Antec Lanboy Air Review

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Overlockers Club has put the finishing touches on its review of the Antec Lanboy Air case today. If you haven't seen this ultra-customizable case in action yet, you really should check out this review.

The Antec Lanboy Air is a work of manufacturing and design art. It offers complete customizability and flexibility due to its highly modular design, and Antec's extensive thought process that went into its development. It allows 100% freedom of choice in just about every important aspect of case design, from hard drive placement, to power supply, fans, and even 5.25" device placement. Never before has a manufacturer gone this far in modularity, which makes the Lanboy Air the first of its kind."
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It looks neat.

I did notice when he was done with the "infinitely customizable" case it ended up with the same layout as most normal cases.
 
I like the industrial nature and flexibility of the case, and it's looks are fine by me (not that I will ever buy a LBA). Much of what they say falls right in line w/ Bit-tech's review, particularly this quote about the LBA's cooling performance:
As I said, the cooling performance of the Lanboy Air is only satisfactory, and not superb. However, with a few extra strategically placed fans, we can expect the performance and cooling power of an open air tech station with the mobility and protection of an enclosed case. The Lanboy Air does not have fan filters, which may cause gripes for some, but for almost 100% mesh construction, there wouldn't be an easy way to keep all of the dust out. Fortunately, there isn't much difficulty in removing all important pieces quickly for when thorough cleanings are necessary.
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When CM Scout and HAF appeared, then i though nothing will ever beat that in ugliness. Well, i was wrong. Antec did it, twice - Dark Fleet and Lanboy are the two ugliest case series i ever seen.

@coconutboy: what cooling ? You could put your components on open bench and it wouldn't change much - Lanboy air is a open bench with mesh around it.
 
faugusztin said:
@coconutboy: what cooling ? You could put your components on open bench and it wouldn't change much - Lanboy air is a open bench with mesh around it.
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Sounds like you didn't read the reviews. Thanks to all that mesh, the directed airflow of the LBA isn't that great with air leaking out all over the place before hitting components. Result is mediocre stock cooling performance. By comparison, a case like Silverstone's ft02 or Antec's own 902 destory the LBA which means to even be competitive, the LBA needs to be loaded up with extra fans further adding to the overall cost.


Besides, true open-air test benches almost always perform significantly better on thermals with a modest volume of air from 1-2 cooling fans increasing the rate at which hot air moves away from components. The LBA instead offers better protection at the cost of needing more fans to perform the same job.
 
You said exactly same stuff like me, with other words.

Open benches perform better because fans are usually a lot closer than in LBA.
 
It seems this case is receiving a similar reception to that of the late skeleton. Interesting design and concept, but mediocre performance wise. A general concern is that the hard drive mounting system is a bit wonky.
 
nderscore said:
ewww...

How would that work? The P18x series is the epitome of minimalism, adding handles will just make it ... "INTRODUCING THE NEW ANTEC 1840!"
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I'm sure they could make it a classy foldover affair. Or maybe make it a few inches taller and have a little sliding door underneath w/ a handle and space for a mouse and cables.
 
Very very ugly I agree with most everyone on that, but I do think a lot of thought and great ideas went into it, I just cant get over how ugly it is. looks do mean a lot to me.

I think if it didn't look like a castle from the middle ages, and have such hard eye damaging lines on it, it might just be all right, smooth it out and just get rid of all the ugly coolers
 
You know, when I read "Antec Lanboy" I rolled my eyes. I have a very dismal view of their cases in general and the lanboy was among the worst. However reading the review actually caught my interest in concept at least.

I dislike that the modular portions are plastic, making the majority of the case that. This pretty much eliminates it as a case I would ever consider having. With me it is nearly 100% aluminum or nothing. However I really "Really" like the concept of being able to arrange the internals however I deem fit. There is no end to the parade of cases that I loved the outside but hated the internal layout.

I just wish someone "Lian-li" would make a solid aluminum, Good looking case that would allow me to customize the internals however I wish. I also want that case to be Lian-li quality with nice heavy aluminum panels that don't feel flimsy, all thumbscrews and nice large 120mm+ silent fans. Then offer it in a variety of anodized colors. While I do love my black lian-li, sometimes I would like a little more choice other then black and silver.
 
I kind of like the looks, but no way...I have an Antec P160W, 100% aluminum (for 4 years), and loved it so much, bought one for my wife. quite, not heavy, stylish. Love it!

Not sure why they don't make 100% Aluminum cases anymore...

P160W
P160W1.jpg
 
Wow. What a waste of potential for a case. That thing really needs solid side panels if the airflow is going to make any difference. Ugly as hell, too. Funny how Antec has what I consider to be among the best (I really do love the 300) and the worst (this and the Dark Fleet someone else mentioned, plus a multitude of others) looking cases out there.
 
ol1bit said:
I kind of like the looks, but no way...I have an Antec P160W, 100% aluminum (for 4 years), and loved it so much, bought one for my wife. quite, not heavy, stylish. Love it!

Not sure why they don't make 100% Aluminum cases anymore...

P160W
P160W1.jpg
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Now that pays more homage to the Original Antec Lanboy sitting next to me. But i still like my P180 more though, This LBA design is just fugly. I like the configuration ability, but the mesh is just a no go for me.
 
