Internal Overview
The Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 is equipped with a complete black interior. The motherboard tray already has some of the motherboard standoffs installed, so this helps for installation. The large CPU cooler cutout is much wider than most others, so it should suffice for most motherboard/CPU cooler configurations.
Towards the front of the case on the bottom are the two 3.5″ Fleet-Swap™ SATA drive bays, which are built into one unit and can be moved up or down the case. These hot swappable drives can easily be accessed by opening either of the two front fan doors. The Fleet-Swap takes up the two bottom bays of the total six internal 3.5” drive bays by default configuration.
Above the drive internal 3.5” drive bays is the external 3.5” drive bay and three external 5.25” drive bays. Unfortunately no easy installation devices are included for the drives.
Towards the rear of the case, starting on the bottom, is the power supply slot; nothing too fancy here. Above that are the seven expansion slots and covers which aren’t reusable.
In the upper left corner of the case are the rear 120mm white LED exhaust fan and top 140mm exhaust fan. Included with the case is a product overview sheet and a bag of assorted hardware; no User’s Manual is included with this. It would have been nice to understand the product a little bit better since a lot of the features aren’t described anywhere (e.g. Fleet-Swap, Fleet-Release)
Its not tool-less and is ugly as heck.
The front of these Dark Fleet cases do not match the styling of the main case. It’s a lazy design, and a serious step back from the Antec 1200.
Bought this case for my build but sold it on ebay as soon as I opened it. Drive bay covers are cheap and flimsy, side pannels are thin and have no support, side pannel window is low quality plastic and is not uncommon for the window grill to shatter, non replacable expansion slot covers, and NO CABLE MANAGEMENT HOLES! Honestly a case half the price is twice as good and twice the quality.
Replaced the DF 35 with the Bit Fenix survivor. If your looking for a good quality case, look to Cooler Master, Silverstone, Bit Fenix or Thermal Take. Do yourself a favour and give this case a miss.
People complain to often. Honestly I love the overal design of the case, is blocky, but edgy 🙂 and doesnt look like a cyborg. It’s has a very gamer/ professional style to it. Plus the numerous fans seem to keep it cool no matter what my clock speed.
Still have this from 2011, no cablemanagement..