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Antec Super Lanboy Mini Tower Case

Join the community - in the OCAU Forums! Date  18th March 2004 Author  Argent Editor  James "Agg" Rolfe Distributor  Altech Computers Vendor  Adrenalin Computers Details Continued, Installation and Conclusions Turning to the rear reveals three noteworthy features. Firstly, the rear 120mm exhaust port is very well defined allowing for unobstructed airflow out of the case. Secondly there’s a plate that covers the screws that hold the expansion cards in place. While it isn't much, it does take extra time to unscrew the two thumbscrews and slide the plate up. Thirdly, there are two latches for the two side panels that can be locked to prevent that precious Radeon 9800XT from going walkabout during any periods of absence at a LAN. A major problem I found with the original Lanboy was that it could only open on one side. Antec have fixed this and the Super Lanboy now opens on both sides. All the more useful as this case feels possibly even smaller than the original Lanboy when it comes to fitting components. On the inside, the most interesting thing was the hard drive bays, which are mounted sideways across the case. Rubber grommets are provided for each hard drive so as to minimise the noise from vibrations. While it was significantly easier to hide wires, it also meant that users of Abit Serillel technology should avoid this case as the Serillel adapter will not fit. The placement of the whole hard drive cage also meant that when fully loaded with four drives, the air intake would be obstructed and heated resulting in warmer overall case temperatures. The rear 120mm fan is supplied with 4 isolators to reduce vibration noises that transmit to the case. Installation: When I had said earlier that the Super Lanboy felt possibly smaller on the inside than the original Lanboy, I wasn’t too far off even with both sides of the case removed. Installing the motherboard and the CPU began simple enough. But on installing the Swiftech/Vantec combo, I found that the side of the fan and a few pins actually touched the underside fan grill of the PSU. The PSU octopus was also another issue. With the bigger side window, hiding the wires became more difficult. It actually took me over 4 hours to install the system in this case with all the wires hidden to my satisfaction. Components: PSU: Antec Truepower 430W CPU: AMD Barton XP2500+ CPU Cooler: Swiftech MCX462-V + Vantec Stealth 92mm HSF Combination Motherboard: Abit NF7-S v2.0 RAM: Corsair XMS3200 256Mb x2 Videocard: Powercolor Radeon 9800Pro with Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Optical Drives: Pioneer DVD-120, Pioneer DVR-106D Hard Drives: Western Digital 80Gb JB, Maxtor 120Gb 8Mb The installation of my optical drives was simple enough until I found my DVD burner ran foul of my RAM when installed in the third slot. I would have preferred to install my DVD drive in the first slot and my DVD burner in the second slot due to heat output while burning. Again, the size of the Super Lanboy was playing against me. Fortunately the second slot wasn’t obstructing anything though the solution wasn’t 100% to my liking. The easiest part of the install was my hard drives, simply attaching the rails and grommets and sliding them in. I chose to attach them in the opposite direction to make wire hiding easier. While the manual does recommend installing them with the IDE/power cable facing the side window I have not had any problems running my drives as they were installed. To power the two 120mm fans, I avoided plugging them into the motherboard just in case they blew out a motherboard header. Instead, I plugged them into the two fan specific molex connectors directly from my Truepower PSU. In my opinion, this is the safest option. It also runs the 2 fans low speed until the temperature gets too high at which it will kick in at full speed. Conclusion: Placing the Super Lanboy next to my old Wavemaster, the differences in size are obvious. From the onset I knew I was going to have a hard time fitting everything in. But in the end it was worth it. With the wires hidden away, the Super Lanboy was extremely neat and tidy and it is perfect for showing off components as well. While the Super Lanboy is already a really good case, there are certain points that in my opinion could be improved. The use of drive rails as well for the 5.25” drives The inclusion of a rear LED fan instead of a vanilla transparent fan A magnetic tipped door instead of a clip door I had stated at the start my goals when obtaining this case. I was not disappointed at all. The Super Lanboy is indeed a Super version of the original Lanboy. Case cooling has significantly improved and is also extremely quiet. In fact the only time I can hear this system is in the dead of night when nothing is stirring. The whole system weighed in much lighter than my previous Wavemaster setup and is about the same weight as the original Lanboy setup I had available. With the inclusion of the Lanpal case carrying straps, Antec makes this case very easy to transport, although I do have to be careful because of the Swiftech MCX462-V CPU cooler's weight. Overall the Super Lanboy is well worth the money for a LAN addict as well as the budget conscious enthusiast looking for a ‘stylish yet serious’ case. Antec products are distributed in Australia by Altech Computers. I picked mine up for AUD$165 from Adrenalin Computers. << Back OCAU Main Page Select Page Page 1 - Page 2 -

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