I have been testing this case only in red not blue. I am running
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @ 3.84ghz COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
MSI NF980-G65
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) @ 1.55V
SAMSUNG Spin point F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
KINGWIN Lazer LZ-850 850W PSU
EVGA Super Clocked AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Antec Lanboy air Red Black (Running 13 X 120mm Fans in the case)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

It is not one of the best looking cases I have owned but I have made a few modifications to it already myself will post pictures soon for you all. :D
However I will say that that this is by far the coldest airflow temp wise I've seen in my 17 years of building and fixing rigs. Is it ugly YES! Is it placed in the corner of my room hidden away like a red headed step child?? (pun intended hehe red case??) Yes it is, but being able to have a lot of different ways to install equipment gives it something, Cable management is a complete nightmare.. utterly worse experience of my life. I got this case because one it was cheap to me, I got mine for 55 bucks please do not ask :p
I also like the room it has for water cooling (coming soon) A lot of people complain but if you look at it in a different way and look at all you can do with this case, grab some rotary tools, some aluminum sheets and start creating =D it really isn't that hard… I will probably do some skin work on this dude too. Maybe a anime theme unsure. Anyways pictures to come soon.
 
ol1bit said:
I kind of like the looks, but no way...I have an Antec P160W, 100% aluminum (for 4 years), and loved it so much, bought one for my wife. quite, not heavy, stylish. Love it!

Not sure why they don't make 100% Aluminum cases anymore...

P160W
P160W1.jpg
Click to expand...

I also have a P160, have had it since 2004. I have fallen out of love with it mainly because features on new cases are getting so much better and I am nearing a new rebuild and looking to start fresh with a new case. Never understood why it was such of a one of kind build from Antec.
 
Good grief, and people chew out Thermaltake for thinking outside the box. This case was designed with some incredible shortsightedness, not to mention it fugly...yet again Antec have not added any adequate filtering (sorry 5.25 grill with some thin sponge material does not work). and there is modular, then there is a mechano set, this falls into the latter.

And if you bought one already, then congrats on your new vacuum cleaner/dust bucket, now you will need to blow an additional $100+ on sound dampening and filters...lots of filters.
 
God seems a lot of you don't like the case.
I have it and in person its a pretty cool one.
My grips with it, is it lacks space behind the mainboard tray.
Running the main powerlead from my Corsair 750HX behind the tray meant i had to push the back panel back on and hold it in place while I screwed it in. Very little space to run cables
 
What is the point of routing cables behind motherboard tray in a see-through case ? :confused:

And why it is not liked - because it is ugly, it is rather a bunch of mesh instead of being a proper case, it is ugly, it is a dust magnet, it is ugly, because of all the holes it has no airflow (it is a open bench with some mesh around it after all) and i probably forgot to mentoin, it's ugly :D.

That is probably the reason why we don't like this case. Because as i porobably forgot to say, it's ugly.
 
That case serves it's purpose and with any work of art, taste is subjective. If you like the case, don't let other people change your own mind. Anyhow, if you like modding silent cases with heat pipes instead of fans then this case is perfect. Watercooling gives you the option of a fanless radiator but even with a fan it makes no difference as no heat is being retained in the case. Exhaust fans seem better suited as spot coolers with this design as exhaust it makes no sense. Think of it this way. If you were on the patio enjoying a bbq, would a fan not facing you make any sense? If it was blowing directly at you, would it cool you off?
 
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Not a huge fan of this case. Built a system for someone in one of these because they got a good deal of CL and absolutely wanted to use it, even though I advised against it for cooling reasons.

Other than CPU (X4 rather than my X3) and a different PSU (500W rather than my 730W) our systems are exactly the same. HOWEVER, his temps were significantly higher. And that's saying a lot since I'm running my PC1 in sig in a SIlterstone LC13E-B with only 2 80mm fans tucked into a cubby-hole in my build-in media center... Practically a suffocating oven to any PC.

Needless to say I don't like the case because of the cooling aspect; for me or for building for a friend. But also I hated the looks and he LOVED it! To each their own I guess. Form doesn't mean that much to me if it doesn't have function as well.

:cool:
 
Ok so here is the skinny on the Lan boy air, It isnt that bad dust wise cause I believe in air filters in my home and smoking in doors is not allowed. As far as cooling goes it keeps my parts colder than in an coolmaster case. Cool master 6 hours prime 95. CPU temp 46c system temp 49c.
In the lan boy air same spot in my room temps after 6 hours of prime 95 CPU temp 40c and system temp 44c. so yes the LBA does in fact cool my system better than coolmaster case. The coolmaster case has total of 5 x 120mm fans, and front 220mm fan sooooo.

The LBA is UGLY UGLY like a lego set but I cannot deny that it does do its job. I dunno still wish I had a good alum. case shrug cant find any out there I like. I guess I will have to make my own....
 
CPU temp 46C at load ? Either your sensors are broken or you are using an AMD system which says things like 16C idle temperature in 22C room :).
 
Load temp of 46 doesn't seem far fetched for a Phenom II. But don't know what Sopefm has...
 
first off let me clear up some stuff lol, 1. AMD yes 1090t x6 over clocked to 4.02ghz MSI 980-g65 with a FSB of 241, Ram @ 1607mhz @ 1.5v. (also running cooler master 212 hyper cool plus heat sink the thing is a monster.



So yes my stuff runs hot lmao. But all temps are well with in an operating range, with prime95 it is a priority 10 test at 100% load with long legth itterations. I also do F@H (Folding at home)

Here are some pics for ya.

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Did you find cable management a pain in the butt too?? My back side panel is not the one that came with it, I decided to make a solid one and easily matched paint use high gloss black. I am talking about the panel which would be the back side of the motherboard. It helped improve air flow in the case. =D

Waiting on my dig cam to get back had to RMA the lil Pos. Once I get it back I'll take some shots of what I am talking about =D
Also I got this case mainly for the water cooling that I will be doing soon, once I get some more capital up lol...
 
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