AIO DRN-STN Review: A Gaming All-In-One With A 120 Hz Display

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The AIO Drone Station is a combination chassis and 120 Hz FHD display, ready to take your choice of ATX motherboard, CPU, graphics cards, storage, and power supply. We'd stop short of calling it portable, but appreciate the appeal of a fast all-in-one PC.

Inside AIO’s DRN-STN

The DRN-STN isn’t exactly an ATX-sized case with an LCD panel added on, but instead an enclosure that encompasses an ATX case and LCD panel. The difference is that the case itself is a separable entity.

A groove next to the power cord is supposed to allow cable ingress and egress for features that aren’t supported by the case, but that part of the case has only around 1/4” of table clearance.

Three lighted 120 mm fans occupy each side in left-to-right cross-flow orientation. The two remaining top panel fans are split, with intake on the left and exhaust on the right.

External bays are located outside the ATX chassis, since they must be accessible from the outer enclosure’s front panel.

The DRN-STN’s outer casing connects to the rear panel of its internal chassis. Dual-link DVI enables its 120 Hz display, four USB plugs connect front-panel ports, two 3.5 mm stereo plugs connect front-panel headphone and microphone jacks, and power and network extension cables connect to the rear of the outer housing. A front-panel power/reset/LED cable connects to an extension plug on the chassis, but the case has no provisions for a motherboard’s other internal headers.

A mere 17” tall and 7.625” wide, the internal ATX case is a mid-tower by traditional standards of days gone by (when it a lot easier to figure out the difference between a full- and mid-tower). Its three former 5.25” bays are covered by a mesh panel since they’re not externally accessible, and AIO instead adds an internal hard drive cage behind that mesh.

The chassis front panel’s dual 120 mm fan mounts are located directly behind two of the outer housing’s three 120 mm intake fans, making its mounting pattern inconsequential to most builds.

A 120 / 92 mm dual-pattern fan mount on the internal case’s rear panel is similarly unnecessary most of the time, though it is a handy place for the radiator of a single-fan, closed-loop liquid cooler.

Seven expansion slots support a full ATX motherboard, but don’t leave extra space for a dual-slot graphics card in the board's bottom slot.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
48 Comments Comment from the forums
  • blackmagnum
    What does this retro looking gaming box have over an established gaming notebook say an Alienware or Asus? Thanks for the choice though.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    12698017 said:
    What does this retro looking gaming box have over an established gaming notebook say an Alienware or Asus? Thanks for the choice though.
    Up to 20x the graphics power and 2x the CPU performance? I guess it depends on what you plan to do with all that extra space.

    I also didn't get a chance to note in the article that "Full Sized" power supply means PS/2 form factor (and extended versions thereof). ATX power standard does not include a form factor, because form factors designate "form". This is, in spite of what Yahoo Answers might tell you. So "Full ATX" is a misnomer concerning power supplies.

    Reply
  • Xsolarise
    This is just a stupid and ugly..
    Reply
  • bloody llama
    The internal case appears to be made by NZXT. The 3.5" rails and the PCI toolless latch are exactly the same as my NZXT case from 2005.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    12698206 said:
    The internal case appears to be made by NZXT. The 3.5" rails and the PCI toolless latch are exactly the same as my NZXT case from 2005.
    NZXT doesn't manufacture its own cases though, or at least it didn't in 2005 :)
    Reply
  • The_Trutherizer
    I'd give it 2 foldout screens for eyefinity.
    Reply
  • Marcopolo123
    reminds me of fallout
    Reply
  • Nossy
    wow,..$700 for a case, and people are complaining about a $700 video card? WTF are people smoking these days?
    Reply
  • Au_equus
    Is it oversimplification to say that the system looks like a monitor and a case held together by a shroud? I agree with Trutherizer, especially at that price, but, to go a little bit further, it needs a docking station for a keyboard and mouse.
    Reply
  • huilun02
    Because hauling what seems to be a CRT monitor makes you a more popular guy.
    Reply