14 DAY TRIAL // In tune with the miniaturization “trend” so to speak that has been prompting manufacturers to release smaller and smaller products while still keeping the top performance intact, Lan Gear decided to announce its own product in the line of diminutive hardware ones. The product is not some ultra-small and highly losable flash drive, nor is it a portable PC or anything of the sort. Lan Gear announced DA BOX 100, its desktop chassis aimed at housing micro ATX motherboards and, although the product itself has not entered the mass production stage, the company has revealed that it has set the chassis up for pre-orders.
This micro ATX PC case measures 370 mm in length, 217 mm in height and has a width of 288 mm. The casing has a removable motherboard tray, full support for ATX power supplies and comes with one exposed 5.25-inch drive bay, two 3.5-inch bays, four 2.5-inch bays, four expansion slots and is entirely made of aluminum.
It is able to cool the components housed inside it by means of a 92 mm front-side fan and two 120 mm fans, one on the back and one on the side. As many end-users may realize, these fans are quite large, as opposed to how mini casings usually employ smaller spinners. DA BOX employs such large fans in order to improve stability by more quickly dispersing heat.
The case is obviously small and the outside is hair brushed and anodized to create a metallic look. Most internal parts, not just the motherboard tray, are removable, and all parts are fixed to each other by means of high-quality thumb screws. Also, the PSU and hard drive bays are placed at the front of the case, instead of above the CPU, allowing the extra space above the chip to be used for larger coolers when necessary. This placement also allows for the use of very long PCI graphics cards (up to 322 mm).
As extras, DA BOX 100 is built with an anti-theft system, is compatible with water cooling and weighs 7 lbs (may even come with a bag, if included in the order). The product comes in four models. The Classic version has the price of $160, is only black on the outside and includes fans, but does not have a side window.
The other three models are all full black, both on the inside and the outside. The full black model with window but no fans costs $170, while the remaining two versions, namely the black with fans but no window one and the “Black Heart” one, with both the window and the fans, cost $180 each.
Orders may be placed here.
