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User Experience
After having everything installed, I fired it up and used the case for about 4 days just to get a general feel about the case, and whether I liked it or not. Having the case fully constructed and on the desk was definitely a nice thing to have, after not having my computer in a case for about 6 months now. Touching it is still a no no, but its general look is very nice. The standard case fan is extremely quiet as advertised, and the power supply provided was more then adequate for my power needs.
However it's major downfall is that the case's cooling is very inferior to other cases on the market. I understand that this is a case that most people wouldn't want to use in the first place for extreme cooling (as it is not advertised that way), but if someone liked the look of the case and bought it for that reason and wanted to game like crazy on it, it would simply not perform. I found the case temps to be extremely high on the case. I fold essentially all day, and with the hot temperatures happening around the Southern California area recently my temps would be at 47-49 degrees Celsius at load which is way too high.
Even with the air conditioning on, maintaining a pleasant 37 degrees, the CPU temp was still at a high of 43-45 degrees Celsius. Outside of the case like I had been running it before, during the peak heat of the day, my CPU temp would max out at 38-40 degrees Celsius without the air conditioning on, and with the air condition on during load my CPU temps were at a very likeable and manageable 34-36 degrees Celsius.
So without being long winded, this case does not have the cooling it would take to make me feel comfortable about it. In the quest for more, I decided to find out if the case was flawed (in that air flow was designed poorly) or if it was because the 120mm fan simply did not push enough air. Taking some fans from a case mod I have been working on, I decided to stick in the big guns; 2x 150cfm 120mm Delta's.
These fans are extremely loud, and completely contradict the entire point of the case in the first place, being quiet of course. The case comes with it's own mounting equipment for the fans, which are rubber like in feel.
I found them incredibly difficult to install, and had to resort to using pliers to pull them all the way through the fans, and then again all the way through the case. I think that Antec could have provided screws with grommets which sure would not be as effective as this model, but much easier to install, and would take significantly less time.
So in spending them time and installing these fans I just wanted to see if this case could be used by an enthusiast who wanted to use the case for their $2000+ gaming rig...
In one word no, a person seeking low temps on air-cooling could not use the case. After installing the two 120mm Delta's the temperatures decreased by about 3 degrees Celsius. For some people running a case at 41 degrees Celsius at full load with the AC blasting is perfectly fine, but for me, I just don't think it's good enough. Maybe nice temps outside of a computer case spoil me, but to have to drastically increase the noise level of the room is just ridiculous. Also, with such high CFM fans, air just gets rapidly sucked into the case, and the dust buildup on other sections of the case that are not guarded by the front filter started to stack up.
Some other things& I don't really like doors on cases, but some people love them, they hide the fact that their 5 ¼" drives are not color coordinated with the rest of the case. Both the front panel and side panel have key lock mechanisms, but as on most cases, if someone really wanted to get into your case, they wouldn't really prevent it.
Conclusion
The case is great for a casual user who wants a nice looking case that fits in with the rest of the decor in their house. For most people looking for a case with great cooling, or great cooling potential they should definitely look elsewhere. Even if someone wanted to use this case to mod to achieve great cooling, it really could not be done well without huge modifications due to how the case is constructed. Any person who was really serious about air-cooling would probably want top exhausts, and if they wanted them they would have to de-rivet the top/side (they are one piece) and "try" to work on it. I'm not even going to try to explain how difficult it would be to use a hole saw on a piece of "L" shaped material. Also the lack of a motherboard tray make what could have been a 100% painless installation, into a mixed bag of some easy things to install, and some more annoying things to install.
Sadly for this case to fit the bill and give it a sterling recommendation, and I came up with some ideas that could be done to change my feelings about the product, and they are as follows: Allowing the other panel to be removed with a standard door. Allowing the top to be removed with screws, allow the front panel to be removed like a pull off cover, have a motherboard tray, have the 120mm fan in front of the harddrives instead of behind (to suck in more air at the source, and to cool the harddrives), provide the case with two fans, and finally make those fans a little bit higher cfm.
The lowest price point we've found was about . Considering it comes with a power supply worth about , we don't find the pricing all that bad. Still, better designed cases, albeit without a PSU, can be found in the same price range, and the truth is, we feel most of you have PSUs you're happy with.
As mentioned earlier, for the casual user who doesn't overclock, or want a nice looking case that is quiet, this would not be a bad choice. For those who demand more, Antec will need to address a lot of the areas mentioned today.
Pros:
Rails for the 5 ¼" drives, 3 ½" harddrives and harddrive bays
Beautiful paint job and reflective sheen
Excellent provided 380 Watt Antec Truepower Power supply
Quiet (while using stock cooling)
Front ports for easy access
Cons:
No motherboard tray
Have to clean often to make it look good
Extremely bad cooling configuration
Certain sections of case un-assemble able with standard hand tools
Difficult to install the front ports
Only basic explanations in the User's Manual, no pictures to illustrate instillation
Fan mounting system extremely difficult to install
Bottom Line: Now I realize that there are a lot of things to change, but most of them aren't that major. As enthusiasts, we were very critical of the case, but for the next time they design a case in the same series as the Sonata, they could perhaps use some of the ideas listed, and that would make it substantially better.
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Antec Sonata LifeStyle Series Tower: Spend a few grand on your PC, and nowhere to put it? Today we see if the Antec Sonata is up to the task of being a good component to house all of the hardware you have worked so hard to afford.
