If you've shopped for a new case lately, you've probably seen the Sonata billed as "The quietest case in the world". While Antec should be applauded for their efforts, the case itself is really no quieter than any other well made case. It's a heavy bugger - all steel, and it comes with an Antec tue power 380. One reason the case has earned it's "quiet " billing. It's a single fan PSU with a fan control connector that attaches to your mobo to adjust the speed according to the system temp, and is nearly silent. The PSU also has a connector called "fan only" which also runs your case fan at low speed when the system temp is low. It has more 4 pin 5v/12v connectors than the case has bays and includes 2 SATA power connectors. So many connectors that it was difficult to do a tidy installation. I may cut some of them off in the end. The included case fan is shock mounted for low vibration and is of the 120mm variety which allows it to move more air at a lower speed.
The external bays are semi- tool less using rails for slide in mounting. and the internal bays are transverse in the case with a slide out tray for each of 4 hard drives which are shock mounted to reduce vibration. The hard drive bays are right in front of the air intake, so the exhaust fan and PSU fan will draw cool air in across the HDDs.
One of my favorite features is the dust filter which completey covers the front panel air intake, and simply slides out for cleaning through a slot in the bottom of the case.
Complete with front panel USB, Firewire, and audio connections, and just for a little sex appeal it's got 2 blue LEDs on the front panel. It comes finished in what they call "Piano Black" which just like a black car shows every fingerprint, scratch, and speck of dust times 10.
I finished it off with theZalmanCNPS7000,
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=373034 and it is probably the quietest PC I've ever built. However, as I said before, It's not so much the case itself. I think the next time, I would just pick out the case I really liked the best, and apply what I've learned, and it would be just as quiet.
But all in all a very nice case, and for the quality of the case and power supply, I felt it was reasonably priced as well. Here's a link.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=140025
The external bays are semi- tool less using rails for slide in mounting. and the internal bays are transverse in the case with a slide out tray for each of 4 hard drives which are shock mounted to reduce vibration. The hard drive bays are right in front of the air intake, so the exhaust fan and PSU fan will draw cool air in across the HDDs.
One of my favorite features is the dust filter which completey covers the front panel air intake, and simply slides out for cleaning through a slot in the bottom of the case.
Complete with front panel USB, Firewire, and audio connections, and just for a little sex appeal it's got 2 blue LEDs on the front panel. It comes finished in what they call "Piano Black" which just like a black car shows every fingerprint, scratch, and speck of dust times 10.
I finished it off with theZalmanCNPS7000,
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=373034 and it is probably the quietest PC I've ever built. However, as I said before, It's not so much the case itself. I think the next time, I would just pick out the case I really liked the best, and apply what I've learned, and it would be just as quiet.
But all in all a very nice case, and for the quality of the case and power supply, I felt it was reasonably priced as well. Here's a link.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=140025
