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#1
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Do you love or hate Antec Sonata?
Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be?
What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? |
#2
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$129, and no pictures/specs? Wierd.
- online stood up, at show-n-tell, and said: Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? -- Strontium "I thought I'd lost you, somewhere. But you were, never, really ever there at all. And, I want to get free..." |
#3
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"Strontium" wrote in message ... $129, and no pictures/specs? Wierd. - online stood up, at show-n-tell, and said: Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? -- Strontium "I thought I'd lost you, somewhere. But you were, never, really ever there at all. And, I want to get free..." I have the Sonata-UK http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details...p?ProdID=08139 Mostly I like it. Good supply of fittings arrived with it. It looks good; it is big enough. I like the hard drive grommets/mountings. The fact that they are sideways is not a problem. Its appearance is spoiled by the beige floppy drive/DVD rom/zip drives. The door has a very flimsy piece of plastic at the top hinge, which I managed to damage on day 1, so that was a definite negative. It is quieter than my previous PIII machine, thanks to the large case fan and grommets, in spite of having a Northbridge fan, and P4 Intel fan. Not exactly silent, but I guess I could improve that by using big heatsinks and maybe adding accoustic padding. It does look very good. Take care, John. |
#4
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"online" wrote in message ... Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? SLK3700 is the same box only better and cheaper. Quiet depends on your current cpu and hsf. |
#5
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I have a Zalman 7000 HS and a Zalman VGA heatsink in one so all I can hear
is the PSU and Case fan which are NOT silent by any means. I can hear a constant gentle humming - thank goodness the Zalman got rid of the whine from the Intel fan - but I am disappointed by the Sonata as the marketing led me to belive it was a silent system. If I was buying again I would buy a case of my choice - one that took 92mm case fans like the Sonata - but buy the Zalman 400W PSU which is very quiet. I am also amazed the Sonata case fan does not have a temperature monitor/sensor so it can stop down. I might rig up a convertor to cut down the voltage but I think the PSU fan is the loudest. J. "jaster" wrote in message ... "online" wrote in message ... Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? SLK3700 is the same box only better and cheaper. Quiet depends on your current cpu and hsf. |
#6
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In message , online
writes Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? Here is a repost of a reply to a similar question some weeks ago which may be of help - It is a smallish, well made steel midi tower with a single fan Antec TruePower 380w psu and a fitted 120mm exhaust fan and space for another 120mm fan on the HDD rack. The inlet vents are neat slots down each side and underneath the lower front bezel. The 120mm front fan position is a bit different on the Sonata - it is not attached to the front of the chassis, it is on the interior side of the HDD cage. Whilst this must reduce its efficiency as an intake fan, the idea appears to be that it will draw air in through the front bezel filter, across the HDD(s) and then through the fan to circulate around the case. I am not planning on installing a front fan on my current setup because I do not need to - if I did have a spare quiet 120mm fan lying around I would try it just to see what impact it had on HDD temperatures. The ventilation is good as far as my installation is concerned. According to the AsusProbe monitoring software the P4 2.4 is running at between 38C and 40C and the motherboard is stable at 28C at an ambient 21C which is a couple of degrees better than using my old Enlight case with inlet and exhaust fans. (This is not running games - just number crunching in Excel or multi-tasking using things like PowerPoint/Photoshop). The noise level is quite good - at the moment the main contributor of noise is the standard Intel HSF - I am about to replace this with a Zalman 7000 (the problem with is that I will undoubtedly then decide that something else is too loud... It has some interesting features like the temperature controlled fan molex connectors, an HDD cage mounted at 90 degrees to the norm with easy to remove trays and rubber HDD mounts which do cut down on the transmission of vibration. These help cut down considerably on noise but it is not silent, just quiet (and relatively cool) compared to many of the multi-fan pieces of kit around. Other items on the plus side as far as I am concerned are the simple exterior with its unusual high gloss black finish and the fact that it does not come with a set of noisy fans as standard. You may or may not like the door over the drive bays (at least it saves hunting around for drives with black bezels or separate covers). On the minus side it is a bit tight for space when fitting some of the MB connectors and the drive bays door is a bit flimsy, particularly when compared to the very solid build of the rest of the case. I had been looking for a compact, reasonably priced, noise attenuating case for some months and the Sonata still seems to be the best around at this time. You ask about the 3 models listed on the Antec site - they are specific to different markets UK, EC and USA/rest of world? -- Robert |
#7
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In message , jaster
writes "online" wrote in message .. . Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? SLK3700 is the same box only better and cheaper. Quiet depends on your current cpu and hsf. Not quite the same - the interior and the psu's are different: Sonata - TruePower 380Watt ATX12V power supply with single fan design for enhanced quietness. Front mounted USB & IEEE1394 (FireWire) ports 9 Drive Bays: - 3 x 5.25" external drive bays - 2 x 3.5" external drive bays - 4 x 3.5" internal drive bays in individual trays SLK3700AMB - 350W SmartPower ATX12V power supply, 2 Front USB ports 11 Drive Bays: - External: 4x 5.25", 2x 3.5" - Internal: 5x 3.5" -- Robert |
#8
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In message , John Smith
writes I have a Zalman 7000 HS and a Zalman VGA heatsink in one so all I can hear is the PSU and Case fan which are NOT silent by any means. I can hear a constant gentle humming - thank goodness the Zalman got rid of the whine from the Intel fan - but I am disappointed by the Sonata as the marketing led me to belive it was a silent system. Agreed - it is not silent, just very quiet compared to my previous systems. If I was buying again I would buy a case of my choice - one that took 92mm case fans like the Sonata - but buy the Zalman 400W PSU which is very quiet. I am also amazed the Sonata case fan does not have a temperature monitor/sensor so it can stop down. I might rig up a convertor to cut down the voltage but I think the PSU fan is the loudest. Have you tried connecting the case fan to the psu temperature controlled 'fan only' molex? -- Robert |
#9
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On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 22:02:48 +0100, Robert
wrote: In message , jaster writes "online" wrote in message . .. Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? SLK3700 is the same box only better and cheaper. Quiet depends on your current cpu and hsf. Not quite the same - the interior and the psu's are different: Sonata - TruePower 380Watt ATX12V power supply with single fan design for enhanced quietness. Front mounted USB & IEEE1394 (FireWire) ports 9 Is that USB 2.0? I seem to read someone saying it supports USB 1.0 only. I'm planning to get an Asus P4P800-Deluxe motherboard. Do you know if I can connect a USB 2.0 port and a Firewire port to the front panel? |
#10
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"online" wrote in message ... On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 22:02:48 +0100, Robert wrote: In message , jaster writes "online" wrote in message . .. Is it really quiet like the manufacturer claims to be? What's your experience with the case? BTW, which model do you have among the three at their website? SLK3700 is the same box only better and cheaper. Quiet depends on your current cpu and hsf. Not quite the same - the interior and the psu's are different: Sonata - TruePower 380Watt ATX12V power supply with single fan design for enhanced quietness. Front mounted USB & IEEE1394 (FireWire) ports 9 Is that USB 2.0? I seem to read someone saying it supports USB 1.0 only. I'm planning to get an Asus P4P800-Deluxe motherboard. Do you know if I can connect a USB 2.0 port and a Firewire port to the front panel? If you're asking about the SLK3700 I'm not sure but I think not. If it was front USB 2.0, Antec would have stated that somewhere but there is lots of wires for the USB. |
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