darkFlash DY470 Review – Panoramic Glass Is The New Game In Town

Unboxing

The darkFlash DY470 is one of the newer releases from the Taiwan-based brand, meaning it features some of the modern design features like back-connector motherboard support and panoramic glass panels. Once opened, you can remove the case from the foam cushion, where you’ll see the accessories box tucked within.

The items you’re getting from the accessories box are as follows:
– Cleaning cloth
– 10x cable ties
– 13x motherboard screws
– 7x PSU screws
– 8x drive screws
– Standoff socket
– 3x standoff screws
– Front panel I/O rubber plugs
– Motherboard buzzer speaker

Note that these excludes all the screws pre-installed on the case. Additionally, the user manual for this unit is tucked within the PSU compartment – we only found this out during the installation process.

Walkaround

The first impression I have on this case is: there are lots of glass here, giving plenty of viewing angles. In fact, the case went for the extra mile and included a third glass panel angled on top, though it still has space to fit a regular AIO radiator on the metal panels. Rear side panel features two regions of perforations, since this is where the air comes in with the side-mounted intake fans.

From the rear, you can see the two halves of the case: the front for the components you want to see, and the spacious rear is for the power supply, drive cage, and plenty of room for cables to tuck in. A single 120mm fan is pre-installed here acting as exhaust, and you can see a total of six captive screws for the rear side, top, and side panels.

A side profile view of top and bottom side of the case shows both ends featuring dust filters, the top of which is fully integrated into the case panel, while the bottom dust filter is removable by simply pulling from the slot below the PCIe slots. There’s plenty of bottom clearance to allow fans at the bottom (if installed) to provide extra airflow as well.

The plus-sized feet at the front is where all the front panel I/O lies, which means darkFlash expects you to place the PC on the desk rather than the floor. Here, you get a USB-C port, along with split audio jacks, a pair of USB 3.0 (3.2 Gen 1 / 5Gbps) ports, and the two buttons that does what it says on the label.

Taking a closer look at the intake fans – this is the darkFlash INF34R ARGB 120mm reverse-blade fan that pulls the air in while facing front, though the exhaust fan uses the standard version meant to push the air away from the case. All fans feature cable-less, daisy-chain mechanisms via friction-based slots to connect to each other, with the primary fan connecting to the host motherboard via the proprietary 6-pin connector next to the pogo pins.

With both front and top panels removed, this is what the case looks like. Note that both the top glass panel and front glass panel are non-removable by normal means, which means you have to pay extra care to not dent the case during the installation process.

Specifications

darkFlash DY470

Specifications can be found on product webpage.

Chassis Form Factor	Mid-tower ATX
Dimensions	298 x 497 x 473 mm
Chassis Material	0.7mm SPCC steel, tempered glass
Motherboard Support	ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX Back-connect motherboard support
Chassis Fan Support	Front: 3x 120 mm Top: 3x 120 mm Rear: 1x 120 mm Bottom: 3x 120 mm
Pre-installed Fans	darkFlash INF34R ARGB 120mm reversed (3x intake) darkFlash INF34 ARGB 120mm (exhaust) Fan speed: 800 – 2000 (±10%) RPM Noise level: 31.6 dbA Airflow: 50.43 CFM Static pressure: 2.27 mmH₂O
Radiator Support	Front: 120, 240, 360 mm Top: 120, 240, 360 mm Rear: 120 mm
PCIe Slot Layout	Horizontal 7 slots, vertical GPU mount support
Drive Bays	1x 2.5″ drive bay 2x 3.5″ drive bays
Max. Graphics Card Dimensions	410 mm (length), 390 mm (height)
Max. CPU Cooler Height	175 mm
Max. PSU Length	200 mm
Front I/O Ports	2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) Type-A 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-C 1x 3.5mm headphone jack 1x 3.5mm microphone jack

Test System

CPU	Intel Core i9-13900K
Cooling	Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux 30th Anniversary Edition Cooler Master MasterGel Maker
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition
Memory	Kingston FURY BEAST RGB DDR5-6800 CL34 (2x16GB)
Storage	ADATA LEGEND 960 MAX 1TB
Power Supply	GameMax Rampage GX-1050 PRO (ATX 3.1) 1050W
Case	darkFlash DY470
Operating System	Windows 11 Home 23H2

Installation

Given that rear-connector motherboards like the ASUS TUF BTF has been gaining traction, case makers has since taken these form factors into account when designing cases. As a result, you get ample amounts of space behind for cable management, so you don’t have to spend hours trying to perfectly arrange all the cables while making sure it fits a finger’s width of gap between the panels. In fact, darkFlash has provided an extra rear panel inside to properly hide these cables away even when you’re popping the rear side panel open.

My usual installation sequence starts from motherboard, then AIO, then PSU; but I found out this can be problematic if your AIO has a particularly thick radiators or fans. We highly suggest you skip ahead and install the PSU first (ideally a modular one), pre-route the cables, before you proceed with the AIO installation.

In our case, our CPU cables barely scraped through the tiny gap by inserting the cables front way in, which wouldn’t be possible on a non-modular PSU (and that means I have to remove the AIO if I’m dealing with a non-modular PSU). From this point on, you can start routing all the internal cables to their appropriate spots – but be aware that the cable of intake fans may not reach the motherboard headers due to limited cable length.

In this case, I’ve opted to invert the orientation of the intake fans to let the fan cable extend from the bottom side and have enough slack to reach the CHA_2 header located at the bottom-center of our ROG Maximus Z790 Hero motherboard (since CHA_1 is already occupied by our Cooler Master AIO, and it couldn’t go anywhere else).

Finally, for the GPU installation, darkFlash has included two anti-sag brackets for the DY470 that can be adjusted by loosening the two screws on each of them (only the top one, shown above, reaches the primary GPU slot). We recommend you complete this setup first before you start the cable management process, since the screw’s location is tucked right behind where most cables are attached to.

Since the DY470 case offers plenty of space behind, all you need to do is to keep them relatively tidy and not have to worry about not able to close the case properly due to clearance issues. Once that’s done, reattach the rear enclosure, and that hides all the cables completely on the rear. Install the panels back on, and you have the full PC build ready to go!

We also performed a quick noise test (isolating only the case fans), and registered 47dBA with all four fans pinned at a maximum of 2200RPM. Decently quiet, but it gives a fairly high-pitched tone that can be more noticeable overall. That being said, on normal operation the fan speed are non-intrusive, so no complaints there.

Verdict

To sum it up, the darkFlash DY470 has plenty of upsides: clean looks, relatively easy installation process, decent noise levels, plenty of space, and support for rear-connector motherboards. All the things that you could ask for on a decent PC case, despite it’s small quirks: like the glass panel that require the amount of force that I’m slightly uncomfortable with, and the lack of support for 140/280/420mm fans, which can be a deal breaker if you use coolers of these sizes.

At the time of writing, the darkFlash DY470 can be had for RM489 for the white variant, or RM479 for the black version. In both cases (pun intended), you get a case that is relatively easy to build your PC on with only some minor quirks; other than that, it’s a pretty solid case with decent aesthetics to match. Be it conventional or rear-connector motherboards – this case can handle them all.

Special thanks to darkFlash for providing the DY470 chassis for the purpose of this review.