Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case Review

Earlier this year Antec announced its Dark Fleet case series. It included four different cases, the DF-85 a full tower chassis and three mid tower chassis’s: DF-35, DF-30 and DF-10. Designed to fit the latest components and support the latest technologies. Antec’s introduced two new features with this case line. The first “Fleet-Release” which gains easy access to the hard drive cage, which brings us on to the second feature “Fleet-Swap”, a set of hot swappable drive bays which can be moved up and down the hard drive cage. Read on further to see the many other unique features to this case.

Features

  • Two Fleet-Release™ access doors open separately for convenient entry to drives
  • Top-loaded 2.5″ hot swap SATA (SSD-compatible) drive bay
  • Two washable fan filters allow for easy cleaning
  • Bottom-mounted power supply isolates heat
  • CPU cutout for easy installation of CPU coolers
  • Cable management compartment organizes cables discreetly

Specifications

11 drive bays:
– Up to 6 x internal 3.5″
– 3 x external 5.25″
– 1 x top external 2.5″ hot swap SATA drive bay
– 2 x internal 3.5″ Fleet-Swap™ SATA drive bays (position changeable)
– 1 x internal bottom-mounted 2.5″ SSD bay

Advanced cooling system:
– 1 x top 140mm TwoCool™ fan
– 1 x rear white 120mm TwoCool™ fans with white LED
– 2 x front variable-speed 120mm LED fans with white LED
– 1 x side 120mm fan for graphics cards (optional)

7 expansion slots

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 lbs / 6.9 kg
– Gross : 17.0 lbs / 7.7 kg

Packaging
The Antec DF-35 comes packaged in a standard sized mid tower box. The box has a red background around the whole box with a small yellow strip around the package. The front of the package shows pictures and describes some of the major features while the back covers the specifications in four different languages.

Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case

The two smaller sides show some more detailed pictures of the features of this chassis.

Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case

The case is covered inside of the box by a plastic back to prevent scratching or dust buildup. Two pieces of soft foam also protect the case and keep it well secured inside of the box.

Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower Case