Jan 3, 2004 by Ralf Hutter
| Product | Antec Super Lanboy |
| Manufacturer / Supplier | Antec Inc |
| Market Price | US$75~89 |
The Super Lanboy is a updated version of Antec’s original Lanboy.
Antec had a minor hit on their hands with the original Lanboy, their first case
designed especially for LAN party gaming enthusiasts. It was small, constructed out of lightweight aluminum, had a window paired with case lighting and
even included a nylon carrying strap that allows the case/pc to be toted about like a suitcase.The Super Lanboy adds more up-to-date features such as dual 120mm case
fan capability and front I/O ports. Antec also includes a number of “Quiet Computing” features such quiet 120mm
fans and removable drive trays with grommet mounts to reduce drive vibration noise. As with the original Lanboy, no PSU is included,
so the user can install one of their choice, from mild to wild.
Super Lanboy box. Is this studly guy a “Super
Lanboy”?
CASE SPECIFICATIONS:
Features:
* Durable anodized aluminum finish
* Clear side window
* Front ports: 2x audio, 2x USB
* One low-speed 120mm fan (rear)
* One low-speed 120mm blue LED fan (front)
* 9 Drive Bays:
– External: 3 x 5.25″, 2x 3.5″
– Internal: 4 x 3.5″ individual drive trays with rubber grommets to absorb
vibration
* Motherboards: up to Standard ATX
* Compatible with any ATX12V power supply
* Free case-carrying strap
Exterior view. Looks quite handsome.
Antec calls the Super Lanboy a “super mini tower“. The layout of the Super Lanboy and the popular Sonata
case are almost identical, from the number and position of the drive bays to
the 2 x 120mm case fans and external size. Its dimensions
are 16.5″(H) x 17.1″(D) x 8.2″(W), almost identical to
the Sonata, but weight is just 8.8 lbs compared to the 21 lbs of the standard
steel Sonata.The internal HDD bays are laid out in the same 90°
orientation that is becoming the norm for Antec, and include the same type of
snap-in drive sleds with grommet mounting points for the hard
drives. These trays, like the rest of the case, are constructed from aluminum.
The external 5.25″ drives are mounted by screwing them directly into the
drive cage. Antec has chose not to use the more familiar drive rails for the
Super Lanboy.The case is constructed of anodized aluminum. Thickness is not specified but I
measured it at .030″ or .8mm. The edges have been deburred and most are
rolled over to prevent cuts while working inside the case. Many of the slots
and holes, while not having any burrs, are fairly sharp. I did scratch
myself a few times while running wiring through the tighter places
inside the case.Both side panels are removable by thumb screws and
sliding the doors back about 1/2″ until they can be pulled free of the
case. The removable right side door is a welcome change from the original
Lanboy and Sonata cases. It’s nice to have direct access
to the connectors on the hard drive bays, something that isn’t possible on the
Sonata. Both doors have locking hasps on them, presumably to lock the case to
prevent unauthorized hardware removal.
FRONT BEZEL
Antec has done a pretty nice job on the design of the front bezel. There’s
a front door to cover the external bays that’s deep enough to cover the knobs
on most fan controllers. The door has a plastic friction latch that, on my review
sample, was quite tight and required both hands to open. At least the door won’t
fly open while you’re carrying the case to or from a LAN Party! The door will
also reduce the optical drive noise.
Front Bezel. Note the I/O panel and filterless
blue tinted fan guard.
Beneath the door, running the width of the case is the front I/O panel
that includes a small reset button, a set of audio I/O jacks, two USB 2.0 ports,
three LEDs and a large power button. The reset button is small and recessed
enough to keep from being inadvertently depressed. I especially like the audio
output. It makes it real convenient to plug
in headphones without having to reach around the back of the case. The USB 2.0
ports work well at USB 2.0 speed. The three LEDs are for HDD activity, case
power and something mysteriously called “turbo”. I left this one disconnected
during my testing.
