Antec is well known for high quality cases that both perform and look great. This is evident in cases like their flagship Antec P182 that we’ve recently reviewed. They also has a line of cases called “Sonata” that are known for being extremely quiet in a computing environment. Ever since the first Sonata, Antec had set the bar for a quiet case that looked great. Now that we’re up to the third iteration of the Sonata line, it’s getting more difficult to tweak something nearly perfect. In fact, the Sonata III, which we’re reviewing today, has a striking resemblance to the Sonata II, which we’ve reviewed in the past.
In many ways, the Sonata III seems to be more of a tweaked version of the Sonata II than a complete imagination. Why mess with something that works? But are these tweaks really an improvement or just cosmetic changes to sell a few more cases? Today, we’re going to find out if Antec continues with the “Quiet Computing” legacy with the Sonata III.
Specifications
- 9 drive bays – 3 x 5.25” external, 2 x 3.5” external, 4 x 3.5” internal
- Earthwatts 500 Watt power supply (80 PLUS® Certified)
- 1 rear 120mm TricoolTM fan (standard) with 3-speed control
- 1 optional front 120mm case fan
- 0.8mm cold rolled steel case
- Supports motherboards up to Standard ATX
- Dimensions: 16.7”H x 18.2”D x 8.1’W
- Net Weight: 25.5lbs
The Sonata III comes with a high quality 500 Watt Earthwatts Plus 80 power supply, which adds to the net weight of the 0.8 mm rolled steel case, just in case you’re wondering why it’s so heavy. There is no option to purchase this case without the power supply.
The combination is great for system builders setting up machines for offices that require a large number of machines and low noise, or for enthusiasts seeking a second system for all the mediocre web surfing and spreadsheets.
Features
- Front mounted USB, eSATA, HDA & AC’97 Audio In/Out ports
- Tool-less side panel access for fast and easy access
- Internal drive bays in individual trays with silicone grommets to absorb hard drive vibrations
- Side rails and individual drive trays allow easy installation of all drives.
- Metal double hinge door allows the door to open up to 225°
- Built-in washable air filter keeps harmful dust out of the case
- Piano black finish
On paper, the specifications and features are very similar to the Sonata II. The only major difference I can see so far is the slight increase in power to a 500W Earthwatts power supply, as well as two fewere places to mount fans. The question is, will this hurt the case’s performance in any way? Let’s find out!
First Impressions
Removing the case from the packaging revealed a very attractive, sleek black (or piano black as advertised) and simple looking case. One can definitely tell that it is a descendent of the Sonata II. The double-hinged front door opens up to 225° to reveal the 3 – 5.25” drive bays, power and reset buttons. The door also contains a lock to keep out unwanted guests from getting into your computer.
Just below that are the high definition / AC’97 audio connections, 2 USB ports, an eSATA port, and 2 blue LEDS that makeup the power and HDD activity indicators. It appears that the eSATA port has replaced the firewire port. A logical move from ANTEC as more eSATA drives hit the market.
Just below the connectors are air intake ports that allow cool air to be drawn into the case. As with the Sonata II, there is a removable and washable dust filter to keep the inside of your case and components free of dust.
Moving to the side of the case, we find a similar, if not the same, latching and locking mechanism for the side panel, making this system well suited to public areas where tampering with the system is not an option.
One minor little quibble I had dealt with the rubber sticky feet that were cheaply stuck onto the bottom. As I slid the case around the feet kept popping off. And if you’re like me, I’m always sliding and re-positioning my case on my desk or floor. Feet that are better secured to the case would do the trick. A simple screw mechanism and washer would have taken care of this.
What’s In The Box?
Upon opening up the case, I found the usual bag of goodies. This included:
- Motherboard standoffs and miscellaneous screws
- A set of 2 keys for locks on the front and side panel of the case
- Hard drive rails
- Optical drive rails
- Power cord
- Cable strap
So overall, no real extras that make us say “Wow” or anything. The case badge isn’t stuck to the case, which gives system builders a chance to put their own mark on their creations instead.
Taking a Look Inside…
To gain access inside of the case, I removed the 2 thumbscrews located on the rear and used the nifty latch mechanism (same as the Sonata II) to open up the side panel. Again, there was a lock to prevent prying hands from getting to the guts of your computer. Once removed, we noticed a near identical setup to the Sonata II. One thing that was missing was the Chassis Air Duct that redirects hot air from the CPU and video cards out of the case. Maybe ANTEC determined that this wasn’t really as effective as it seemed it would be. Antec made a similar move when they removed the VGA ducting system from their P180 series cases so I guess this might be true.
More similarities with the Sonata II included a 120mm rear mounted Antec Tri-coolTM fan. This fan has 3 speed settings that you can set depending on noise and heat requirements. There is also only 1 other place to mount a fan and that is on the internal hard drive bay. With only 1 additional spot to mount a 120mm fan, this may limit the cooling capabilities of the case. However, it appears that ANTEC wants to keep the case quiet (by only allowing 2 fans) since that is the main purpose of this case. They even go as far as recommending against a front case fan, except if you use their own ANTEC 120mm Tri-coolTM fan.
The other difference that I noticed was the change from a 450W power supply to a 500W Earthwatts power supply. Some may argue that 500W is barely sufficient for today’s market, but for some of us that don’t have the power hungry video cards, and multiple hard drives, 500W is more than suitable for a mid-range setup. More details on this power supply can be found here.
