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Antec Lanboy Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by jmke @ 2003-03-31

In the past Antec cases were known for its sturdy structure and great features, but they werent the smallest ones around & surely not the lighest either. They still remain first class in the midi/maxi towers, but now they also have a new product up their sleeve for the LANparty folk. Aptly named the "Antec Lanboy", ultra-light and packed with nifty features. We test its portability, easy of use and of course the performance.

Performance and Conclusion

Weight

Madshrimps (c)

More then 3 kilo's lighter then a metal midi case! It delivers what it promises.

Review of the gMONO and Coolermaster can be found here

Performance

The room temperature during testing remained constant at 19°C, I then started measuring temperatures for the following setup case-wise:

No case, motherboard laying flat on its box, no fans anywhere except for the CPU fan.

Installed in the LANboy without fans.

Installed in the LANboy with 2x 80mm fans (Fans used AFB0812SH-F00, producing a CFM of 46.1 at 40dBA).

And system-wise:

Running the XP1700+ TbredB at 1466Mhz using 1.7v vcore.

Running the XP1700+ TbredB at 2000Mhz using 1.98v vcore.

Madshrimps (c)

The superior airflow with 2 case fans installed is shown when the CPU is under load. While disabling the case fans results in an increase of ~5°C for the CPU and 4°C for the motherboard. Not bad at all.

Pushing almost 2v vcore through any CPU is stressing the limits of air cooling, having a bad airflow in your case can make difference between stability and constant crashes, lets see how she handles it

Madshrimps (c)

Although with the fans running the graph shows the case temp higher, CPU under load is still on par. Disabling the case fans will bring the CPU close to 50°C. *Danger Will Robinson Danger*

Conclusion

First of all I would like to thank PointerX for providing me with this fine case, he even delivered it at my doorstep! Contact him if you are interested in this case (offer for .be people only though).

Although it lacks some features and I can see ways on how to improve this case, I was pleased by the quality of the product. The LANboy is a decent case, pretty sturdy even with only the thin Aluminium, enough place for storage devices, good portability thanks to the straps and the airflow is pretty decent, even when no case fans are installed.

Good points:

Very very light

High quality window in side panel

removable floppy/hd rack

drive rails for easily installing CD/DVD drives

good airflow

nice finishing

Low price for a midi-case with 350Watt PSU

Could have been better points:

no removable motherboard tray

right side panel can not be removed either

no thumbscrews

spare drive rails cannot be "stored" in the case

security not fully implemented

Suggestions for improvements:

How about a small storage space for a screwdriver?

Status LED for LAN brought to the front

power/reset button moved under the door, so you no longer need to open it to power the system

Audio connections brought to the front for easy of use (on LAN parties you tend to use a headphone, so being able to connect it to front of your case is a plus!)

While on the subject of audio, maybe incorporate a volume control wheel (this is pretty subjective remark, I use a Hifi-system at home for my sound-out, I adjust the sound level with the volume control of the Hifi, never in the application or OS, so when using a headphone you have to revert to your OS's Mixer panel. Different games bring different sound levels, having the ability to change the volume with a small volume wheel on your case would be an extra selling point for me)

Extra?

Now we wouldn't have a site named MADshrimps (mad as in CRAZY for those who wonder ;) ) without doing something in the line of...

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