Installation
The biggest difference between building a system with the Lanboy Air and other cases is that you need to plan a bit more. You need to determine what you are going to do before you start because changing some things later may end up being a great deal more work than you expected.
The first thing you need to determine is will you be mounting the PSU on the top or bottom. I went with the bottom mount so did not have to move the motherboard tray. Once that is decided you install the motherboard. For my build I used and Asus Maximums Extreme board which is an ATX form factor. The case comes with 6 of the 9 required standoffs installed already so you will have install the other three as shown in the pictures.
Next you install the motherboard. There is plenty of space in the case at this point and installing the motherboard is a breeze. I had removed the back panel, not required unless you are mounting the PSU up top, to the next step was to put that back on.
Once that was all done it was time to tackle the drives. As mentioned earlier there are 3 sets of 5.25” rails that can be installed facing front or left in any of 9 externally facing drive bays. I used the top one for my optical drive. Since I was using the stock forward facing drive, all I needed to do was remove the bay cover and slide the drive in. Once screwed in, it was done.
For hard drives you attach the Airmounts to like they were drive rails. Once they are attached to the drive you simply hook them into any of the drive bays.
You can also mount these drives, both internal and external, facing the left side of the case and they would look like this:
For this build I was using an extra 7200RPM 2.5” drive, so I mounted it on the bottom using the grommets and long screws.
Then connect the front panel ports to their corresponding connectors on the motherboard. And finally slide in the power supply that you installed into the PSU rack and connect everything up. One issue I ran into is that the motherboard I was using has SATA and IDE ports along the edge of the board facing sideways. The drive mounts on the pillar get in the way, so you remove them.
Last, but not least, is the power supply. First you install it into the bracket and then slide it into the case.
And when you are done, it will look something like this….
Great review, great case.
However you need to work on your writing skills. The phrase, “The case would have a much more polished look and feel a bit more study and solid, but it would add weight, and cost” makes no sense. And, “Despite those cons, the case is still an excellent case” is written poorly. Why not say something like, “Despite these shortcomings this is still an excellent case…”?
Who really cares Mike. I could comment about your “writing skills” if you’d like as well. Starting a sentence with, “And,” should be written with, “As well,”.
No need to fight over proper writing skills etc, good review overall and keep in mind this is only Rich’s 3rd review here so he is adjusting to writing. Also the LanBoy air is quite the unique case and very hard to write about.
Cons : dust magnet?..
Considering pretty much the whole case its ‘mesh’ materials.. ^^;