Antec Sonata II case any good?

DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
edited February 2006 in Hardware
I've seen a lot of not so great reviews about the regular Sonata, but the Sonata II seems to have gone to dual 120MM fans, a 92MM fan and a 450W antec PSU.

It's going to be running an A64 3200+, a 36gb raptor, an X800XL AGP, a dvd burner and soon another IDE or sata drive ~300gb.

With the 2 120mm fans, that should be enough to keep it fairly cool, right?

Comments

  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I don't think you'll have a problem. My wife's PC is an AXP 3200+ (runs a lot hotter than the A64) housed in a Sonata 1 and it hasn't had an issue, even with the lower airflow. A64 won't require even as much cooling. The raptor might, but with the front intake fan it ought to see enough cooling.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    That case should be fine, agreed.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited February 2006
    another vote for it...me likey!
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited February 2006
    I use a Sonata 1 and it cools very well and is very quiet. I think the only difference between the two is the Sonata 2 has a bigger power supply.
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Madball wrote:
    I use a Sonata 1 and it cools very well and is very quiet. I think the only difference between the two is the Sonata 2 has a bigger power supply.

    The sonata used a TruePower 380w psu while the Sonata II uses a regular antec 450w psu. That and dual 120mm fans, the sonata 1 only had a 120 in the back, the front was an 80.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited February 2006
    plus there are some new intake vents on the sonata II that the sonata I didn't have...
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited February 2006
    DanG wrote:
    T the sonata 1 only had a 120 in the back, the front was an 80.

    Not true. Mine has a 120 in the back and a 120 in the "front". Its not really in the front, but rather attached to the side of the hard drive cage, blowing onto the video card. The power supply has special connections for the case fan to regulate their speed according to case temp. It works quite well.
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Madball wrote:
    Not true. Mine has a 120 in the back and a 120 in the "front". Its not really in the front, but rather attached to the side of the hard drive cage, blowing onto the video card. The power supply has special connections for the case fan to regulate their speed according to case temp. It works quite well.


    I dunno, my boss had one and it only had an 80mm in the front, and there were no optional mounting holes. I was just going based on what I'd seen. Maybe there's a version 1.5?
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited February 2006
    DanG wrote:
    I was just going based on what I'd seen. Maybe there's a version 1.5?

    Maybe... The 120mm "front" fan attaches to the hard drive cage with some weird rubber fastners to keep it silent.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I'll throw another wrench in the Sonata 1 debate here - my wife's case had no front fan at all in its stock form - I had to add my own 120MM fan to the location that Madball points out above.
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited February 2006
    Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that my case came with two fans. I had to add the front one too. As the picture shows, its a Vantec Stealth.
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Well I bought it and installed everything today. After a bit of frustration trying to get windows reloaded on my sata drive, all is well.
    My Sonata II came with 1 120mm fan in the back and the 2 in the power supply. I added the 120mm that sits just behind the drive cage and blows cold air right on the video card, I added the 92mm and 80mm fans in the plastic shroud that are right by the CPU and the video card fan. Cooling the cpu is a zalman cnps7000a, and one of the passive zalman northbridge coolers on the northbridge.
    It's still at stock speeds, but the cpu is folding (100%) and sitting at 40°c and the case is at 32°c. I'm hoping that tomorrow I will have the time to see if the DFI lanparty UT board is as good an overclocker as everyone else says.
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