Antec DF-85 Review

Testing:

To test the Antec DF-85, temperatures will be recorded for the CPU, GPU, chipset, hard drives, and the overall system temperature during load and idle phases. Load will be simulated by Prime95 small FFTs and HD Tune for one hour with maximum temperatures recorded by RealTemp. The GPU load will be the maximum value recorded by RivaTuner after five loops of 3DMark06’s Canyon Flight test. Each case is tested as is from the factory, including the fan configuration. As stated earlier, the fan configuration for the DF-85 is 3x120mm front intake, 2x120mm rear exhaust, and 2x140mm top exhaust.

Testing Setup:

• Processor: Intel i7 920
• Motherboard: MSI Eclipse SLI
• Memory: Mushkin Ridgeback 12800 6-8-6-24
• Video Card: nVidia GTX 260
• Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
• Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: Lite-On DVD-RW
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
• Ambient Temperature: 23 °C
• CPU Heatsink: Stock Intel
• Case: Antec DF-85

Comparison Cases:

• Thermaltake Armor A60
• NZXT Phantom
• Thermaltake Armor A90
• Antec Sonata Proto
• Raidmax Quantum
• Xclio A380 Color Plus
• Raidmax Skyline

Though the DF-85 didn't completely blow away the competition in all the tests, it did pull ahead and match all the best temperatures collected from every other case except for in a few tests. The addition of a side intake fan would have improved temperatures of the chipset and the graphics card by a meaningful amount, but as our testing methodology requires, we test our cases as packaged from the manufacturer, straight out of the box. The performance of the DF-85 is on par with my assumptions. I had a feeling that it would match most of the highest performing cases, though I did expect a slight fallout on the video card and chipset temperatures due to not having a side intake fan. On the next page, I will wrap up this review in my conclusion.