Antec LanBoy Case is Made for Super Air Cooling

News
By Marcus Yam
published

Super free-flowing air case.

High performance PCs require good cooling, and sometimes that requires a case that's agreeable to airflow.

Antec has just revealed its latest case that's built for airflow, called the LanBoy Air. It looks like a regular PC tower in shape, but what sets it apart is that it doesn't have any solid walls. Instead, the case is composed of framed mesh panels that fans can be bolted up against.

According to PCMag, there are five 120mm fans – two on the front panel, two on the side, and one in the back – as well as room for up to 10 more fans.

The case is also modular, so you can change the positions of the drive bays or the power supply to where it'll work best for your rig. Antec says that this design can result in over 34,000 combinations.

The LanBoy Air costs $220 and is available in red, yellow, and blue trims.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
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54 Comments Comment from the forums
  • burnley14
    I think if they lost the tacky yellow (or red or blue) coloring, this could really be cool. As it is, it looks kinda cheap. Solid black is ideal, but silver trim could be good too. I like the idea though.
    Reply
  • fflam
    The LanBoy Air costs $220 and is available in red, yellow, and blue trims.
    Reply
  • turbotong
    Hmm, although the concept is good, this thing better have a really good dust solution. Also, part of the concept of a case is that it is supposed to offer protection from daily things - dropping your headphones on accident shouldn't hit the fan and snap it off. While that's not an issue, someone watching youtube while eating pizza and drinking soda will have to be really really careful cuz there is zero protection from liquids spilling on it.
    Reply
  • N.Broekhuijsen
    I have to be honest, I love the concept, and would love to have one. But in the honesty, I must also admit that I hate the way it looks. Perhaps if the whole thing was black IT might be better, or if they made the basic frame out of steel, with their famous "Gun Metal Black" colour. Then it would look epic!

    Can't help but thinking about how loud this will be, but eh, if your going for a case like this, and are such a tweaker, clearly noise should not be much of an issue!
    Reply
  • AMW1011
    Hmm its hideous and probably won't outperform a Silverstone FT02/RV02... and will be way louder. Pretty meh to me.

    http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/08/12/silverstone-ft02r-w-review/1

    A good review of an FT02 with AP181 fans, which all FT02s and RV02s ship with now. Oh and they even do better with multiple GPUs...
    Reply
  • BruceOTB
    Dust harvester anyone?
    Reply
  • quiky87
    This came out months ago, instead of some nice free advertising for Antec, why don't you review the case? I was really excited as the title suggests that you already have but it looks like you just assumed (or were paid to say) it has great cooling when really it looks like its great at keeping everything at room temperature. (Not too mention a giant dust-trap, heaven help those people with cats.)
    Reply
  • theramman
    THE DUST!!! OMG THE DUST!....


    Would need to buy an air compresser to clean it every week...
    Reply
  • peanut_bully
    FOD notwithstanding, saying this case is made for "super air cooling" is just wrong. Proper cooling relies on both the amount and temperature of air and proper flow paths - solid case sides make it (relatively) easy to predict where air is flowing, i.e. in at the front, out the back (or whichever way you configure it). Having mesh sides means the front fans suck in air which is promptly dispersed through the sides, while the rear fans suck in air through the sides and out the back. Unless you have fans close to and directly aimed at thermal sources, this concept is just a gimmick. A properly designed solid case would be much more efficient.
    Reply
  • archange
    And I heard that you won't even have to vacuum your room anymore... xD
    Reply