The Antec Sonata is the "perfect girl" case - beautiful on the outside and well-built inside as well.

Exterior Finish: Beautiful, glossy black. Better finish than most cars. The case does show fingerprints, so keep a cloth (and a bottle of carnauba wax) handy when working with the case. Bring this puppy to a LAN party and it will stand out amongst all the garish neon-glowing plexiglass monsters like a Tuxedoed James Bond at a Las Vegas casino - all class and style. Other reviewers disliked the "Antec" drilled in the side of the case; I don't mind it so much, though it does defeat the air filter somewhat.

Exterior Features: Locking side door with (but only on one side - the other side does not open). The door holds itself closed for normal operation, but you can use the included thumbscrews for a more permanent closure. Exterior drive-bay cover (easily removed if you prefer). Easily removeable air intake filter is a nice touch, as are the large rubber feet. The blue LED's on the front are easily disabled if you want the all-black look.

Interior Finish: Rounded edges on all metal. Braid- or shrink-tube-wrapped cables (not just dangly wires). Rear slot covers are designed so that each screw not only holds down its own backplate, but overlaps the next one over. Don't know if this is by design, but it sure does keep the cards in place. Downside is that you must remove two screws to get one backplate free. The included back panel I/O faceplate - which unfortunately probably won't work with most motherboards - is faced with steel backing, making for a very strong plate. Most MB's come with the more flimsy thin silver metal faceplates.

Interior Features: This is where you find that the pretty girl also has a great personality. :-) The most obvious thing about the case is that the internal bays are mounted sideways, so that the back side of your drives will be facing right at you when you open the case. No more peering at odd angles to determine if that tiny jumper is set for Master or Slave. You'll want to make clean bends in your ribbon cables so they don't poof out of the case, but you should carefully route cables anyway to improve cooling. Master the art of 45-degree switchback bends in 80-wire ribbon and clean-airflow routing, and your CPU will thank you.

The second thing you'll probably notice is the heeyuge fan at the back of the case. That 120mm fan will move the same air as an 80mm fan, but at a slower speed, thereby reducing noise. And reducing noise is what this case is all about. Heck, the box says "Hear the Silence" on it. The manual (very well written) suggests that you do NOT purchase an intake fan unless your machine will be subject to hard use. Again, they are trying to keep things as quiet as possible.

Related to noise abatement, the power supply - an Antec TruePower 380, which runs ~$60 by itself - is wired to sense the temperature of incoming air (sucked up right over the CPU) and adjust fan speeds accordingly. It even has a couple of "fan only" power cords which will regulate your case fans along with the PS fan. The included rear fan is an obvious choice for this treatment, even if your MB will control fan speed (the rear fan doesn't have the tiny 3-wire connector for a MB anyway). The PS includes an external (out the back of the case) 4-pin power connector, for external drives I guess.

All internal 3.5" bays have drive trays insulated with rubber grommets. You use special screws to attach your drive to the tray through the bottom. Don't go looking for holes in the side of the tray like you're used to - they aren't there. I had never noticed the mounting holes in the bottom of hard drives before, but what do you know...

The front panel connections are all bundled nicely, though I wish motherboards and cases would always use standard pinouts. My Abit motherboard, sadly, doesn't use the Intel standard audio pinout, so I had to hand-connect all the tiny little single-pin connectors. Add to that the fact that what the case calls "MIC", the Abit calls "VCC". The case's "MIC-BIAS" goes into the MB's "MIC" pin. Ditto for the Firewire connectors - had to connect them by hand. Hate doing that.

As another reviewer mentioned, there is no removeable MB tray, and as I said the right side of the case is not removeable. So far I haven't really cared, but if a MB tray is important to you, keep this in mind.

Conclusion: A great case and an excellent buy. If you want a quiet, classy-looking case with innovative convenience features, look no further.

Recommended:
Yes