| Full Product Review | ||||||||
by Antec
Specifications
Introduction Antec is a very well respected name in the computer case market for many years. In fact, many of their designs have been copied by other companies. One of their latest is the new Sonata super-mini tower case for their new lifestyle series. It has a piano black gloss finish that is designed to match the design of home theatre components and is designed to reduce system noise. The tagline from Antec for the case is "Hear the Silence". To help reach this goal of quiet computing, Antec has put a lot of thought behind the design of the system. Some of the primary noise reduction features include a single-fan power supply, a 120mm low-speed case fan, hard drive brackets with rubber grommets, rubberized mounting clips for the case fans and a single fan power supply that can control case fan speeds as well. All-in-all most of these features seem to do a good job at reducing the noise generated from these components, but three major areas of noise still reside inside the case that they can't control: the CPU heatsink fan, AGP card fans and optical drives. The Exterior The overall design of the case is very classy looking. The glossy piano black finish is very highly polished to produce a mirror like surface. The one major drawback to this finish is that it easily shows fingerprints and dust. If you plan on working with the system a lot, expect to be wiping it down if you care how your case looks. On both sides of the case's sheet metal, airflow holes have been drilled into the upper panels to spell out Antec. These holes are fairly large and were probably added to allow extra air towards the power supply to assist in cooling it off. This is also going to be a major source for dust getting inside of the computer system. When the system is running, there is a noticeable amount of air being pulled in through these ports.  Light Shining through holes in side panel. The front panel of the case is made of a black plastic that is a gloss finish along the edges that match the sides and a matte finish on the rest of the surfaces. A drive access door panel hides the 3 5.25" and 2 3.5" external drive bays as well as the power and reset switches. Below the drive door are two blue LED lights on either side of the silver plaster port panel. This contains 2 USB 2.0 connectors, 1 IEEE 1394/Firewire port, 1 headphone jack and 1 microphone jack. The addition of the audio ports is nice, but configuration of them is dependent upon motherboard support. 
 Sonata with the front panels closed and open. The rear panel of the computer has the single fan port for the TruePower 380W power supply designed for this case, the 120mm low speed case fan, standard removable ATX port panel, and seven expansion slots. The side panel is removable through a latch level and two standard case screws. The case is support on the bottom by 4 small rubber feet to also try and assist with the reduction of case noise if it rests on a hard surface. It also features a removable washable air filter that can be accessed from the bottom of the case.  Sonata rear panel. The Interior Since the computer is a mini-tower based system, interior space is particularly cramped. This is compounded by the design of the interior hard drive mounts that reside perpendicular to the case rather than the standard drive mounting methods. This was done to allow for the unique drive mounting brackets. Space is also limited in the upper drive bays due to their close proximity to the large number of power supply connectors.  Sonata interior when side panel is removed. The hard drive mounting brackets are the most unique feature in the case. There are 4 individual dray trays that will mount a single half-height 3.5" hard drive each. The drive is attached by screwing the tray to the top (or bottom) mounting points of the hard drive instead of the sides. In addition, special screws need to be used to allow the drive to reside properly on the rubber grommets. By doing this, the rubber grommets should absorb the vibrations of the drive during operation instead of transmitting it into the case.  Closeup of hard drive brackets with bottom one pulled out halfway. When installing the hard drives, the drive can either be position such that the connectors face towards the back of the case or towards the front panels. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method. Installing the drive so the connectors face back makes it difficult to route the power and IDE cables to the drive. It does allow for the drive to have a cleaner look on the interior, but since the case does not have a window does it really matter? Installing the drives so the connectors face out is the method that I found to be easier. Cable access for the power and IDE cables was easy. The one drawback to this method is that the cables can get in way of the removable panel making it more difficult to close. The other drives are mounted by removing the panels from the front of the case. The 3.5" drives are mounting into a two drive bracket that can be removed from the case. Simply remove one of the two faceplates from the bracket, mount the drive into the bracket and slide the bracket back into the case. The 5.25" drives are mounted on drive rails to be inserted into the case. To do this, remove the faceplate from the case and on the back of that faceplate are the two drive rails. Simply mount these to the drive and then slide the drive into the case.  External 3.5" drive bracket.  Drive rails stored behind facecplate. The external drives point out one of the biggest problems with this case, the front plastic door panel. In order to properly access the external drives for installation or removal, it is really necessary to remove the front door panel from the case. There is a small plastic tab on the top of the door hinge that can allow it to be removed and replaced but it is very fragile. Similarly, if the door is pushed too far by accident, there is a good chance the tab will break. This effectively prevents the door from being used on the hinge but it can still be held in place by the latch. The power supply in the system is the greatest advantage to this computer case. The case is supplied with Antec's special single fan 380-watt TruePower power supply. This power supply uses dedicated circuitry for each of the three voltages rails that reside within the computer system to ensure proper power is supplied to the parts inside of the case. It also manages its internal fan speed based upon the internal temperature of the power supply. To assist in reducing noise, there is also a "Case Fan Only" connector that can be connected to the internal 120mm case fan. This special connector regulates the voltage to change the speed of the fan based upon the same internal temperature sensor of the power supply.  TruePower 380W PSU removed from case. The case provides additional airflow across the internal components through an included single ball bearing 120mm case fan on the back panel. The use of the 120mm fan instead of standard 80mm fans is done to increase the amount of air that is pulled through the case without increasing the amount of noise generated by the fans. Antec also uses new rubberized mounting grommets instead of the standard plastic brackets. This helps reduce the amount of vibration transmitted into the case and will allow for fans of varying widths to be used which has been problematic in other Antec cases. There are mounting points for an additional 120mm case fan at the top portion of the hard drive frame. Motherboards up to the standard ATX size can be installed into the case. Installing a standard size motherboard can be a bit tricky due to the limited space inside of the case. The plethora of cables should be moved out of the primary compartment to allow as much access as possible. Conclusions Antec has definitely designed a winning case in the Sonata. Overall the case design is very stylish and does offer a lot of innovative features to try and help reduce the amount of noise generated by the case components. There are some additional things that they could do to help improve the noise levels even more. One thing that several companies have been adding to "silent" cases is acoustic matting to the panels. The addition of such matting around the power supply and side panels could really improve this already fine case. The greatest advantage to this case has to be the power supply that comes included with the case. Many cases these days are sold either lacking a power supply of come with very low quality power supplies. Antec has gone against this trend by including a very high quality power supply that typically sells for between $50-$75. Of course, most people don't purchase the computer case solely on the power supply, but it sure helps make the Sonata a great value. The one area that I would really like to see Antec improve the case is in the front panel. In particular, the plastic door panel is very fragile and unfortunately will likely break at the hinge if you have a tendency to swap out any of the external drive components frequently. This could also be remedied by Antec by shifting the drive panels to the right away from the door panel hinge so it wouldn't be necessary to remove the door for drive installations. On the whole, the Sonata is a very good case, especially when one considers the price that it sells for. Any individual looking to purchase a case for a computer system should take a close look at the Sonata. While not as large as other computer cases out there, the features included with the case make it a very attractive purchase. I would highly recommend this case for first time builders as well. It may be a bit trickier to install the components compared to a mid-tower or full-tower case, but the price is just hard to beat. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Important product disclaimer information about this About site. |
