Antec Piano Sonata II

[Matmi]

Any opinion on this case ?

I'll have in there a E6400 on a P5B (or P5B Deluxe) and 2 hard drives (1 WD Raptor and 1 Seagate Barracuda 400GB). My video card will probably be the nVidia Geforce 7600 GS.

Any issue with the noise ? I intend to replace the fan with a Scythe 120mm.

Any issue with the PSU ?

I don't intend to overclock my PC at all.

Thanks.

 

[_Morphine_]

I'll have in there a E6400 on a P5B (or P5B Deluxe) and 2 hard drives (1 WD Raptor and 1 Seagate Barracuda 400GB). My video card will probably be the nVidia Geforce 7600 GS.

You didnt mention RAM.

The case is very quiet. The dust collects inside and out of these things. Finger prints and smudges show up in the light quite easily. The LEDs are very bright and can light up the room. I dont mind lights, but I dont feel I need them. These are too bright IMHO. I have mine disconnected.

Im not a fan of doors on cases after owning this one. It just gets in the way. The rubber feet on the bottom fell off. I think they acually gripped too well, ripped themselves off when I tried to slide it out.

Id say the stock PSU is your minimum and will suffice. If you ever decide to go SLI or overclock you should consider an upgrade.

EDIT: I thought the internal 3.5 drive bays were neat at first. Sliding in on the side.... But my SATA cables dont flex soon enough after plugging in and tend to rub on the door. I could install the drive the other way but that would defeat the purpose of "quick" removal/installation with all bays filled. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Retardicus]

I have one with a similiar setup as you. Nice and quiet. Whatever fan you plan on getting, make sure it plugs into the motherboard. The ASUS Q-Fan fan control works nicely to minimize noise.

 

[rubberjohnson]

Top case that one. I have built 7 systems using it (including mine) and only once had a faulty power supply - this was a sonata version 1 though.

I wouldn't bother replacing the fan as it is more than adequate air flow wise and comes with its own speed switch to keep the noise down. IMO the money would be better spent on a passively cooled video card (like gigabytes silent pipe II), a quiet CPU cooler and/or passive chipset cooler as these will be far louder than the case fan.

I agree with Morphine, it does show finger prints and dust badly as well as being easy to scratch but i've had no problems with SATA cables.

 

[_Morphine_]

After posting here I went looking for a solution to that cable issue. I found a number or right angle SATA cables. So discount what I said about the cable clearance, Im sure that cable would fix that complaint for me.

 

[okstatefan]

I love this case a lot. I've used everything from el' cheapos to the SuperMicro full server.

There are some appreciable differences between v.1 and the Sonata II. I like the v.1 just fine (I have two of them in my house). but the v.2 has a better door hinge, no drill-outs on the sides, and a bigger PS.

One of the first things I did with my Sonata cases was drag them down to the shop and put a nice automobile was job on them. They still shine like new.

My newest v.2 is running an OC *6400, radeon x1900xt OC, and the rest of a fast setup. It is still quiet.

These are my favorite cases, or I wouldn't have so many. It is super-nice being able to swap out drives with all of my systems. I have no complaints, and cannot recommend anyting better.

 

[bigsby]

My friend has this case and I must say that it is a very nice case. The power supply is adequate for most set ups, unless you're getting an x1900xtx in crossfire or doing any SLI stuff. It is quite a quiet case, and for the price, it's a good deal. I on the other hand, have the Antec P180B, which is more expensive, and doesn't come with a power supply, but is much much better than the sonata II, albeit quite a bit larger. It comes with 3 fans installed, and space for a few more. All the walls, and even the front door, are made to be silent, it has 3 layers of... well stuff, to make it quiet. The P180B doesn't have the piano finish that the Sonata II has, but it does look very elegant. It has a sturdy front door, and has a separate chamber for the PSU and one of the drive bays, where it's basically a wind tunnel. You can take out the bottom drive bay, which is in the wind tunnel thingy, and put in a water cooling heatercore if you'd like. I must say that the removable drive bays are really nice. They've all got the little silicone pads on them to reduce vibration noise, and they slide in and out quite easily. The top one has a little compartment box on the back where you can put screws, twist ties, your spare key, weed or whatever else you want to in there. The one thing you'll want to watch out for in this case is to make sure the power supply cables are long enough.

I can still say that getting the sonata II is a good deal, I just like my p180b more, possibly because it's mine. It's a bit of a pain to bring to lan parties though, the sonata II is a heluva lot easier, though the fact that my friend has a 21 inch monitor makes up for that fact, lol.

Just a side note, you will spend a lot of time polishing your sonata if you chose to get it.

 

[Storm1234]

I have just put together my new system about a week ago, even tho I have been able to use much yet, so far I like my new Sonata II case I'll beable to share more in the next week or so.

I have one question tho, for the front 120mm ( optional ) fan, is it supposed to be blowing towards the front ( harddrives ) or to the back of the case?

Thanks

 

[_Morphine_]

...for the front 120mm ( optional ) fan, is it supposed to be blowing towards the front ( harddrives ) or to the back of the case?

You want to create air flow. Meaning new air is always traveling through the computer (in > used to cool > then out after its warm). The rear fan is set up as an exhaust to draw warm air off the MB and get it outside. Adding a front 120mm as an intake would blow cool air over the HDs to the MB area and then be exhausted. This would create the most flow.

 

[Matmi]

RubberJohnson,

pardon my naive question (I'm a novice, as you could tell) but do you mean I should leave the original fan that comes with the case (isn't it too noisy ?) and replace the heatsink that comes with the CPU with a better heatsink with a fan (like the Scythe Katana 775) ?

As for the video card, I changed my mind and will take the 7600GT because I need the 2 DVI ports (I have 2 monitors). I did not find any reference, at least at a decent price, that would be "silent". I don't know if this kind would make a lot of noise (it's the eVGA Geforce 7600GT, 256-P2-N554AX)