Date: August 1, 2007 - Author: Matt Serrano
The Sonata was Antec's flagship case for it's time and set the standard for the competition. It offered quiet performance with an affordable price tag for the budget market, which made it a favorite among system builders. Two generations later, Antec is using the Sonata III to improve on it's legacy and offer builders the same quality and bang for their buck.
Creating a quiet PC is something of an art. It takes time, effort, and usually a lot of money. Since not everyone is going want to spend money on a water cooling setup or take the time to maintain it all, air is really the only viable solution. But air's loud! Air doesn't cool as well, phase cooling or nothing at all! Well guess what, pony up or go home.
Antec is a company that has always impressed us in the past. Throughout recent years, the company has delivered products that have served enthusiasts time and time again. Notable mentions include the Lanboy, Aria, Nine Hundred, P180, and derivatives there of.
Antec's Sonata line was well received for its noise and relative cooling performance. Back when the first version was released, it offered a lot of features that were considered innovative at the time. Using insulators to reduce noise from vibration emanating from hard drives and fans, bundling fans with an integrated speed control and even using a filter to help keep dust and hair out was a simple idea that wasn't as adopted as it is today.
Going from every incarnation, I've noticed Antec has only made minor changes to every case in the line. Every version has been an evolution from the last, but nothing radical was ever done. The third model, which Antec has called the Sonata III, is their latest product that has replaced its older brothers.
Today, the Sonata line is made up of the Sonata II, Sonata II, and the lower end Solo.
Here are the case's specifications from Antec's website:
The case shipped in an ordinary brown box. The retail box is a simple design. There's not really much to say about it besides that it looks aesthetically clean and subdued. The back lists the case's specifications, and the sides list the product's features and included hardware, all in English, French, and Spanish.
The case is covered by a plastic wrap, housed between two Styrofoam blocks at the top and bottom. Taking it out is a chore since there's not a lot of room to get the proper leverage, but it's by no means impossible. Antec used the same piano black finish, which makes this case a huge finger print magnet.
If you have ever seen one of the first two Sonata cases, you'll immediately notice the differences here (if you haven't already looked at the box, that is). The middle section where the front access door was previously held has been completely redone. The door, which was a major source of complaints in the past, has been shafted in favor of a newer one. Antec seems to have used a different kind of plastic for the front, which gives the front of the Sonata III a smoother feel over the last version, and in my opinion, a bit sturdier build. The bottom portion has a vent for air to travel in.
The front with the door open looks exactly like the first two models, with the same three 5.25" drive bays and 3.5" bays. This time, the door only opens up about 225° degrees instead of actually hitting the case. The power and reset buttons have been replaced, and are shinier now. We like shiny things.
The cases' behind, we can see the seven expansion slots, 120mm fan, and IO plate. At the bottom right, you may notice an exhaust grill (the same one that was featured on the Sonata II). Oddly enough, even though the holes and mounting points are still included, the ventilation system is not.
Personally, I never liked the exhaust system because it used too much room, had to be taken off every time the case was open to get anything done, and proved to make the internal temperature hotter from the decreased airflow for the rest of the components. Even if someone wanted to use the part, Antec in fact doesn't even sell it separately, so it looks like Antec skimped out on the back, and just used leftover Sonata II parts.
The stands at the bottom are unfortunately glued on and prone to falling off if there is too much friction. One of the stands on my case was glued in the wrong spot, closer to the edge of the case (it was touching the corner, in fact). It wasn't wobbly when it was standing up, so I didn't think much about it.
Like any other retail case, you'll get a manual and the obligatory box of screws and motherboard standoffs. A pair of keys for the front door and access to the inside are included, as well as a sticker to put on the front door if you chose to do so. I've never been a fan of “keys" on computer cases, generally because most manufacturers tend to use the same locks, which defeats the purpose. It's better than nothing if you don't want someone stealing a few parts at a LAN party, but let's face it, if someone wanted to steal something they'd find a way in, or walk away with the tower).
The inside of the case is really the standard affair. For a mid-tower case, the Sonata III has a pretty roomy interior.
