I recently took the plunge to upgrade to a new more powerful custom built computer. My previous machine was an HP Elite with an AMD Phenom quad core CPU and 4GB of ram with 1 TB of hard drives. It was a good computer, but I wanted something more powerful and this Elite was almost 3 years old. My computing needs expand quickly. I upgraded to an AMD Phenom II 6-core 1090t with a new case, memory, more hard disk space. Today I will be covering the new case, an Antec Darkfield (DF) 85. And over a series of articles I will be going over the remaining components and build process.
First off, when pulling this case out of the box I noticed no manual. Though there is one online for those that need one. Secondly, this thing is huge. We have room for numerous drives, more than I need which is better for me with cooling. The build quality is great and the case opens easily enough.
In the front you’ll find three red LED 120mm fans. These open for easy access to your hard drives. The fans also feature filters to help keep dust out. They open easily as long as you have the lock on the inside of the case unlocked. A nice security measure. Towards the top we have room for 3 5.25 drives with a plastic 
barrier that easily swings open for each slot. Moving to the top of the case we have 3 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB 3.0 port. And the very top gives us a 2.5” hot swap drive bay.
We have controls for the fans on the back, these control the two top fans and the two rear fans. Honestly, this case is running cool enough that I can have these set to low. 
The first component I installed was the power supply, an Antec TruePower New 750 which fit right into place at the bottom of the case with ease. I like that we have have rubber feet for the power supply to sit on. This helps with airflow. Also of note is that this section is adjustable if you have an oversized power supply. Cabling is also easy to handle as we can hide or snake the cable through the other side of the case and back around to plug in. Yes, this does require the door on the other side to be removed and that’s easy as two screws.
Next I installed my Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard. This fit in nicely though I did need to add a few standoffs but I chalk that up to having such a large board, though I have seen bigger. Once the screws were in everything lined up perfectly. Next I popped in my CPU, AMD Phenom II 1090t. After the CPU and before the CPU cooler I went ahead and installed my first hard drive that would become my boot drive. This would be a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 2.5” drive. This little guy was mounted simply enough to the bottom of the case. Using rubber grommets and screws to secure it while protecting it from vibrations and reducing noise. The only drawback is if I need to replace the drive, I will have to lift the case up and lay it on its side. The screws go from outside –in at the bottom.
I installed my memory, 16GB DDR3 G Skill Rip Jaws, which of course fit perfect. Sliding my video card, AMD Radeon HD4850, in with ease as everything was lined up oh so sweet. The case is great that it does not obstruct any ports on the card. I’ve worked with some cases where I had to mod it to fit. But not here thankfully.
I then installed my two optical drives, an LG HD DVD/ Blu Ray Rom with DVD RW support and standard DVD RW drive. Here I did run into a small snag. The cabling inside the case made for a struggling tight fit for the top drive. But with a little work and elbow grease I got it in and secured nicely. These cables lead up to the top for our USB ports and our 2.5” hot swap bay. Next were my three additional hard drives. A Maxtor 500GB, a Seagate 500GB, and a Seagate 1.5TB which simple slide in. Using the case’s hot swap bays made it a snap. I plan on these being permanent so I secured them screws.
Oh yeah, your wondering how my CPU cooling went in? It went in nicely and the size was a good fit. I went
with water cooling, a Corsair H50 and what a breeze. Actually the radiator came with a fan that I needed to attach, but there was no where to place in except on the door and that would be tough on the pipes when I open the case. So I carefully mounted in to the lower rear fan of the case which is the same size as the cooler came with. As you recall this fan in hard wired into a speed control on the back which meant I couldn’t easily replace it. But the radiator mounted perfectly. The extra fan I mounted on the door. Luckily, it didn’t block the view much. I also added a PCIE x2 TV tuner into one of my spare x16 slots and a PCI wireless N card next to it.
My Conclusion is that this is an Awesome case that I was able to fill with some awesome components. I am very impressed with the quality and workmanship of the case. It looks cool, especially in the dark. Sure there are a few minor issues but none worth griping about. It’s easy to get in to install or replace components. Did I mention it looks cool, really, really cool. The red LED are sweet. The simple way to access your hard drives and the 2.5” hot swap bay on top make this a a sweet case to build with. Not to mention the USB 3.0 port.
Check out a few more pictures I took as I built this beast!
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