I/O Panel and front fan. From left to right:
reset button, audio I/O jacks, USB 2.0 ports, LEDs, power button. Behind the easily removable fan guard is
the clear 120mm front fan with blue LED.Beneath the I/O panel is the front fan intake area. The clear plastic front
fan is situated directly beneath a decorative blue-tinged plastic grill. This
grill is easily removable and has a series of fairly big holes in its face
and around its periphery that allows good airflow into the case. There is no
air filter included with the Super Lanboy, nor is there any place to fit one
if the front fan is used.The front bezel is screwed onto the case with six self-tapping screws. To remove
it requires the removal of both side panels in order to access the screws. It’s
certainly not as convenient as the more common type of snap on bezel.Behind the front door, to the right of the 3.5″ drive cage is a unique feature that Antec calls a toolbox. It’s a 3″ x 5″ x 1.5″
plastic drawer with a slide off lid. It’s designed to hold extra parts
like screws, standoffs, jumpers, BIOS battery, Fanmates, etc. It’s held in place
by a small push-release latch and has a window in the front that Antec calls
a picture frame. You can customize the front of your toolbox by sliding whatever
small picture you want into the picture frame.
Slide out tool box. A perfect place to keep
your caffeine pills!
BACK PANEL
The back of the case features a standard ATX PSU mounting hole, an I/O shield,
a set of seven covered PCI card slots and a 120mm fan grill that is similar
to those found on Antec’s other recent
cases. This grill allows good airflow for the included “low noise”
clear plastic 120mm case fan. The PCI slot covers are accessed by a sliding steel
cover screwed onto the back of the case with a set of thumb screws. On my review
sample the hole for the I/O shield was slightly oversize. The included shield
didn’t snap into the hole, nor did any of the other standard size I/O shields
that I tried. I had to hold the shield in place while installing the motherboard
in order to keep it in place. This isn’t a big annoyance but it makes you wonder
how Antec didn’t catch this oversight. The I/O shield on my sample was laying
in the bottom of the case when I opened the box and there is no way it would
stay in position on its own.
Rear view. Note the 120mm unrestrictive
fan grill and sliding lock plate for the AGP/PCI cards. Both left and right panels sport hasp locks
to the protruding tab on the case wall.
THE INTERIOR
The Super Lanboy interior consists of a non-removable motherboard tray that
is predrilled to accept standoffs for either full size ATX boards or m-ATX boards.There’s
a standard ATX power supply mounting setup with a couple of ledges for the PSU
to rest on.
Super Lanboy interior. Very little wasted
space here.
The 5.25″ drives are mounted by screwing the drives directly onto the
cages, Antec has chosen not to use the more convenient drive rails on the Super
Lanboy, instead requiring that the optical drives be bolted directly to the
drive cage.The exterior 3.5″ drive cage is also not removable. This saves Antec a
few ducats but it also may have the advantage of making for a more sturdy mounting
arrangement that is less prone to vibration.
 |  |
Left: Interior 3.5″drive bays with
grommet mounts. Right: 5.25″ railless drive bays and fixed 3.5″ bays.
Each drive sled for the internal 3.5″ drive cage has four
black rubber grommets on the bottom for mounting the hard drives. The rubber
grommets are supposed to help dampen vibration from the drives. Antec provides special shoulder
bolts that give the right
amount of tension when the bolts are tightened until they bottom
out on the drive.
120mm front fan, bolted directly to
the case, incorporates a blue light around its periphery.The clear plastic 120mm front is described as “low
noise“. It is also lighted by a blue LED, the glow of which shows up behind
the clear front fan guard. This fan is bolted directly to the case wall itself.
At 12V its not particularly noisy but its too loud for what I’d consider a
quiet PC. The LED around the fan was illuminated even when I ran the fan at
5V. At 12V the light is brighter than at 5V but its not too obnoxious.
Illuminated front fan running at 12 volts.
Snazzy, huh?
