Antec LanBoy Air Thermal Performance
In order to test the thermal resilience of this chassis, we ran a combination of OCCT and Furmark to torture the two things that get hot in an enclosure, namely CPU and GPU. Idle temperatures were taken at rest after the system booted.
As you can see, the generic case is for the most part, a sad environment for a high performance system. It moved very little air and therefore allowed the system to get very hot and very loud. This is no place for a high performance gaming system. The LanBoy Air improved everything right away even without the fans going. This means that the case could potentially offer good performance to a passively cooled system. When the system fans were turned on, temperatures dropped even further.
Let’s see what the noise penalty is of having no panels and all mesh.
ANTEC LanBoy Air – Noise Level Performance
Since thermal performance was reasonable, our next step was to see what effect having mesh instead of panels would have on noise levels. Running our two torture tests, we set out to find out if the LanBoy Air could still provide a reasonable acoustic performance.
In terms of noise, the case in passive cooling mode resulted in the CPU and GPU fans having to work a bit more to keep air moving. As thermal dynamics took over and heat naturally began to rise, the noise began to decrease, nearly matching the lower fan speeds at idle. With the fans on high, the cooler air directly hit our noise video card thus causing noise levels to drop even further, rarely going past 30 dB(A) according to our noise level meter, which was pointed about a foot away from the side panel.
Keep in mind that on the average, you won’t be running any artificial benchmarks for fun. Both Furmark and OCCT push CPUs and GPUs to hell and back. You can expect however that a reasonably loaded system even under extreme gaming or video editing could survive in the LanBoy Air without being in danger of overheating.
Final Thoughts
Based on our testing, we can safely say that the Antec LanBoy Air is well ventilated and offers the best system cooling possible. It’s a lot like an open air test platform except you can actually carry it around without things fallout off or out of it. The lack of panels also means that your loud components will be heard as you demand more of the system. Like an open test platform however, the lack of coverings does attract dust so be prepared to do some additional dust bunny patrols.
As far as system setup, the right thing to do would be to use low RPM fans with a high performance CPU tower cooler. This should provide great cooling performance with minimal noise. With the right CPU and GPU, it could be a very quiet system while being extremely high performance. It’s also very unique looking.
You can see through the mesh that hiding cabling is still a priority and makes the view a bit more attractive to onlookers. The AirMount HDD bungee harness is another nice touch for eliminating any hard drive vibrations and noises. Water cooling ports are always handy but the enclosure’s limited space up top makes it a challenge when mounting any dual 120mm radiators, or for that matter, even a couple cooling fans. An extra couple inches in a LanBoy Air II would fix that and allow more options.
Overall, the LanBoy Air enclosure hits a unique niche for gamers and enthusiasts. It offers modern feature and refinements that are important today. Built it up with low noise components and this could be a pleasantly quiet system sitting next to you at the next LAN event. It’s price tag at $179 USD may not easily be swallowed, but recent price drops and rebates allow you to have this very innovative chassis in your hands for far less than the asking price. It’s not for everyone, but it could be if you want to be a little different than the rest of the black boxes.
Pros
- Unique and innovative design
- Excellent cooling performance
- Handles well suited for transporting
- Lightweight yet sturdy
- Modular construction
- Good cable management
Cons
- SSD mounting location is not optimal
- Cooling options limited due to lack of case height
- No ANTEC CP Series PSU Support
Overall Rating: 8.0 / 10.0
Love This Review? Hate This Review? Leave a Comment Below!