Sonata III air intake

[Firejack]

Hi.
Great to see Antec here! I'm a bit of a fan. Got 3 Antec cases and 2 Antec PSU's

Last summer I bought an Antec Sonata III 500. After a few months I noticed the USB ports were getting clogged with dust. Thinking the air filter must need cleaning I was surprised to remove it and find it barely covered with dust.

When switched on I could only feel front air flow covering one of the side front vents. This led me to believe not much air was being sucked in the front. Further investigation found the rear expansion slot grill had a strong draft of air flowing into the case. Making me think not enough air was getting into the case and a vacuum was forming and sucking air in through any little hole possible, like the USB ports.

To improve the intake at the front I bought a 120mm Antec Tri-cool fan. At first I couldn't work out where it went as there was no obvious way to get the front cover off the case. Then I realised the fan mount was behind the 3.5'' HDD bays. Squeezing the new fan in between the drive bay and my graphics card I have found no improvement. A few week later there was already a build up of dust in the USB ports and again the front air filter was pretty much clear.

My theory is the new fan is too far back to draw in cool air through the front air filter and is just circulating around around the 3.5'' bays with no improvement to overall system cooling.

Has anyone worked out how to draw more air in through the front grill/air filter to better cool their Sonata III system?

Thanks.

[Frank Lee]

Hi.
Great to see Antec here! I'm a bit of a fan. Got 3 Antec cases and 2 Antec PSU's

Last summer I bought an Antec Sonata III 500. After a few months I noticed the USB ports were getting clogged with dust. Thinking the air filter must need cleaning I was surprised to remove it and find it barely covered with dust.

When switched on I could only feel front air flow covering one of the side front vents. This led me to believe not much air was being sucked in the front. Further investigation found the rear expansion slot grill had a strong draft of air flowing into the case. Making me think not enough air was getting into the case and a vacuum was forming and sucking air in through any little hole possible, like the USB ports.

To improve the intake at the front I bought a 120mm Antec Tri-cool fan. At first I couldn't work out where it went as there was no obvious way to get the front cover off the case. Then I realised the fan mount was behind the 3.5'' HDD bays. Squeezing the new fan in between the drive bay and my graphics card I have found no improvement. A few week later there was already a build up of dust in the USB ports and again the front air filter was pretty much clear.

My theory is the new fan is too far back to draw in cool air through the front air filter and is just circulating around around the 3.5'' bays with no improvement to overall system cooling.

Has anyone worked out how to draw more air in through the front grill/air filter to better cool their Sonata III system?

Thanks.

Hi Firejack,

Let me forward this comment to our Product Development guys to see if they've come up with anything to improve your airflow issue. However, we have come out with a Sonata Elite. This new model might have addressed some of the air flow issues you've mentioned.

Thanks,

Frank