You're probably tired of my mentioning the older model by now, but if you've ever seen the insides of a Sonata case before, there's nothing new about the chassis worth mentioning. The line was quiet because of components (the fans and power supply) inside, and thankfully, Antec did give those an upgrade. Inside sits an EarthWatts 500 Watt power supply, which has a standard array of connectors: a 24-pin ATX connector, an 8-pin connector, a 4-pin connector, six Molex connectors, four SATA connectors, and two PCI Express connectors. The load is spanned across two +12v rails which have 17 amps of power.
The fan in the back of the case is the same type of TriCool fan found in other Antec cases. The fan has a switch for three speed settings: low, medium, and high.
Another 120mm fan can be mounted next to the hard drive bays. The hard drives should stay cool enough in most circumstances, but installing another fan isn't a terrible idea if you want to ensure proper airflow both in and out of the case. In some cases, the extra fan may get in the way, so you're experience may depend on your hardware.
There's nothing out of the ordinary with handling the install process. There are no special precautions you have to take or no glaring problems people should have to work around. Dealing with my fair share of cases that have certain problems with larger components or installing certain hardware, I'm grateful I didn't run into any problems this time around.
The washable air filter is taken out from the bottom by pinching the two ends.
Optical drive and 3.5" component installation is done with the same drive-rail system. The rails are located behind the drive bezels and must be screwed on (which brings a tear to my eye, just getting used to tool-less installations). After they're fastened on, it's just a simple push and connecting a few wires to get the job done.
The hard drives are secured by screwing them on the hard drive rail, connecting the wires and sliding them in. If you're not used to Antec's method of installation, the rails use the threads on the bottom of the drive, rather than the sides.
I'm not personally a fan of how the inside deals with wire management, because there are only a handful of places you can use to hide wires, most of them being near the drive bays. Zip ties can be used along the rail at the top to keep some wires from hanging freely in the case, but that's about it. Some wires can be routed to the bar and held into place with a zip tie, but you're going to have a hard time unless you get overly creative.
With the last generation, a lot of people rated the included power supply highly. Regrettably, after about a year or so, there were a flood of people complaining about failures and general problems. Hopefully, this won't happen this time around. The PSU is the highest watt power supply in Antec's EarthWatts lineup. The power supply has the ability to spin the fan up and down with the system is pulling a certain amount of power. When I first turned the computer on, I was shocked at how quiet it actually was.
Here's what it looks like with everything installed.
There was one negative I did come across. The hard drive and power LEDs are both blue, which made things confusing at first, especially since you can't just glance down and read a label (well, since there are none).
Testing was conducted with the TriCool fan at it's low, medium, and high settings. The system the case was tested with had the following specifications:
All temperatures were recorded using. The graphs explain the gains from using the case with the fans at the lowest, medium and highest speeds. To test the GPU, I used Counter Strike Source's stress test. For the CPU, I ran Prime 95 and used the In-place large FFT test.
It might have been a fluke with my system, but there seemed to be no noticeable difference in temperature with the three settings. The sound increase is a lot when comparing low and high, for example, so I wouldn't bother to change it from the default setting.
It's honestly hard to rate this product. It's not really bad for any reason, but it's hard to really recommend. Essentially, the only thing that's been updated is the front panel with an eSATA port (at the loss of Firewire), and the case's bundled power supply. Looking online, you can buy the Sonata II for roughly half the price, but it's no longer being sold by many retailers. I would say, if you need a beefier power supply (then again, 500 watts is plenty in most cases), getting the Sonata II or Solo makes more sense.
What made the case so quiet isn't unique to it anymore. Most enclosures in the same price range use similar tricks to try to bring the noise down. If the power supply wasn't a factor, there would be nothing special about this case.
Some improvements could have been made. I would have liked more of the features from Antec's P180 series to have been included, but the power supply is reason enough to be partially satisfied. With that said, I have to admit there's some elegance to the case's design. It's not intruding or flashy, but it functions. If you don't need much more than that, there's nothing wrong here.
My initial opinion of the case was fairly negative because it recycled so much of the previous case's design. I wanted to tell Antec they could have done better than throwing in a new power supply and using a new piece of plastic for the front. But, after I thought about it, it's not such a bad thing. Even though I, as well as plenty of other people will have no use for the included front eSATA access and would have liked to see Firewire there somewhere, it did help in future-proofing the design (as future proof as you can get with computers anyway). Doing something as simple as changing the front did enough to remedy the Sonata's aging design. So I'm torn. This product will do fine for some people, but others with more demanding hardware and a heavier wallet will want something more.
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