Ahhh...the blessed silence...
Written: Aug 26 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quiet, good-looking case. Front panel for easy access, well-designed, sexy.
Cons: Some parts difficult to remove/replace, front panel LEDs may be an annoyance.
The Bottom Line: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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| gadlor's Full Review: Antec LifeStyle Sonata ATX Mid-Tower Case |
I am somewhere far left of computer nerd, I confess. I have dreams of dual processor systems and remakes of the Mechwarrior 2 computer game, splayed across a 50 inch LCD screen in all its giant-robot-combat glory (If you've never played this game, you have missed out on one of the finer points of life). I am also a guitar hack and a music freak, so sound is pretty important to me computer-wise. For a good few years, after building my first machine, I housed in a noisy case affectionately known as The Penguin. The Penguin was noisy - extremely so, due to the aftermarket 120mm fan I plopped in a dremelled blowhole in the top of the case. It also was pretty shoddily put together, but very large.
Both The Penguin and the Sonata case came from Antec, but they are leagues apart. The Penguin was beige, with large, unattractive buttons, ill-fitting parts, with difficult to remove side panels, front panels, and various other parts. The Sonata case is significantly smaller, but is very well constructed. The case is a shiny black (the finish resembles one you'd find on a piano) with two thumbscrews securing the side panel. The parts fit together well. I am never nervous that I will break something when working with it because the pieces require no forcing. It also has significantly reduced the noise-factor in my room, despite the fact that I am forced to run it with an alternate power supply at the moment (I'll get to that later).
The Antec Sonata case is a mid-sized tower, but it still has plenty of space for CD drives, hard drives, and all assorted manner of cables to be shoved inside of it. It has three external 5.25 slots (the kind you'd use for a CD drive, DVD drive, or burner) and two external 3.5 slots (floppy drives, Zip drives). The remaining four slots are internal 3.5, with special hard drive cages to help eliminate vibration and thus noise. The installation of said hard drives and CD drives is pretty simple - the case comes with rails that you install on the side of the 5.25 drives. They just slide into place. Likewise, after mounting the hard drives on the cages, they pop back into place easily.
Installation of the motherboard may prove to be a bit more time-consuming, but there's really no way to make it super-easy. I suppose the case could've come with a motherboard tray, but I'm thinking the size may have prevented that. Working in a slightly smaller case dictates you must have some steady fingers to attach various cables to the motherboard, but I found no overwhelming difficulty. It was more or less the same as working with any other case.
The Sonata has a front panel that conceals the drives from view until you open it. It's a pretty handy way to hide my ugly biege drives and also not accidentally hit the reset button. I don't think it will ever really prove to be an annoyance. On the front panel there are also two USB ports, a microphone port, a headphone port, and a Firewire port, all nicely concealed by a silver rolly-thingy (hard to describe, really) flanked by two very bright blue LEDs. You can connect them by a power cable to your power supply - I opted not to after viewing them once. They have a tendency to light my bedroom up at night.
The only problem so far with these front-panel thingamabobbers seems to be that the case doesn't exactly come with the same front USB connectors that the manual talks about. I have had no luck in connecting front-panel USB. It is not too big of a deal, but it is still a minor annoyance.
The power supply that this case is supplied with is an Antec Truepower 380S. It's a 380-watt (makes sense) equipped with plenty of Molex connectors for whatever your insane power needs such as the newest video cards. I certainly do not possess such needs - I have a Geforce 3. It also has new-fangled SATA power connectors for the new-ish SATA drives that are now out. It has special Molex connectors for fans, so that the the power supply can adjust fan speed lower and higher based on temperature, to help make the thing less noisy. Now I shall metion why I am not currently using this power supply. When I originally installed all my old components into the new power supply, the power supply absolutely refused to turn on. No power to the motherboard at all. Then it sparked and smoked. So that one went back to Antec. Despite the frustration of having a really cool case and not being able to use it, the support people were extra nice and super helpful. I have yet to get back the power supply as of yet.
Now for cooling. Oddly enough, the only fan that comes with this tower is a 120 millimeter Antec fan that sits in the back of the case. And oddly enough again, I have found no need for more than that. My old case had three 80mm fans and a 120mm fan, and was one noisy mofo. This one is much quieter and actually cooler.
Despite minor annoyances and some slight case design issues, I am wholeheartedly behind this case. I adore the finish, enjoy the quietness, and the low price wasn't too shabby either. I picked it up for a slim $100, as compared to the monstrous $300 Lian Li cases.
A few more comments: The black finish looks like it may require dusting to look good, the thumbscrews on the back are a nice touch, and the heft of the case is pleasantly light, even fully loaded. Some problems are the removal of the power supply while the motherboard is in place (probably wasn't meant to be done anyhow) and the fact that the front panel isn't metal.
If you're a DIY sort of person, this is a very viable option.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gadlor
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Location: Hoboken, NJ, USA
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 11 members
About Me:
Deep in the night.
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