System Setup
In order to simulate a mid-range system suitable for this case, we put together the following components:
- Intel Quad Core Q6600 processor
- Foxconn P9657AA motherboard
- Patriot 2 x 1GB PC-6400 DDR Ram
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA300 hard drive
- Leadtek WinFast PX7800 GTX TDH 256MB Videocard with Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 cooler
- LiteOn 20X DVD+/-RW SATA Drive
With Quad Core processors becoming more common-place, its inclusion was not a mistake. This should also help us figure out if the case is capable of handling increased temperatures, while keeping to its quiet computing roots. Our operating system of choice was Windows XP SP2.
Installation and Setup
The orientation of the hard drive bays allows for a much tidier installation of your system. The power and SATA cables were routed in behind the cage and were kept out of the way of the motherboard.
Securing the hard drive to the rail and sliding it into the bay is done easily. In my opinion, this design is far superior to other cases that orient the HD connections to the rear of the case. It also serves to keep the cables out of the interior of the case and provides for more room to allow longer expansion cards like audio and graphics cards, to co-exist.
Next up is the optical drive. With finger holes on the front 5.25” bays, removing the cover again proved very simple – just unclip and remove. Mounted on the rear of the cover are the mounting rails for the drive. Simply screw them into the optical drive with the provided screws and slide the drive into place. Unfortunately, there only seems to be one set of these in the box, so if you need more of them, to mount a second optical drive, you’ll need to call up Antec to get some more. However, most people install only one optical drive, so we won’t hold that against them.
With the motherboard in place, installing all of the front panel connectors proved to be a cinch. One particular detail that I would like to mention are the connectors for the HDA and AC’97 audio connectors. With other cases, each wire is on it’s own mini connector. With the Sonata III, the connector came pre-assembled, just plug it in and your ready to go, no need to figure out which connector goes on which pin.
With all of our components in place, we worked on putting together all of the power connections. The Earthwatts power supply came with more than enough connectors to satisfy this system and enough length to route the cables neatly to its appropriate component. The built-in holes on the case allowed routing of all cabling to be tucked in behind so as to not impede any airflow. It also allows for a cleaner looking installation.
Using our included cable strap, all of the power cables were secured to the support bar. This will prevent them from dangling down into the case making for a sloppy installation and affecting air flow. With everything nicely secured inside the case, we were ready to close it up and start testing this rig.
Test Setup
Idle conditions were set with Windows XP SP2. I booted the system and let it idle for 30 minutes before taking noise and temperature readings. Noise readings were taken with a sound meter 6” from the front, left, right, and rear of the case. Temperature readings were taken using Core Temp v0.97 with ambient room temperatures at a comfortable 21°C. The loaded conditions were established using a looping of 3Dmark2006 demo. Let’s see how this system fared.
Noise Levels:
With only 1-120mm case fan, 1-80mm PSU fan, CPU and videocard fan, I would expect this case to be “whisper quiet”.
Specification for their 120mm Tri-coolTM fan includes:
- High speed: 2000RPM, 79CFM flow, 30dBA
- Medium Speed: 1600 RPM, 56 CFM flow, 28 dBA
- Low Speed: 1200 RPM, 39CFM, 25 dBA
I started my testing by setting the fan on the low speed. Firing up the case, I was amazed by how quiet this case sounded. I could hardly tell that it was even on. Next I tried medium speed, which was a little bit louder and finally high speed, which was definitely the most noticeable of the settings.
Personally, I preferred the silence of the low speed setting. However, will setting it on the lowest speed accompanied by the lowest airflow greatly affect case and system temperatures? Let’s find out.
Temperature Levels
Since we only had 1-120mm case fan, I was a little concerned with what I was going to get with case and CPU temperatures. There wasn’t even a duct on the side of the case that allowed the CPU fan to exhaust air directly out of the case, common amongst many computer cases.
The only places for the air to escape are the 2 section of slots on the rear of the case – 1 for the 120mm fan and 1 beside the expansion slots.
Let’s see how well I roasted the system:
Looking at the data collected, it is apparent that case temperatures under load benefited from the higher fan speed settings. At idle, medium and high fan speeds didn’t seem to make a big difference, while at the low fan speed, we saw a slight increase in temperature.
Overall, I was surprised to see how well the case kept the temperatures reasonable with just the one large 120mm fan. One could expect to have seen slightly lower temperatures with an additional 120mm fan intake fan mounted near the hard drive bays. This extra fan would blow air directly on peripherals in the expansion slots, which would benefit those that have multiple hard drives and or multiple expansion cards like video cards, for example. The fan could be set to low while providing this additional air flow, which would have a negligible affect on noise.
Final Thoughts
There is no mistake that ANTEC made only slight changes to the Sonata III, but the tweaks here and there were definitely improvements. In my opinion, they improved the overall look of the case with a freshened front bezel. The “why fix it when it’s not broken” approach taken from ANTEC allowed them to produce a case that takes all of the great features of the Sonata II and incorporate them into the Sonata III.
The only gripe I have is why ANTEC did not include another Tri-coolTM rear case fan? For those that may have an SLI setup, multiple hard drives, or are into overclocking, an additional Tri-coolTM fan would help to maintain lower internal case temperatures and assist with controlling component temperatures as well. At the same time though, folks running such high end systems will likely not care about complete silence and will opt for thermal performance over the quiet computing offered by this case.
Overall, ANTEC has once again created a winner and a worthy successor to the Sonata II. I would recommend this case to any mainstream user that is looking for style, quiet performance, and quality construction.
Pros
- Very quiet case when fan is set on low speed setting
- Features such as rubber inserts on hard drive rails help control noise levels
- Earthwatts 500W power supply included
- Hard drives that mount perpendicular to the length of the case
- Only minor changes made from the Sonata II
- Front eSATA port
- Well thought out cable management
Cons
- Only 1-120mm case fan included
- Only 1 additional 120mm case fan slot available
- Poorly attached rubber feet
- Case is not suitable for those that require extreme case cooling.
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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