computer cases

The Antec Sonata is an extreamly well builted case. Even without a removeable mobo tray this was by far the easiest case I have ever used to assemble a computer. I was very pleased to see that the power supply was sata ready, a feature I didnot see on any of the on-line reviews. I read.
As of now I only have two complaints about the case. First I was disappointed about the paint job. I read about this supposed automotive finish but noticed the excessive amount of orange peel. Not quite automotive quality. Maby I will hit it with some 2,000 grit to finish it off. Second was the holes in the side of the case (which will be easilly fixed with some 1/16 aluminum, black paint and silicon). These holes allowed me to hear the cpu fan clear as day from two feet away.
In conclusion, great case easy to assemble and wow look at those two blue spotlights in the front.

I just built my first two computers and used these cases, the Antec Sonata, to do it. Having read lots of reviews and looked at lots of cases, I decided on the Sonata because of its power supply, solid steel construction, and relatively inconspicuous looks.

The included power supply is the Antec True 380S, the "silent" version of Antec's wildly popular True 380; the difference between the two is that the 380S only has a single rear-vented fan. It certainly came with plenty of power connectors, and is indeed very quiet. My only complaint is that it gave off an electrical burning smell for a few days, which I had been warned about on message boards; my Harman Kardon AV receiver gave off the same smell when it was new, so I'm chalking it up to large power supplies.

The case is very nicely laid out for optimal low front to high rear airflow. The front intake is cleverly concealed and has a changeable air filter. The large 120mm rear fan is also very silent when connected to the dedicated fan power supply. I went for further silence in the form of Sapphire's OEM version of the Radeon 9700, which comes with a giant Zalman ZM-80 heat pipe, and a Sapphire OEM version of the Radeon 9000 pro, which is also fanless. The dominant noise now is the retail boxed fan that came with my two Pentium processors; under heavy load (and I do a lot of CPU-intensive scientific computing), these fans can get noisy, as can both disk and optical drives, so be careful with those components, too, if you really want quiet. Putting the optical drives behind a closable door provides additional sound dampening.

The hardest part was getting it open the first time, at least for a novice. Turns out you just need to pull up on the plastic lever on the back of one sides of the case and everything you need is packed inside. I was blown away by how instructive the manual was; together with the manual from the motherboard (ASUS P4C800), I was able to build two computers without much other input.

Installation of the mother board is easy. The optical and floppies also fit in nicely on their cleverly packed plastic tracks. There are 3 5.25" external bays and two 3.25" external bays behind the drive cover. There's additional room for four well-spaced out hard drives. Here Antec took a left turn and modified the usual drive arrangement 90 degrees. Mounted on Antec's rails, my Seagate Serial ATA drives had to be installed backwards; in the other machine, the IBM/Hitachi Deskstars just barely squeaked in mounted forward.

In terms of looks, the piano black is a nice touch, and matches both the piano and my PSB Stratus mini-monitor speakers. Unfortunately, there are three glaring flaws in the beauty of this case. First is the cheap-looking plastic slider over the front panel ports (USB, firewire, analog audio); the lock is not as distracting as you might imagine, but I've never seen anyone lock their computer box, so I don't see the point. The second distraction is the way Antec has spelled their name in drilled holes across the tops of both sides of the case. This totally destroys the "generic" look, as well as allowing unfiltered air into the case and releasing more sound.

I LOVE this case. I just recently had added a 3rd HD in it an it was a snap. Love how the HD's all have thier own slide in/out trays. Even the CD rom drives have rails to slide in and out. The case is very quiet too. The case i hade before this one sounded like a vaccum cleaner compared to this one. The power supply comes with plenty of plugs for all your HD's and any other components you want to add. The case also looks great with it's piano black finish. There is a dust catching screen in the front of the case too. That is a nice touch.

Downside:
- space inside the case is alittle snug. So you will need to plan out your cabling strategy.
- no motherboard slide out tray. Not a BIG deal for me as i don't plan to swap out my mobo for a while. bit it would have been nice.

Overall:
If i have to build another computer, i would get another one of these. It is great.