14 DAY TRIAL // When making a new product official, companies usually do their best to start selling them as soon as possible, especially if they are received well. There are, on the other hand, times when said hardware makers and/or PC suppliers show off a certain device well ahead of the date on which it is slated to enter mass production. Something along these lines occurred with the Dark Fleet series of PC cases from Antec. Having been previewed at this year's CES, in January, they have still not made it to market.
The wait might soon be over, though. Antec has announced that the chassis will become available to e-tailers and distributors sometime next month. This means that the summer heat may no longer be such a high cause for concern, even despite the fact that some of the more recent high-tech products render more heat than previous-generation solutions.
The models that will be sold are the full tower DF-85 and the mid-towers DF-35, DF-30 and DF-10. All have, by default, three fans, 140mm TwoCool spinners on top and at the rear, as well as a 120mm model at the front. They all boast washable dust filters. More important are the Fleet Swap, and Fleet Release, the two innovations that Antec seeks to show off. The former is a modular system with front-access to HDDs and fans, whereas the latter is a set of hot-swap-ready SATA bays that can be placed according to user preference. The DF-85 and DF-35, for instance, have top-mounted hot-swappable 2.5-inch SATA drive bays, as well as four and two 3.5-inch Fleet-Swap bays, respectively.
“The new Dark Fleet series offers a wide variety of features and convenient access to components,” said Scott Richards, senior vice president at Antec. “With state-of-the art cooling systems and rapid access to data, the Dark Fleet series comes packed with useful solutions that meet the fast paced lifestyles of today’s enthusiasts and creative professionals.”
Other features that the enclosures have in common are their bottom-mounted PSU design and the front I/O panel with USB 2.0 and audio ports. Unfortunately, the company proved tight-lipped when it came to pricing, though it did say that a three-year warranty would be offered.