Product Name: Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case
Date: December 1, 2003
Author: Rbreb13
Provided By: None
Page: 1 of 1
 

Today I will be reviewing the Antec Sonata Mid Tower case. I was immediately impressed when I took the case out of the box. The sheer weight told me that this was a solidly built case. But the thing that took my breath away was the absolute beauty of the paint job. The fit and finish of this case is amazing. The Piano Black paint is buffed to a very high sheen (you can actually see your reflection). I tried to get a picture of this but it wasn't to be. The pictures of it really don't do it justice. It has the look and feel of an automotive quality paint job.

The packaging was also very good. A nicely made double strength corrugated cardboard with extra thick Styrofoam inserts. Antec certainly doesn't want any problems from shipping companies and we all know how they can be.

Click here for the Antec site specifications and see the table below.

As we can see from the specifications it has nearly all the amenities required by today's users. These include 2 front USB ports, a Firewire port, and audio jacks (headphone and microphone). The TruePower 380 Watt PSU supplied with this case is a specially made one for quietness. It uses a single 80mm fan design instead of the normal 2-3 fan setup. Upon my inspection and comparison to some other Antec PSU's I have, it does appear that they beefed up the fan blades some to move a little more heat and still remain quiet. The PSU that came with this case is also SATA ready and sports 2 available connectors.

The case also uses 120mm fans (1 included as an exhaust) to move lots of air at low rpm's to help quiet your computing experience. There is a place to mount an additional 120mm fan to the hard drive cage if you want more airflow. This is a somewhat weird place for it but it looks like it should work well enough. (I will test this in a future article) This front intake also sucks air directly across the hard drive cage to aid in cooling the drives. With the speeds of hard drives increasing these days (10,000 rpm SATA) this is a nice feature. Antec also mounts the fans with rubber pin type things instead of screws that will add to the quietness from reducing vibration. It also has an easily removable air filter mounted in the front of the case.

The removable hard drive trays are fitted with rubber grommets where the drives mount to help eliminate vibration noises. I will cover more of this in my next article, coming soon.
Now a few pics!

 

Back view:

Inside view:

Hard drive bays (note the rubber mounting grommets):

Drive trays:

Power supply (Note the SATA Ready Label):

Fan filter:

Front hookups:

Conclusion:
This is an extremely well put together case, the fit is perfect everywhere that I could see. The paint job is near perfect with a slight hint of orange peel and the packaging was great. The added amenities make this a superb Mid Tower case. I'm not to sure how the sideways drive enclosures are going to work out but we will see. The way they are situated looks like the routing of cables will be much easier than with the regular type of mounts. I couldn't find any sharp edges anywhere. The manual is one of the most extensive I've ever seen for a case.

The only thing I really didn't like was the Antec Logo on the sides made with many holes. I suppose this will help with heat removal as they are near the top of the case, but it just looks weird to me. Also at just under $100.00 excluding shipping this case is rather expensive compared to other Mid Tower's.
But you get an Antec TruePower PSU included in the deal. So figure $50 for the PSU and $50 for the case and it is a pretty good deal.
 

I will be putting all these theories and assumptions to the test in a few weeks when I transfer my current workstation to this case. At present I have a Full Tower and it will be interesting to see if everything will fit and still maintain a reasonable temperature.
Check out my article on "The Quest for Quiet with Air Cooling".