The rear 120mm fan is another clear plastic fan but without LED lighting. Antec also calls this a “low noise” fan. It
comes wired with a 4-pin Molex and a pass through connector. This fan is mounted
to the case with the same silicone rubber isolators that Antec has used in the
Sonata, the P160 and the 3700BQE. These mounts do an excellent job of decoupling
the fan so that any fan vibration or noise isn’t amplified by being bolted solidly
to the case wall. At 12V this fan sounds the same as the front fan. The noise
is fairly quiet but not quiet enough for me.Other than for a short period of
testing I ran both fans at 5V instead of 12V. The fans at 5V are pretty quiet
(although not as quiet as my beloved L1A Panaflos at 5V) and still flow enough
air to cool the system quite well while playing games. Both fans have a slight
clicking noise that’s noticeable at 12V and 5V. The very unrestrictive fan grill
on the back wall doesn’t seem to add any air turbulence noise to the case. The
front fan grill is more restrictive and you can hear some air turbulence noise
when the fan is running at 12V. At 5V I can’t hear any turbulence noise.
120mm rear fan. It’s mounted with rubber
isolators and is not lighted.
As you can imagine from the slightly diminutive exterior of the Super Lanboy,
the interior isn’t super expansive either. The fixed motherboard tray and “mini
tower” size make for a relatively tight fit while installing the motherboard
and other components. Unless you plan on changing hardware often this shouldn’t
be much of an an issue though.ACCESSORIES
Inside the little toolbox drawer is a bag full of the usual motherboard standoffs,
assorted case screws and drive mounting screws plus the special shoulder bolts
for use with the hard drive mounting grommets and the requisite Antec case badge.Antec has also included a free nylon carrying strap just like with
the first Lanboy. All you do is simply wrap it around the case then fasten it.
You can easily adjust the tension until its as tight as you prefer. The handle
is rubber and when carrying the case it feels nice and secure.Antec’s new trend of useful case manuals continues here. All the assembly
procedures are well covered, from the connections for the wiring that comes
from the I/O panel on the front bezel to the installation of all the various
drives and the rear fan.
Super Lanboy accessories. Toolbox, screws
and standoffs, manual, I/O plate. rear fan and carrying strap.
ASSEMBLY AND TESTING
Setting up a system in the Super Lanboy was fairly easy although there isn’t
lots of room to spare inside the case. The Seasonic Super Silencer 400 power
supply that I used for this review bolted on without
any problems. One downside to a small case is that
there are no good places to hide all the unused power supply wires. I managed
but it wasn’t easy. The Super Lanboy comes stock with a large window on the
left side of the case making a neat wiring job more important than
on a normal case. After all, you wouldn’t want to show up at a LAN party with
a case full of messy wiring, would you ?
Finished system. Hiding the wiring is a
chore with this case, but it can be done.The rear case fan was easy to mount and was packaged with the same combination
directions and protective wrap that Antec first included with the P160. The
fan comes tie-wrapped to the back of the case, securely wrapped inside its padded
installation instruction sheet. Antec has taken this extra step to make sure
the fan arrives in perfect shape and that its installation goes smoothly.Test System Components
* Asus P4P800-Deluxe motherboard with BIOS 1008.
* Intel P4 3.0 CPU, at stock speed and voltage (1.55V, 82 Watts max)
* Thermalright SLK900U + 92mm Panaflo L1BX @ 8V,
* 2 x 512MB of Corsair XMS3200c2 RAM running at 400MHz.
* Sapphire 9600 Pro Ultimate passively cooled videocard.
* 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV hard drive.
* Plextor 40x CDRW drive
* 400W Seasonic Super Silencer.
* stock Antec 120mm fans @ 12V and 5V
* CPU temperatures read from the internal thermal diode with Motherboard Monitor
5
* Ambient temperature was 20°CIdle temps were determined by starting the machine from cold and allowing the
temps to come to a stable point. Load temperatures were generated by 30 minutes
of two instances of CPUBurn.
