15 minutes trying to get it properly slotted before I realized that it just didn't fit correctly.

As a case with the purpose of giving mid-level enthusiasts an adequate amount of space, cooling, and other features, the Antec DF-30 performs very well. The four LED lit fans that come with the case come with knobs and switches to adjust the fan speed. This, along with the vented (although unfiltered) side window will provide plenty of air flow for a gamer or enthusiast. For those who need to remove their storage frequently, the "fleet-swap" 2.5" drive bay on top of the case provides an interesting new perspective. The "fleet-release" doors also provide easy access to drives.

The Antec DF-30 sells for $109.99 at NewEgg.com. That puts it squarely between the Antec Nine Hundred and the Nine Hundred Two. While $109.99 may seem a little high for a case, when you take into account the features offered by the DF-30, including six internal 3.5" drive bays, three external 5.25" drive bays, and, most importantly, four adjustable fans, the Antec DF-30 falls right in with the other cases. Most of those other cases, by the way, are manufactured by Antec as well. So while I can't say that the Antec DF-30 is a killer deal, it does provide an excellent amount of features for a fair price.

Pros:

Cons:

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.0
• Appearance: 9.25
• Construction: 8.0
• Functionality: 9.5
• Value: 8.5

Final Score: 8.85 out of 10.

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