Here's a brand new review of the Sonata. It's fairly well done but keep in mind that, A) he is using fairly loud HDDs, and B)his idea of quiet may not be the same as ours here at SPCR. Otherwise it's a pretty decent review.

I get my Sonata in 4 hours ...

should the rear 120mm fan be sucking in to the case or blowing out?

Would I have problems with airflow if the case is sitting on carpet?

I would almost always have the rear fans sucking/blowing out, to get rid of the heat produced by the processor and videocard. Intake fans are really only useful when you want cool air to blow directly onto something. Sitting the case on carpet shouldnt hurt the airflow, infact it might help dampen any case vibrations you might have.

Ralf, agreed: it IS a good review, there's excellent detail and enough of his PoV comes through so you can "see" and "hear" through his filters (so to speak) to gain a good understanding of the Sonata. Too bad our noise sensitivity is not like his, we'd be easier to please... but then his noise sensitivity may change with exposure to a quieter system. hehehehe....

Well I have just finsihed setting up the Sonata, and all I can say is "I am sooooooooooooooo happy".

I can't hear my Seagate Barracuda's anymore, even when doing big file copies. I also put a zalman northbrige cooler on (which was an absolute BITCH to install, but worth every cent and minute.

The power supply fan is running at 1250rpm and is totally inaudible.

The Fan on my CPU heatsink and the radeon fan are now the noisest components by far, but from my bed (3 meters from the PC I can't hear a thing!!

Photos have been taken, I will post a subjective opinion article in the next couple of days

OK, as promised here is my review (more like opinion given I don't have a sound level meter) of the antec sonata. Apologies for the speed, this is my personal web site.

http://www.bluecouch.com.au/reviews/sonata/sonata.asp

And another one: http://www.envynews.com/review.php?ID=426&page=1

Not really focusing on the stuff for us silence nuts, but still a few nice touches in the review.

How much space is there at the back of the harddrives when mounted? Im thinking if there is enough room for a Abit Serilell adapter?

I have my drives mounted dead center, and there is room on either side.

Post the clearance you need and I will pull out my trusty ruler.

inches or centimeters are fine, but please specify which.

Thanks, that would be great. I need closer to 5 centimeters, depending how well the SATA cable bends. But if its possible to mount the drives off-center, maybe the space is there.

I wasn't sure if to start a new thread for this? Well I haven't so I hope that's ok.

I've just got my Sonata case today and have fitted everything. When I first switched it in I couldn't believe how loud it was! After a short time the PSU slowed down the fans, and Q-Fan (Asus BIOS) slowed the CPU down and that all helped a lot.

However, it really isn't anywhere near quiet enough to sleep in the same room as, which is my aim. I've got a Zalman Fan Mate 1 on order which I plan to fit on the CPU fan (stock Intel) to make it even slower because Q-Fan only brings the voltage down to 8V. I'm also wondering if I should spend even more money that I already have, and buy a large heatsink for my Sapphire Radeon 9000 PRO graphics card, as that fan is probably part of the noise.

So what else can I do after that? I think I can get a heatsink for the graphics card for about £15 (I'm in the UK) and if spending that is going to help a lot, I'll do it. I've tried to find out if that particular heatsink is going to provide enough cooling but there isn't much said about it on the Internet. I can't even remember the make and model at the moment, but it's several copper strips stretching about the length of the card or maybe a little more, so I would have thought it would be sufficient.

I already have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 HDD which is very quiet and although I could here it seeking on my old case, I can't even hear that now so that's great. I have an IBM 20.5 HDD too but I only use that as a backup, so the loud seek noise it puts out won't be a problem. I don't know how loud it is just from spinning but I don't think it's going to be a problem.

So do you guys think I'm going to make the whole setup a lot quieter by loosing the graphics card fan and slowing the CPU fan down a bit? Is there anything else I can do without spending too much more?

By the way, I've looked into another heatsinks/fans for the CPU and it looks like the Intel fan is already one of the quietest. I don't overclock, at least not at the moment, so I don't care about a different heatsink. I'm sure I could already make the fan go as slow as it will without stopping and the temperature will still be fine, so I see no point in changing that fan.

One point about the Sonata for other UK people thinking of buying one. Mine doesn't have the 4-pin Molex type connector on the back of the PSU (outside of case) although in the reviews they say it does. It doesn't matter to me, but in case it does to someone else, bare that in mind.

Cheers everyone,
Geoff.

Beefy:

This thread about someone else who finds the Sonata PSU too loud might help: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4168

Ok thanks, I'll take a look.

Geoff.

I know this has probably been asked many times but where in UK can you buy one of these cases?

Hi Treehugger,

I got mine from: www.kustompcs.co.uk

Look for it under 'Steel Cases' on the left.

Geoff.

This may be a little off-topic, but I thought I'd ask here as there are so many Sonata owners. Can someone measure the maximum length for clearance with PCI cards for me? Antec doesn't post this info on their specs page for the Sonata. I like the idea of this case, but I want to mount an editing PCI card which is just a couple of inches shy of a full-length card.

Regards,
-AJPaterson

Thanks Geoff. Quite a lot of stuff on that site. Slightly more expensive than I was expecting but it does seem to be a good case. Are you still happy with your choice?

Mr Majestic... sorry I didn't get back to you sooner... I have been on holidays.

If you mount your drive in the first rather than second hole of the drive rails you will have plenty of room. I didn't put my steel ruler in there... but I should be powering my box down tonight to detach my video fan and attach a thermometer for some testing.

I promise I will do a measurement using the center hole, and will also give you a measurement assuming you use the first hole.

www.ebuyer.co.uk also does the Sonata, with very cheap shipping.

No problem, Im not in a hurry
And I have 6 drives that I have to mount, but only 2 that needs the extra space at the moment. When I upgrade to a i875 board, I will probably need SATA adapters on 2 more drives though.

ok... just turned her off for 10 minutes... so here we go:

I have 3.2cm clearance from drive edge to side panel, and less than a half a centimeter between holes

so I reckon you have less than 4 centimeters clearance even when mounted deep.

Ah crap, that rules out the Sonata then
But thanks anyway for taking the time to check it for me. Would have been a bummer to buy it and finding out too late.