Customer Reviews

Antec Sonata Mid Tower Case (Black)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just built my first two computers and used these cases, the Antec Sonata, to do it. Having read lots of reviews and looked at lots of cases, I decided on the Sonata because of its power supply, solid steel construction, and relatively inconspicuous looks.

The included power supply is the Antec True 380S, the "silent" version of Antec's wildly popular True 380; the difference between the two is that the 380S only has a single rear-vented fan. It certainly came with plenty of power connectors, and is indeed very quiet. My only complaint is that it gave off an electrical burning smell for a few days, which I had been warned about on message boards; my Harman Kardon AV receiver gave off the same smell when it was new, so I'm chalking it up to large power supplies.

The case is very nicely laid out for optimal low front to high rear airflow. The front intake is cleverly concealed and has a changeable air filter. The large 120mm rear fan is also very silent when connected to the dedicated fan power supply. I went for further silence in the form of Sapphire's OEM version of the Radeon 9700, which comes with a giant Zalman ZM-80 heat pipe, and a Sapphire OEM version of the Radeon 9000 pro, which is also fanless. The dominant noise now is the retail boxed fan that came with my two Pentium processors; under heavy load (and I do a lot of CPU-intensive scientific computing), these fans can get noisy, as can both disk and optical drives, so be careful with those components, too, if you really want quiet. Putting the optical drives behind a closable door provides additional sound dampening.

The hardest part was getting it open the first time, at least for a novice. Turns out you just need to pull up on the plastic lever on the back of one sides of the case and everything you need is packed inside. I was blown away by how instructive the manual was; together with the manual from the motherboard (ASUS P4C800), I was able to build two computers without much other input.

Installation of the mother board is easy. The optical and floppies also fit in nicely on their cleverly packed plastic tracks. There are 3 5.25" external bays and two 3.25" external bays behind the drive cover. There's additional room for four well-spaced out hard drives. Here Antec took a left turn and modified the usual drive arrangement 90 degrees. Mounted on Antec's rails, my Seagate Serial ATA drives had to be installed backwards; in the other machine, the IBM/Hitachi Deskstars just barely squeaked in mounted forward.

In terms of looks, the piano black is a nice touch, and matches both the piano and my PSB Stratus mini-monitor speakers. Unfortunately, there are three glaring flaws in the beauty of this case. First is the cheap-looking plastic slider over the front panel ports (USB, firewire, analog audio); the lock is not as distracting as you might imagine, but I've never seen anyone lock their computer box, so I don't see the point. The second distraction is the way Antec has spelled their name in drilled holes across the tops of both sides of the case. This totally destroys the "generic" look, as well as allowing unfiltered air into the case and releasing more sound.

At the time I purchased the case, Amazon called it "MID TOWER CASE 380W 9BAY BLACK" and nothing more. This case is in fact the Antec Sonata. It has a low noise 120mm rear fan, front panel usb/firewire/sound, 4 rubber grommet rotated 3.5" drive bays to help minimize hard drive vibrations, a quiet 380W power supply and a front dust filter. It also has 2 blue lights on the front that give the case a cool blue glow in a dark room. My minor gripe about the case is the sides and top of the case are a glossy black that can easily can pick up fingerprints, but luckily the front of the case doesn't have a glossy finish. Overall, it's yet another high quality product from Antec.

My former case had four lighted 80mm case fans, a clear side panel, a front bezel with more lights, and a gumball machine quality power supply that came with it. I was tired of the flashy look and the power supply was beginning to fail, so I decided it was time for a new case.

I chose the Antec Sonata because I wanted a quieter computer. At its current price, this case is worth it for the power supply alone, which is a special quiet version of Antec's Truepower and isn't sold separately.

When I got the case, it was all that I had expected and then some.

The first thing I noticed was the looks. This is a very nice looking, understated yet elegant case. The paint is excellent, like a new car (you have to buff any fingerprints off in the same way). The drive cover gives a sleek look, and is removeable if you want quick access to your drives. I didn't like the front LED lights, but you can disable them by just not plugging in the ATX power connector that comes from the front. My front ports were USB 2.0, but if for some reason you get 1.1, Antec will replace them for free.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find a built in removable, washable air filter under the front intake. This was a great addition, as I usually add my own filter material in order to keep the case relatively dust free.

One aesthetic detail I did not like was the locks on the front and side, these are silver and detract from the look of the black case, while serving no purpose for most home users.

A bigger issue with the case are the "bullet holes" spelling antec on each side of the case. Here we have what is sold as a quiet PC, with huge holes punched in the side which will let out sound and let in dust. Presumably they are for venting, but I think the designers could have found a better way which did not detract from the otherwise sleek look of the case. I ended up covering them with some filter material, to still allow venting but prevent any dust from entering the case.

