Aerocool DS230 Case's Lighting Color Depends On Fan Speed
When it comes to lighting on computer gear, all the craze these days is surrounding 16.7 million color RGB lighting, but do you really need 16.7 million colors to choose from? Aerocool doesn’t seem to think so, and as such, its new DS230 has just seven color choices with which you can customize the lighting.
The DS230 that Aerocool announced today is a mid-size gaming case that falls in the “Dead Silence” series. It has room for an ATX motherboard, three dual-slot GPUs up to 388 mm long (or 413 mm without any front fans installed), CPU coolers up to 170 mm tall, two 3.5” drives, and three 2.5” drives. There is no room for optical drives.
The case measures 475 x 230 x 478mm (HxWxD), and when empty it weighs 8.2 kg. That heft is thanks to the 0.7 mm-thick steel chassis together with the sound damping material on the top, front and side panels.
Despite being a silence-optimized case, it doesn’t lack for space in the cooling department. If you’re feeling lavish, you can populate the front with three 120 mm or two 140 mm fans, two 120 or 140 mm fans at the top, and one rear 120 mm fan. As standard kit, Aerocool includes a single 120 mm PWM fan.
The chassis has lighting at the top and bottom of the front panel, and the base of the case also has a top-down glow. Under normal operation, you can choose from red, green, blue, orange, magenta, light blue or white lighting, but there is also a special PWM mode. To enable it, you have to connect a PWM fan to a specific port on the fan controller hub, and after that the color will change depending on the duty cycle of the fan. It will start at green when the fan is running slowly, then move to blue, white, orange, and finally red when the fans are running at full speed. It draws the PWM signal from your motherboard, and the lighting can be disabled or set to breathing mode.
Front I/O consists of two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, the usual pair of headphone jacks, and buttons to control power and lighting.
Aerocool did not specify pricing, but it did note that the case will be available towards the end of the month or the beginning of September.
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| Model Name | DS 230 |
|---|---|
| Case Type | Mid Tower |
| Steel Thickness | 0.7mm |
| Motherboards | ATX / micro ATX / mini-ITX |
| Case Dimensions | 230 x 475 x 477.8mm (W x H x D, overall) |
| 3.5” Drive Bays | 2 (Internal) |
| 2.5” Drive Bays | 3 (Internal) |
| Expansion Slots | 7 |
| GPU Clearance | 388 mm / 413 mm (without front fan) |
| CPU Clearance | Support Max. Height of 170 mm For CPU |
| I/O Ports | 2 x USB2.0 + 2 x USB3.0 + HD Audio & Mic. |
| Air Cooling System | Front : 3 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm (Optional) Top: 2 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm (Optional) Rear : 1 x 120mm fan (PWM fan Included) |
| Water Cooling System | Front : 3 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm (Optional) Top: 2 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm (Optional) Rear : 1 x 120mm (Optional) |
| Net Weight | 8.2Kg / 9.7Kg (Gross Weight) |
| Power Supply | ATX PSU (Optional) |
Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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thundervore When will case makers learn that we need triple 140 fans in front and top. the cases have more than enough room to accommodate the fans but they just keep with the usual 3x120 or 2x140.Reply
Im kinda puzzled as to why the rear fan is only 120 and not 140. -
RangerSnuggles > Im kinda puzzled as to why the rear fan is only 120 and not 140.Reply
Most new motherboards have big plastic shrouds over the USB/keyboard/video ports. (I have an NZXT midtower and an asus skylake board and it only fits a 120MM back there because of that plastic part). -
thundervore Reply18423213 said:> Im kinda puzzled as to why the rear fan is only 120 and not 140.
Most new motherboards have big plastic shrouds over the USB/keyboard/video ports. (I have an NZXT midtown and an asus skyline board and it only fits a 120MM back there because of that plastic part).
What is a NZXT midtown and what is a Asus Skyline board?
Kindly provide the exact case model like Source, H440, etc and the motherboard model as my google searchs keep showing me pictures of phone cases for skyline board.
:)
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thundervore Reply18423493 said:Doh! stupid autocorrect.
S340 + Z170-AR
After viewing your NZXT case, you can only fit a 120mm fan in the rear because the case only supports a 120mm fan in the rear. The plastic shroud on the Z170-AR have no impact on the fan. If youre case was a H440 and the Z170-AR blocked the install of a 140mm fan and only allowed a 120mm fan then I would understand the conflict between new motherboards with IO shrouds and 140mm fans :) -
bit_user What we really need are standard APIs for things like lighting control and reading fan speeds. Then we can program it to behave however we want.Reply -
bgunner Has anyone else wondered how much Nvidia pays these case manufactures to have their cards in them? Most released pictures of new cases seem to always have Nvidia GPU's in them and very few AMD. Just seems to beg to ask the question of "How much money did you get?".Reply
None the less, Because of the sound deadening material already installed I'm thinking this case will be good for a powerful HTPC in my living room.