Introduction and Specifications

Antec has a reputation for manufacturing quality PC enclosures and power supplies, but most of their older designs didn’t lend themselves to the flashy desires of the PC gaming community. After researching what features and options PC gamers needed in their cases, Antec developed the mysterious Dark Fleet series. The DF series brings together the company’s high craftsmanship standards and the unique requirements of PC gamers and enthusiasts. We have one of the smaller form factor Dark Fleet cases on our test bench today called the DF-30. The unique cooling system, fan controllers, and 2.5″ HDD support makes it a true competitor in the mid-tower chassis market.

Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 ATX Case Review - Cases and Cooling 38
Courtesy of Antec

Antec has a reputation for manufacturing quality PC enclosures and power supplies, but most of their older designs didn’t lend themselves to the flashy desires of the PC gaming community. After researching what features and options PC gamers needed in their cases, Antec developed the mysterious Dark Fleet series. The DF series brings together the company’s high craftsmanship standards and the unique requirements of PC gamers and enthusiasts. We have one of the smaller form factor Dark Fleet cases on our test bench today called the DF-30. The unique cooling system, fan controllers, and 2.5″ HDD support makes it a true competitor in the mid-tower chassis market.

 

Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 ATX Case Review - Cases and Cooling 39
Courtesy of Antec

The DF-30 has two access doors on the front panel with washable fan filters that open up to access an array of 11 drive bays. Each access door houses a variable-speed 120mm blue LED fan with its own individual knob-controlled fan controller. The top of the case also has a external hot-swap 2.5″ SATA bay with a clear window.

 

Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 ATX Case Review - Cases and Cooling 40
Courtesy of Antec

The entire chassis is painted with a matte black finish to give enthusiasts a canvas to build their dream LAN rig. The left side panel includes a uniquely-shaped side window where users can mount a 120mm fan to cool single or dual video card configurations. The back panel includes another 120mm fan with two buttons for adjusting the back and top fans to low and high settings.

 

Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 ATX Case Review - Cases and Cooling 41
Courtesy of Antec

Antec left plenty of room behind the right-side panel for cable management opportunities and even include a couple plastic cable ties and a couple places to attach the ties to the hard drive cage itself. There is also a large CPU cutout to install custom CPU coolers. Overall, this $109 mid-tower case has plenty of interesting features that should make it a fan favorite for gaming and other enthusiast-level systems.


Features and Specifications (taken from Antec’s website)

  • Two Fleet-Release™ access doors open separately for convenient entry to drives
  • Two washable fan filters allow for easy cleaning
  • Two variable-speed knob-controlled fans mounted on Fleet-Release™ access doors
  • Top 2.5″ hot-swap SATA (SSD-compatible) drive bay
  • Bottom-mounted power supply isolates heat
  • CPU cutout allows for easy installation of CPU coolers
  • Cable routing compartment organizes cables discreetly
  • 11 drive bays
    – 6 x internal 3.5″
    – 3 x external 5.25″
    – 1 x top external 2.5″ hot-swap SATA (SSD-compatible) drive bay
    – 1 x internal bottom-mounted 2.5″ SSD drive bay
  • Advanced cooling system
    – 1 x top 140mm TwoCool™ fan
    – 1 x rear black 120mm TwoCool™ fan with blue LED
    – 2 x front black 120 mm fans with blue LEDs and speed control knobs for HDDs
    – 1 x side 120 mm fan for graphics cards (optional)
  • 7 expansion slots to support multiple graphics cards
  • Maximum graphics card size: 11.5″/292 mm
  • Stylish blacked-out interior
  • Windowed side panel
  • Front ports
    – 2 x USB 2.0
    – Audio (AC’97 and HDA compatible) In and Out
  • Motherboards: Mini-ITX, microATX, Standard ATX
  • Power supply not included
  • Unit Dimension
    – 485mm (H) x 198mm (W) x 486mm (D)
    – 19.1″ (H) x 7.8″ (W) x 19.1″ (D)
  • Package Dimension
    – 577mm (H) x 288mm (W) x 510mm (D)
    – 22.7″ (H) x 11.3″ (W) x 20.1″ (D)
  • Weight
    – Net : 15.1 lb / 6.9 kg
    – Gross : 17.0 lb / 7.7 kg

« PreviousNext »