| Antec Sonata IV Computer Case |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | ||||||||
| Written by Nate Swetland | ||||||||
| Thursday, 10 March 2011 | ||||||||
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Detailed Exterior FeaturesEverything is in the details, and with computer cases, there are no exceptions. A case can look great from afar, but once seen close-up, it can begin to fall short. Let's see how closely Antec paid attention to the details on the Sonata IV.
As previously mentioned, the top half of the front of the Sonata IV opens from right to left. This door reveals the optical drive bays, as well as the power and reset button. The door opens from the right side, and latches very well, and gives me no reason to believe that it will one day become loose and no longer latch, or that it will fall off its hinges. There is a lock on the right side of the door, and seems to serve the purpose of keeping people both away from the power/reset button, as well as from your disks. Unfortunately, there is no way to make the door open from the left side.
Shown here is the front I/O panel on the Sonata IV. Starting from the left, there are two USB 2.0 ports, a USB 3.0 port, the HDD/power LEDs. and the Mic/Headphone jack. Above those are the reset and power button, respectively. I am always glad to see front facing I/O panels versus top or side mounted panels. The LEDs are a nice blue color, and are bright enough to see in the light, but not so bright that you want to cover them up if you are a night owl.
This is the rear of the Sonata IV. Antec chose to include an motherboard I/O shield, but it did not fit the motherboard that I am installing in the case. The included power supply can mount in either orientation on the top of the case. The single 120mm fan mount is on the rear, as well as a 3-way fan speed switch. Because most motherboards do not come with a USB 3.0 header, case manufacturers are required to use an extension cable that simply plugs into the USB 3.0 port on the motherboard and extends it to the front I/O panel. You may notice a lack of water cooling hose grommets.
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Comments
That's your choice. Your motherboard doesn't even have a slot at the top position, so using that for the USB bracket would cost you nothing in terms of lost space.
"I still have cause for concern that air is not being circulated correctly throughout the Sonata IV."
I see no problem here. The air enter the case through the side vents, pass the drive cages and then turn backwards to the graphics card and rear vents (fan and PSU).
I think the provided PSU is overkill for the types of builds one can expect in this case. A PSU rated at ~400W would be perfect.
I do understand that the air will be drawing in from the vents next to the hard drives, but there is basically a wall separating the hard drives from the rest of the case, so air flow to and from the drive cage will be very restricted. A fan mount on the vent would make a great improvement, in my opinion.
I agree with you on the power supply. 620W is a bit much, but it is a nice selling point for the case.
Thanks for the comments.
In your case it would be strung across the NB cooler, not the video card.
"...there is basically a wall separating the hard drives from the rest of the case, so air flow to and from the drive cage will be very restricted."
I think you overestimate the restriction imposed by that wall. I'm sure there's at least a half inch gap between that wall and the side panel for the air to pass. That's considerably less restrictive than a full frontal mesh.
As noted initially this case is designed for quiet operation. One of the basic rules for a quiet computer is to make it require little cooling, thus allow a minimalist cooling solution. More fans means more noise. Fans at the front have a direct path of noise to the user, and also open up a direct path from noise generated inside the case. Therefore these are to be avoided.
As far as the wall and the air flow, I don't like the idea of the HDD vent drawing air in, over the hot hard drives, through the wall, over the hot expansion cards, and then finally making its way to the CPU. The GPU will exhaust some of that air, but drawing the warm HDD air across my components is not a great function in my book.
The HDD vent is on the left side, and while each person has their tower set in a different spot, I have mine below me to my right, so a low RPM quiet fan running where that HDD vent is would add little to no noise. I get the quiet part of the case. The less moving parts, the better, but sometimes the silent hum makes me know my parts are being kept cool.
Thanks for your comments.
A HDD doesn't use much power once it's spinning. A few watts is all it use, and you better have an air stream across it to prevent it from heating up.
I know of no small/mid size computer case that use a totally separated cooling for the drives, and that's simply because the heat added is too little to be a problem.
The graphics card and motherboard will both add much more heat to the CPU cooling air anyway, and I've only seen one case that thermally separate the graphics card from the CPU.
How did Antec ever get a rep for building cases?
Thank you Colin for providing the measurements for heatsink and cable management. But I thought you were way too generous with the points you dispensed.
One last bit: no cpu window in the mb tray. The whole shebang looks like something from two generations back.
Thanks for the comments.
This case looks so old, I know its function is probably okay but the aesthetics leave a lot to be desired, so 90's
Thanks for the comments.
Thanks for the review all the same and this isn't a dig at you rather than just an opinion, and only on the physical appearance.
Thank you for your comments.
my graphic card is 26 cm long
is it fit to sonata IV ?
Page 5 of the article points out that the distance between the hard drive cage and the back is 11 inches, which is a little less than 28 cm.
Your video card should fit in the Sonata IV.
If you wannt, you can install 1 or 2 add fans on the left side :-)
They've wasted a lot of space on the HDD bays. While I have four HDDs installed in my Sonata II, I think most owners would only have two installed, at most. They only need one row/level of HDD bays.
As you have pointed out, there's a wall in between the HDD compartments and the rest of the case. There also used to be holes for a mid-case fan (for drawing air from the HDDs), that seems to be missing on the IV.
The only real plus I can see in the IV is that the right side panel is now removable. The 620W PSU isn't really a plus because it is overkill for this case. The USB3 port might be a plus for some people, but not at the cost of eSATA.
Thanks for the review. I hope Antec makes improvements for the Sonata V.