SPCR

Well put, spookmineer I agree with a lot of what you said. But that doesn't meant we can't have a dig at our "favourite" case manufacturer every now and then, especially if some of us feel they might be "abandoning" us with some of these ghastly designs.

The quiet PC market may not be their bread and butter, yet it was still important for them, and many users who beforehand did not care so much about noise can now appreciate a quiet system because of their innnovations and the input from this small and obsessive community.

Antec may well be competing head on with Coolermaster and Thermaltake with these recent budget gaming oriented cases. They probably don't find it economically worthwhile to compete at the higher end with Lian Li and Silverstone, and the quiet desktop PC market appears to be stagnating somewhat: perhaps due to increased popularity of laptops, netbooks, PC capable portables, mobiles etc. which can "do the job" and are quiet enough for most people. So what then remains? To attract gamers and a younger set with Transformer and Tonka style designs and hoping to sell on volume at a "cheaper" cost. Question is, will it work? It awaits to be seen.

I see antec as competing vey well at every level and every niche of the PC case market, including the high end. antec has some well reviewed cases in the $150 and up range. I think antec is using their case building expertise to try and win in ever niche of the PC space and the gaming niche is where the users have shown a willingness to pay up for good cases.

Hi, thanks for your comments.
We have just shown the preliminary version (not the final version with full features) to journalists and reviewers in the major cities around Europe. The comments of these people who have seen it in person, rather than just judging by the photos, and understand the ultimate feature set for this case have been very positive.

Of course, everyone is welcome to their opinion but we do feel that you have to see it in person to really judge a case this unique and innovative. Our plan is to have the final version ready for public showing in about 90 days and available for purchase shortly thereafter.

Glad people are welcoming it well. I have an Antec case and couldn't be happier with it.
Even though I don't really like the design of the LanBoy and the new gaming cases (200 and 600) they are still great cases. I just question the use of the colours in LanBoy and the front of 200 (I believe it looks too industrial/heavy).

That thing is ugly.
Good thing they already have a new model planned:
http://peteredge.orconhosting.net.nz/casefan.html

i would buy the all black, minimalist, matx version.

It looks cheap, tacky, and lolworthy IMO. My first inital reaction was:

*INSERT TRANSFORMERS TRANSFORM SOUND HERE*

and then

"Autobots, ROLL OUT!"

and then

"Oh dear, i think they're serious"

I would have thought Antec would have satsified the gamer market with the 1200, 902, 300 (fine cases) and 200, 600 (not so good). Thats a fair list of gamer enclosures...do we really need another one?

It looks like non (poser) gamers will have to wait even longer until Antec finish with their lego and start work on something truly great again!

I must agree with others here in that hdd system looks promising, so kudos on that one, perhaps we can see it in some later silent/normal cases

Antec Representative wrote:Hi, thanks for your comments.
We have just shown the preliminary version (not the final version with full features) to journalists and reviewers in the major cities around Europe. The comments of these people who have seen it in person, rather than just judging by the photos, and understand the ultimate feature set for this case have been very positive.

Of course, everyone is welcome to their opinion but we do feel that you have to see it in person to really judge a case this unique and innovative. Our plan is to have the final version ready for public showing in about 90 days and available for purchase shortly thereafter.

Lets hope it's not riddled with the faults the Fusion cases have to this day.

Hello everyone,

About the Lanboy Air: obviously, it's still in the prototype stages, so a lot may change between now and the case's release! But as many of you have pointed out, it is a departure from the norm here at Antec. But that's done on purpose. Let's face it... if someone's going to buy a Sonata, they're going to buy a Sonata! We're better off updating one of those cases with new features to satisfy that market segment (and that's something that we do, rather often!).

This case isn't designed for the same market though...

The Lanboy Air is specifically designed to be modular and reconfigurable, so you can build up your system as you see fit. It's also got a pretty extensive cooling system (I'm looking at the total number of fan slots now... crazy!) and a HDD suspension mounting system that's pretty innovative. And yes, it's got its own sense of style, too (though I'm not sure if that color is final). And it's made mostly of steel, so it's anything but flimsy!

I hope that clears up some of the issues some people have with this case that's coming soon.

Hello Antec_Rep. Thanks for the positive spin---I mean, input. Yes, input.

Some of us have been quite critical of Antec lately because of the departure from "the norm" as you put it. I guess it's because many users have gotten used to a particular Antec signature design over the years and expect it to continue in a similar path. That view is a bit unfair, I do admit, as Antec is well entitled to pursue any market or design path it wishes to take since it is the market leader and has to compete with many other players.

Having had a close look at a lot of Antec cases lately including some of the newer models, my opinion is that, aesthetics aside, they are mostly generally of good quality, especially compared to its competitors. But attention to detail and stricter QC should be improved, as these are my main criticisms of Antec, along with its customer service to countries outside of North America. Some of your competitors do better in these regards, however, at the end of the day, everything is a compromise in some way or another.

Hope Antec can continue to make cases of the "classical" school as well as the more outlandish designs for gamers and LANers. Some of the smaller form factor cases (m-ITX etc) look promising, albeit a bit expensive for what they are.

It's true that many Antec cases look better in person than they do in the photos. So, what we see sometimes on the internet doesn't do the product "justice". People should draw their conclusions after seeing the products in store, although many people don't always have that benefit.

Regards.

It's not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal to users that the case is designed for (obviously not us). I would like to see that drive suspension system in more Antec cases, though.