The case is easy to open, with two thumbscrews and a simple latch. Inside is 1 Antec 120mm fan, placed in exhaust position with rubber strips in place of screws to dampen the sound produced by the fan. When I first plugged in the fan I was disappointed by the sound of it, but after I plugged it into the "fan only" connectors on the powersupply, it was whisper quiet. The fan on the power supply is even quieter; I couldn't tell if it was on or not the first couple of times.

When it came to installing The drives, I was very happy with the clever design of the 5.25" bays. Each bay has an easily removable cover with two drive rails on the back. Just screw the drive rails to the drive and slide it in. The exterior 3.5" bays were fairly convenient as well: slide out a solid 2 bay face and then screw the drive into the top or bottom.

The interior 3.5" (hard drive) bays are unique. They are rotated 90 degrees, so that either the connector side or the front of the drive faces you as you are looking into the case. This is an unusual choice, but seems like a great idea for easy connection. These bays have slide out tabs, which are a great idea as well. They also have rubber washers on each screw hole, to reduce the vibration produced by the drives. I found myself very frustrated with the internal bays at first. The problem is that the standard cables shipped with most IDE hard drives are 18 inches long. It was not possible to connect two IDE drives (one master, one slave) to one slot on my motherboard. I ended up having to separate the drives.

A simple solution would be to buy longer cables, but the average user is just going to want to use the cable that came with their hard drive. This probably doesn't apply to SATA drives either.

A lot of users think the other side of the case should open, but really there is no need for that with the tool free external drive insertion and rotated internal bays. A removeable motherboard tray would also have been nice, but would have meant a higher price, and isn't that big of an issue to me.

Once I got it set up, everything was quiet except for the fan on my processor, which was formerly the quietest fan in the case. I am going to replace that, and should have a whisper quiet PC as soon as I do.

An added bonus is that once I added an additional 120mm fan to the system, I dropped my average CPU temperature by about 8 degrees Celsius, which is an amazing change.

Overall this is a great case that does a lot of things right, but I just can't give it 5 stars due mostly to the bullet holes on the side and the rotated drive bays. Neither of these is a deal breaker, and I would highly recommend this case to anyone who wants a quieter PC.

Great Case - very quiet(according to the advert on the box - 80% quieter), super overall quality construction.
In contrast to the reviews below about installing the hardrives at 90 degrees being a pain, to the contrary it makes it much easier, place the back of the drive facing out, which is how i imagine the case was designed to work. The drives slip right in and you attach the cables wtih easy access - a superior setup to the conventional way.
The minor points, which are minor compared to the impressions that the case makes as a whole, is that the front door, which swings open, is cheaply hinged to the case, just requires a bit of care. The work area is a bit tight, and the instruction manual is lacking in a few areas. Also if you decide to place a 2nd 120mm fan towards the front of the case, you will need to have a very-short handled phillips screwdriver. In 'case' you dont read the manual carefully the guiderails are stored behind the 5.25' drive front covers, and the 3.5" hardrive rails use the funny shaped screws to attach the drives to the drive holders (using a rubber grommet for vibrational cushening).
Having built numerous systems in cheaper cases over the years, this one is miles better.

I built a computer for my dad with this case. He asked me to "[b]uild the computer you'd build for yourself if you didn't care about cost."

Now I'm jealous and considering a Sonata case for myself. Amazon's price is excellent, especially since the case includes a quieter version of Antec's stable and reliable 380 watt power supply.

This case runs quiet AND cool with the stock 120mm case fan, stock Intel CPU fan and the P/S fan. (2.4P4/Asus/Lite-On CDRW-DVD/80gig Maxtor)

The big, slow case fan, quiet P/S, vibration-damping rubber fan mounts (VERY nice, extras included for a second fan), rubber grommet HD mounts, heavy steel and front door all combine to hold noise down.

The case is well built, the project went together easily, room for a full-size ATX board, no sharp edges = no cuts. Typical Antec quality. Lots of nuts 'n bolts and hardware for whatever configuration you have in mind. Amazing manual, read it. (See Amazon's link to the manual.) Did I mention it's quiet?

I suggest removing the flimsy front-door during assembly to avoid breaking it, it snaps out easily (consult manual) and you can replace it when you're done (or not). I saw no reason for the glaring headlights, so I left 'em unplugged.

But the reason I'm writing this review is to tell about Antec's superb customer service. I've experienced it before and I decided to give 'em a chance to make me happy again. As before, Antec came through with flying colors.

