Do you love or hate Antec Sonata?

[online]

Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be?
What's your experience with the case?

BTW, which model do you have among the three at their
website?

 

[Strontium]

$129, and no pictures/specs? Wierd.

-
online stood up, at show-n-tell, and said:

 

[Mr E]

$129, and no pictures/specs? Wierd.

-
online stood up, at show-n-tell, and said:


--
Strontium

"I thought I'd lost you, somewhere. But you were, never, really
ever there at all. And, I want to get free..."

I have the Sonata-UK
http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=08139

Mostly I like it. Good supply of fittings arrived with it. It looks good; it
is big enough.
I like the hard drive grommets/mountings. The fact that they are sideways is
not a problem.
Its appearance is spoiled by the beige floppy drive/DVD rom/zip drives.
The door has a very flimsy piece of plastic at the top hinge, which I
managed to damage on day 1,
so that was a definite negative.

It is quieter than my previous PIII machine, thanks to the large case fan
and grommets, in spite of
having a Northbridge fan, and P4 Intel fan. Not exactly silent, but I guess
I could improve that by
using big heatsinks and maybe adding accoustic padding.

It does look very good.

Take care,

John.

 

[jaster]

Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be?
What's your experience with the case?

BTW, which model do you have among the three at their
website?

SLK3700 is the same box only better and cheaper. Quiet depends on your
current cpu and hsf.

 

[John Smith]

I have a Zalman 7000 HS and a Zalman VGA heatsink in one so all I can hear
is the PSU and Case fan which are NOT silent by any means. I can hear a
constant gentle humming - thank goodness the Zalman got rid of the whine
from the Intel fan - but I am disappointed by the Sonata as the marketing
led me to belive it was a silent system.

If I was buying again I would buy a case of my choice - one that took 92mm
case fans like the Sonata - but buy the Zalman 400W PSU which is very quiet.

I am also amazed the Sonata case fan does not have a temperature
monitor/sensor so it can stop down. I might rig up a convertor to cut down
the voltage but I think the PSU fan is the loudest.

J.

 

[Robert]

Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be?
What's your experience with the case?

BTW, which model do you have among the three at their
website?

Here is a repost of a reply to a similar question some weeks ago which
may be of help -

It is a smallish, well made steel midi tower with a single fan Antec
TruePower 380w psu and a fitted 120mm exhaust fan and space for another
120mm fan on the HDD rack. The inlet vents are neat slots down each
side and underneath the lower front bezel. The 120mm front fan position
is a bit different on the Sonata - it is not attached to the front of
the chassis, it is on the interior side of the HDD cage. Whilst this
must reduce its efficiency as an intake fan, the idea appears to be that
it will draw air in through the front bezel filter, across the HDD(s)
and then through the fan to circulate around the case. I am not
planning on installing a front fan on my current setup because I do not
need to - if I did have a spare quiet 120mm fan lying around I would try
it just to see what impact it had on HDD temperatures.

The ventilation is good as far as my installation is concerned.
According to the AsusProbe monitoring software the P4 2.4 is running at
between 38C and 40C and the motherboard is stable at 28C at an ambient
21C which is a couple of degrees better than using my old Enlight case
with inlet and exhaust fans. (This is not running games - just number
crunching in Excel or multi-tasking using things like
PowerPoint/Photoshop).
The noise level is quite good - at the moment the main contributor of
noise is the standard Intel HSF - I am about to replace this with a
Zalman 7000 (the problem with is that I will undoubtedly then decide
that something else is too loud...

It has some interesting features like the temperature controlled fan
molex connectors, an HDD cage mounted at 90 degrees to the norm with
easy to remove trays and rubber HDD mounts which do cut down on the
transmission of vibration. These help cut down considerably on noise
but it is not silent, just quiet (and relatively cool) compared to many
of the multi-fan pieces of kit around.

Other items on the plus side as far as I am concerned are the simple
exterior with its unusual high gloss black finish and the fact that it
does not come with a set of noisy fans as standard. You may or may not
like the door over the drive bays (at least it saves hunting around for
drives with black bezels or separate covers). On the minus side it is a
bit tight for space when fitting some of the MB connectors and the drive
bays door is a bit flimsy, particularly when compared to the very solid
build of the rest of the case. I had been looking for a compact,
reasonably priced, noise attenuating case for some months and the Sonata
still seems to be the best around at this time.

You ask about the 3 models listed on the Antec site - they are specific
to different markets UK, EC and USA/rest of world?

 

[Robert]

SLK3700 is the same box only better and cheaper. Quiet depends on your
current cpu and hsf.

Not quite the same - the interior and the psu's are different:

Sonata - TruePower 380Watt ATX12V power supply with single fan design
for enhanced quietness. Front mounted USB & IEEE1394 (FireWire) ports 9
Drive Bays:
- 3 x 5.25" external drive bays
- 2 x 3.5" external drive bays
- 4 x 3.5" internal drive bays in individual trays

SLK3700AMB - 350W SmartPower ATX12V power supply, 2 Front USB ports
11 Drive Bays:
- External: 4x 5.25", 2x 3.5"
- Internal: 5x 3.5"

 

[Robert]

I have a Zalman 7000 HS and a Zalman VGA heatsink in one so all I can hear
is the PSU and Case fan which are NOT silent by any means. I can hear a
constant gentle humming - thank goodness the Zalman got rid of the whine
from the Intel fan - but I am disappointed by the Sonata as the marketing
led me to belive it was a silent system.

Agreed - it is not silent, just very quiet compared to my previous
systems.

If I was buying again I would buy a case of my choice - one that took 92mm
case fans like the Sonata - but buy the Zalman 400W PSU which is very quiet.

I am also amazed the Sonata case fan does not have a temperature
monitor/sensor so it can stop down. I might rig up a convertor to cut down
the voltage but I think the PSU fan is the loudest.

Have you tried connecting the case fan to the psu temperature controlled
'fan only' molex?

 

[online]

Not quite the same - the interior and the psu's are different:

Sonata - TruePower 380Watt ATX12V power supply with single fan design
for enhanced quietness. Front mounted USB & IEEE1394 (FireWire) ports 9

Is that USB 2.0? I seem to read someone saying it supports
USB 1.0 only.

I'm planning to get an Asus P4P800-Deluxe motherboard. Do
you know if I can connect a USB 2.0 port and a Firewire port
to the front panel?

 

[jaster]

Is that USB 2.0? I seem to read someone saying it supports
USB 1.0 only.

I'm planning to get an Asus P4P800-Deluxe motherboard. Do
you know if I can connect a USB 2.0 port and a Firewire port
to the front panel?

If you're asking about the SLK3700 I'm not sure but I think not. If it was
front USB 2.0, Antec would have stated that
somewhere but there is lots of wires for the USB.

 

[Robert]

If you're asking about the SLK3700 I'm not sure but I think not. If it was
front USB 2.0, Antec would have stated that
somewhere but there is lots of wires for the USB.

The front ports on the Sonata are supposed to be USB 2.0 however some
people have reported that they only get 1.0 connectivity - where this is
reported to Antec they apparently supply a fix without charge.