Review: Antec LANBoy

Is Iain Laskey becoming a lightweight?

Product	LANBoy
Company	Antec
Web	www.antec-europe.com
Price	£85
We like	Build quality, very light, carrying straps
We don't like	No front Firewire, lack of extra fans
Rating	8/10
Requirements

Some time back we looked at Antec's excellent Performance Plus case. One thing we quibbled about in the review (well, just about the only thing) was its hefty weight. Antec have risen to the challenge with the umm interestingly names LANBOY.

A Lightweight Solution

Antec think they have identified a gap in the market for lightweight PCs for carrying to LAN parties or for people that tend to move their PC around a lot. A LAN party is where a group of gamers get together to beat the hell out of each other (metaphorically, of course) at their favourite games. Having to move your PC around is all well and good but if it weighs a bit, it can soon become a chore. Enter the LANBOY. The case is made of aluminium and is indeed amazingly light. Happily, Antec have not skimped on either the quality or features.

The LANBOY is finished in a vaguely metallic silver and features a plastic door on the front that conceals the drives nicely to ensure a tidy appearance. Behind the hinged door are four 5 1/4 inch bays and two 3 1/2 inch bays. Internally there is room for a further two 3 1/2inch devices. The front also contains two USB ports which are attached to internal cabling to allow you to bring two of your motherboards USB ports to the front. This is useful for connecting card readers and other external USB devices that are frequently plugged in and out.

The main PSU is a 350W SmartBlue unit with the obligatory internal illumination. The SmartBlue features two big fans and claims to run cooler and quieter than most. Whilst not quite as upmarket as its TruePower siblings, it's still a decent PSU with more than enough grunt for most users.

A nice touch at the rear is a small storage bay to hold spare screws and other bits and bobs for rebuilds on the move. It also ensures all your spares are to hand even at home - an excellent idea that other manufacturers should take up in earnest.

Additional Features

In most ways, the internals of the case are fairly standard. Devices in the 5 1/4 bays need to have the supplied rails attached to the right hand side before fitting. These are plastic to save weight. This may seem like a chore but makes for quick changing of devices if needed. For more permanence, you can screw them in on the left hand side. An unusual arrangement but it seems to work reasonably well.

The front features an additional pair of LEDs marked I and II. These can be attached to any suitable connections on your motherboard to provide visual feedback on things like network activity.

The side panel is lockable - you wouldn't want your state of the art graphics card going for a walk whilst you weren't looking would you? You do need to provide your own lock though.

A really nice touch is a good quality carrying strap/handle. Yes, that's right. After all, the whole point of this case is portability. Two straps go round the case and a good quality handle holds these together

Expansion

The case is quite wide compared to most which makes it easy to work inside although if space is a premium, you may find the width a problem. Another slight minus point is that the only fans supplied are the PSU ones. If you intend filling this case with lots of 7200 RPM drives and a fast graphics card, we'd recommend investing in a couple of extra case fans. Happily, there are several spaces for these

Conclusion

Another excellent case from Antec. It certainly is light and the carrying strap is a mad idea that frankly works well. We'd like to have seen extra fans and at least one front mounted Firewire socket but these are small quibbles. If you tend to move your PC around a lot you should put the LANBOY high on your list of upgrades to consider.

 

Iain Laskey
See Iain's site at www.pcbookreview.com