Antec Sonata / 120mm fan cases

[shredisn@tdead]

Well all that info allays any worries I had. The link Austin posted to the review at Virtual-Hideout.net had exactly the info that I needed too, definintely worth checking out.

Looks like I'll be placing an order soonish - gotta have something to play with over Xmas!

Now need to decide what goodies I'm going to put in it! I think the Epox EP-4PDA2+ Deluxe Intel 865PE (Rev 2.00) is the mobo front runner, plus a 2.8 P4C with some PC4000.

The PIII box this is replacing has got ancient SCSI drives in it too, wonder how much I'll get on eBay for them...

[darkside]

Have you found somewhere to order it from?

If you are in the UK, www.simply.co.uk where the cheapest by quite a bit when I got mine although the site was hard to use - you need to search for sonata...

[shredisn@tdead]

Haven't really been searching that much - but their price is good - £6 cheaper than overclock (& -ers) .co.uk. Plus £2.50 for shipping - don't mind waiting a couple of days more for that!

Sourcing from different websites gets complex once you factor in shipping - surely someone's written a site where you just give it a shopping basket and goes and works out the cheapest option?!! Reckon it'd be a popular site too, if it worked right.

[ed^chigliak]

I have the Antec Sonata case. Nice enough I suppose and with a good power supply but I was expecting less noise from the 120mm fan. It isn't silent by any stretch of the imagination and my previous case with 2 No. 80mm Panaflow fans was much quieter. Note that the hard drives mount sideways so with IDE to SATA convertors on your drives is not possible to fit the side panel.

[floppybootstomp]

I think the Sonata case is wicked, apart from the non-removable side panel & motherboard tray. The hard disks slot in sideways, which is odd.

Almost wish I'd gone for them instead of my Lian Li PC61's. Almost.

[Richie]

I have had a Sonata case as my server box for about 3-4 months and cant fault it.

Ok the lack of MB tray may be a pain but how often do you replace the MB ??


It is almst comepletely silent. It runs 24/7 (well it would if M$ didnt crash occasionally every 7-10 days) in my bedroom and the only thing you can hear is a low and very quiet "rumble" when everything else is off. Unless you were pretty anal then this is virtually silence.


Build quality is 10/10.



I have an XP2500+ Barton installed running 3200+ speeds and it sticks around the 48-54oC mark. This is with a single case fan and a Zalman flower with 80mm fan running at 1300RPM.



p.s. The sideways drive mounting is perfect for hiding all thos wires and making a neat case -



"mid-build" so ignore the wires at the top. I also have a 4th HDD in above the other 3 so the wires there are totally hidden

[ed^chigliak]

Just for the record I have replaced the 120mm Antec fan that came with the case with Noiseblocker SX2 Ultra Silent Fan 120x120x25mm which included a rotary speed controller. Purchased from ttp://www.whispertec.com/Fan120.html
with postage costing 88p I opted for the kit. Fiddly job to remove and re-used the existing rubber/latex fan mounts. Required the use of pincer pliers to pull them through the fan holes and a small screw driver to manipulate the lugs into the case holes so you can pull them out.

With the speed controller set to max I would say my Sonata sounds half as loud as before. I have nothing to measure db's with so just my impression. Not really any need to reduce the fan speed since it is now acceptable to me running on max.

I will be keeping my eye on the case temp and I have to say it's not looking too good at the moment with an increase of 5-6 deg C idle. It would be a real shame if I have to back down from the 200 FSB x 10.5 @ 1.65v which is a fairly conservative overclock for a 2500+ barton.

Temps idle 30/50
Temps folding 29/49




I'll just keep my eye on things for a while. It may work out to be OK.

EDIT> OK guys my mistake I was folding all along... case temps coming down