No CES coverage would be complete without a visit with ANTEC. Futurelooks has been covering ANTEC product for years and we always enjoy our chats with Han Liu, the company’s Product Development Manager. This year, it looks like Han has outdone himself with the introduction of the highly anticipated LanBoy Air, updates and additions to the product line, and the most important product of CES 2010.
The ANTEC LanBoy Air
The LanBoy has always been a signature ANTEC product. Built for LAN Gamers, the case offered flash and dash, but really didn’t find a place back into the company’s line up after the introduction of such legendary cases as the P180. The LanBoy was shelved but cases like the 900 and 1200 took its place later on as gaming cases of choice. This year, the LanBoy name is back and they call this latest case the LanBoy AIR!
Product Development Guru, Mr. Han Liu takes us through the ins and outs of this new and innovative chassis design:
The case definitely breaks new ground incorporating all of ANTEC’s latest innovations including things learned from its experience with the Skeleton Case. Like Han said, this case will add a new dimension of flexibility as well as customization capabilities. The only thing that I noticed missing was that as a LAN Party case, and with the ease of which one could disassemble this case, a robust security system was missing.
Since the case has already been shipped off for final tooling, expect to see it on store shelves sometime in late Q1 (March) or early Q2 for around the $199 US price point.
The Dark Fleet Arrives at ANTEC
Following in the design foot steps of the LanBoy Air, the new Dark Fleet series arrives at ANTEC featuring more rugged gaming goodness that seems to be a hallmark of gaming cases these days.
The DF-85 is ANTEC’s top end flagship of the fleet featuring “Fleet Release” access doors that give you easy access to up to 14 drive bays of various sizes, including one at the bottom of the case that works with a single SSD SATA Drive.
Cooling features include two top 140mm fans and two rear 120mm fans while the front of the case rocks out with another three. One more can be put in the plexi side window if you wish.
One of the most unique features of this case is the “fleet swap” 2.5 inch bay at the top of the case and the “fleet swap” SATA hot swap system available for the front four 3.5 inch bays. The case comes with one of these “fleet swap” devices for the 3.5 inch drive, but additional ones can be purchased and installed for all bays. The case is rounded off with all of ANTEC’s newest cable management features and supports watercooling.
The DF-85’s little brother, the DF-30 will also be made available for people that want something smaller in a mid sized ATX case. It’s basically the same except you get fewer bays due to space limitations. Both of the cases have the capability to use ANTEC’s CP series of power supplies in addition to regular ATX power supplies thanks to a removable plate.