Not satisfied with the slow front USB ports (they only ran at USB 1.1 speeds) I called Antec's Customer Care and grumbled. (The toll-free number is on the front page of the manual - which Amazon has thoughtfully provided a link to, or at Antec's website, use the Tech Support #, ask for Customer Care.)

With NO waiting I reached Tiffany, a gal with a generous heart and a sense of humor, who immediately offered to send me the fix for free (it brings the front USB ports up to USB 2.0). On a roll, I mentioned the lack of a case-speaker and she said she'd include that as well. Still free. (OK, I'm a geek. The case works fine without the fifty-cent 2-inch speaker, but I like to hear the beeps that tell me the computer POSTed correctly - or not, and there are modern motherboards that actually speak and tell you what the problem is if they can't boot - that feature won't work if there's no case speaker.)

Heart filled with joy, I pushed the envelope and tried for more, but when I commented about the tacky front-port cover (the cheesy chrome-plated plastic gizmo that covers the audio/USB/Firewire ports) Tiffany laughed and suggested I paint it black (which I just might do). BTW, sparingly applied WD-40 makes the cover work a little easier if yours is tight.

Bottom line, if you buy this case you get an excellent case AND great customer service. And a tough-to-beat price at Amazon w/ FREE shipping and NO TAX in most states!

I LOVE this case. I just recently had added a 3rd HD in it an it was a snap. Love how the HD's all have thier own slide in/out trays. Even the CD rom drives have rails to slide in and out. The case is very quiet too. The case i hade before this one sounded like a vaccum cleaner compared to this one. The power supply comes with plenty of plugs for all your HD's and any other components you want to add. The case also looks great with it's piano black finish. There is a dust catching screen in the front of the case too. That is a nice touch.

Downside:
- space inside the case is alittle snug. So you will need to plan out your cabling strategy.
- no motherboard slide out tray. Not a BIG deal for me as i don't plan to swap out my mobo for a while. bit it would have been nice.

Overall:
If i have to build another computer, i would get another one of these. It is great.

The Sonata is a quiet case with many nice features as other
reviewers have pointed out.

I just want to point out that although this case is quiet,
it is NOT silent. I can still hear the PSU fan at midnight (I
didn't connect the Antec case fan that come with the case). The CPU fan I have is a Zalman fan running @1330 RPM. The CPU fan is quieter than the Antec PSU fan, so the noise is mainly from the Antec case (I have no other fans in my system). Given that Zalman rates its fan at 20db, I think the Antec's rating of 20.4 dB for its case is not exactly right.

Also, be careful if you have more than 2 IDE drivers with regular IDE cables. The layout of the case makes the it impossible for me to connect the CDROM and the third HD drive at the same time: the
cable is too short! I guess if you have SATA drivers, it won't
be a problem.

Overall, I would recomment this case. But I give it a 4 star
rating due to the two issues above.

What I like:

- Antec 380 True Power PS
- Piano Black Finish
- Front USB 2.0, Firewire and audio Jack
- relatively quiet
- easy hardware install than most cases
- Big and quiet 120mm fan

What I dislike:

- No pull out motherboard tray
- Right side panel cannot be open
- placement of the 2nd fan (in the middle of the case) make it useless as a front intake fan

Overall I like the case as it was designed to have quiet operation. Although for ppl who like to tinker with their computers often, or those who want to overclock, the Sonata is not for them. Sonata is more about style and tranquility.

This is a terrific case. It's very attractive and well-constructed. The power supply offers adequate power-- 380 Watts-- for all but the most demanding users. The power supply and case fan are very quiet. The case offers front-panel USB 2.0 and FireWire connections as well as jacks for headphones and a microphone. The "90 degree" internal hard drive mounts are a little unusual but pose no insurmountable problems. The blue LEDs flanking the front panel door are extremely bright (no less bright than a good LED flashlight) but won't be distracting if your work space is far enough to the left or right of the case. There is a door (removable) to access the external drives (floppy plus 5.25" devices like CD-ROMS) that takes a little getting used to, but contribute to the low sound level and fine appearance of this case. I recommend it highly!

this is in fact the Antec Sonata case. It has the usual 3 exposed 5.25" bays plus the floppy and has front accessable connections for Firewire and USB. The drives are housed on special rubberized trays that install at right angles to the 5.25" bays. This makes the installation of a 4-drive RAID array ideal. The fan housings handle 120mm - with the rear unit installed. The air flow in this unit is very good. The bottom line is that most MDB+CPU+Disk assembly you put in this case will run noticibly quieter in this case than most any other system. This is a closed box with heavy construction and not a lot of options for heavy case modders - though the front blue lighting is a nice touch. This case is for users who cherish a solid, quiet pltform with room for expansion.