| Temps | fans @ 12V | fans @ 5V | ||
| idle | load | idle | load | |
| Case | 25°C | 35°C | 27°C | 38°C |
| CPU | 36°C | 49°C | 36°C | 53°C |
| HDD | 29°C | – | 32°C | – |
For my initial test, I chose to run both case fans at their default 12V setting,
figuring that most people will probably leave them this way to achieve the best
possible case cooling. Running the system with 2 instances of CPUBurn to heat
things up as much as possible, I got case temps of 35°C and CPU temps of
49°C at an ambient temperature of 20°C.After my initial testing I undervolted
both case fans to 5V. This made the system much quieter and load temps increased
to 38°C for the system and 53°C for the CPU, again at 20°C ambient.These temperatures are all very acceptable for a 3.0GHz P4 system, especially
considering that the CPU fan is turning at a quiet 8 volts and the case fans
are running at a quiet 5 volts. When playing games with this system the load
temperatures run about 3-4°C cooler than the CPUBurn load temps. This is
obviously a very well ventilated case to achieve such good temps with low flow
fans. The downside is that some noise that escapes through the fairly
open front fan grill, not only from the fan itself but also from the CPU fan
and the hard drive.HUM & HDD NOISE
After I lowered the fan voltage to 5V, I started to notice a distinct
hum coming from the case. I noticed also that the
seek noise of the drive I was using (a 40 GB Seagate Barracuda IV) was noticeably
louder than I was used to hearing. I then tried an 80 GB Barracuda IV and noticed
the same thing.I started investigating the drive sleds and found that they
were a pretty loose fit in the drive cage. There was a lot of side-to-side and
up-and-down movement evident in the cages. Thinking that this could be letting
the cages vibrate and cause the excess seek noise, I bent the drive cage slightly to tighten up the drive sleds and keep them from
vibrating. This helped a little bit but I was still hearing more seek noise
than I heard when these drives were mounted in an Antec 3700BQE that uses the
identical drive mounting system, albeit constructed out of steel. I suspect some
of this is due to the .030″ aluminum construction of the Super Lanboy as
opposed to the 3700BQE’s .040″ steel construction, as well as the more
open front bezel of the Super Lanboy.I believe the hum is due to the resonance of the aluminum chassis
being excited by fan and hard drive vibrations. The panels of the Super Lanboy
are thinner than the Antec P160 that I recently reviewed and this smaller case
seems to resonate more because of this. It’s easily noticeable to me but it may not bother the typical user of this case. The hum is not noticeable at all when
the case fans are running at 12 volts.The seek noise of the Barracuda IV is also amplified more than usual. Normally
this is a very quiet drive, but in this case, it makes a lot more seek noise than usual. I could even hear it when the case fans were running at
the louder 12 volt setting. As an experiment, I mounted the drive on some Sorbothane
pads instead of bolting it directly to the rubber grommets. (See the sorbothane reference in this SPCR Forum post.) Mounted like this,
its seek noise was markedly reduced although it was still more noticeable than
I’m used to with the better noise-insulated front bezel of my reference case, the Antec
SLK3700AMB.Based on some recent experiments with the AcoustiPack Deluxe dampening materials,
I would bet that an application of such material would markedly
reduce the case resonance, although at the expense of increased weight. Naturally,
you wouldn’t be able to cover the left side door with any dampening material
due to the presence of the clear plastic window.
Through the huge looking glass: Lots
of opportunity to show off your bling!
FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Antec has done a good job with this redesign of the original Lanboy. The
new features are welcome and make for a more versatile case.They’re marketing it as a “Quiet Computing” case, and considering
that its designed primarily for full-on gaming, they’ve done a good job. It’s not super quiet with the case fans running at 12 volts
but it’s feasible to run the fans at a fairly quiet 5 volts and still
have excellent case cooling. Set up like this, the Super Lanboy is quieter than
any typical gaming rig I’ve heard. Resonance-wise, the Super Lanboy
would benefit from thicker aluminum, but this would add to the cost and the
weight of the case.
PROS
* Excellent I/O panel with front audio
* Very Light weight
* Large window
* 120mm fans
* Excellent case ventilation
* Grommet mounted HDDs and fans
* PSU not included
* Included Case Carrier
* Small integrated toolbox
* Power button not hidden under door
* Removable right side doorCONS
* Open air intake allows noise to escape
* Aluminum panels resonate
* Styling of front fan cover
* No intake fan filter
* No optical drive railsThe good cooling performance, light weight, small size, well placed I/O panel and included carrying strap
make for a great little LAN gamer box. Looks are always subjective, but I think the Super Lanboy looks good and fits
the part of a gamer box without typical over-the-top garishness.
(I’m not too sure about the blue colored fan guard but that’s an easy fix with
a spray can of your favorite vinyl dye.)Our thanks to Antec Inc for the Super Lanboy sample and for their continuing support
* * * * *
