Antec sonata III or Antec sonata Designer

[kattskralle]

Hi!

I'm new to this forum aswell to building silent rigs.

I'm looking for some first hand experience in choosing the right case. My goal is to get a really quiet case with the least amount of money (i'm a student). Since i'm going to record music it's vital for me to have a quiet computer.
I've narrowed my choices down to Antec sonata 3 or the Sonata designer. The sonata plus is considered too but it's harder to get and a bit more expensive.

Have anyone of you guys tried both out or just one of them and can tell me what the sound level is? (The product information can sometimes be decieving, like the 430W seasonic s12 mark2 i bought which was supposed to be über quiet but sounded like a smaller aeroplane:D.)

Are these cases as quiet as the manufacturers say, or have you got other case ideas?

Thanks!

[thejamppa]

Sonata Designer. Hands down. Both have same PSU. Designer is former P150 which is far superior to Sonata III in acoustics and in cooling.

[ame]

second that - Designer would be better than III. reasons: Hd mounting and side panel dampening first, looks second, no door third.

[NeilBlanchard]

Welcome to SPCR!

The "Designer" case is the better, for all the reasons already given.

[dragmor]

I just built a PC in a Sonata III for a friend. The case itself is ok, but it does let alot of sound out and the powersupply is loud (well for SPCR standards).

[Das_Saunamies]

Sonatas have some of the worst airflow and working space. AVOID.

P15x variants have proper damping and construction.

I know Sonatas, I've owned I and II. Didn't learn from my first mistake. The III is just a different-looking II, like II was a slightly different I(hinge and side panel were different).

[roystarman]

I think the opertive words of cheap and student are being missed here. THe value of a Sonata III case at 120.00 is pretty hard to beat. Yes the P150 or 180 or others are better but at more cost. For the value hard to beat.

To make a silent PC outside of the PS you need to pick low heat and low noise components like low wattage processors (AMD has Dual cores that draw only 65 watts), a passive video card or use onboard video. I have a sonata II with a 450 Watt PS and the computer sans the disc drive noise is very quiet. With the case fan on low, I can barely hear it and I need to be listenig for it. With the TV on I would not hear it. On medium a very low wush is aobut it. I agree that the disc drive noise is an issue. As for cooling and air distrubtion, a few cable ties to keep the cables out of the way seem to work wonders. I have all my cables tied off so that there is no obstruction from the intake to the exahust. Using SATA and not having a Floppy to add more ribbon cables also helps. To further reduce cable obstruction, SATA CD ROM are now available.

The biggest concern is that disc drive noise. Ihave an older maxtor 80G SATA 1, that is not exactly quiet but I have heard that others have reported what I have is that the drive mounitg doesn't seem to reduce the head noise at all. It may help with the noise form the spinning motor but that is it. Another thing about the Sonata you need to consider is the lack of a front firewire port. That could be a issue for your use. If you are careful in your MB, Processor, and video card selection and can live with the disc noise then a sonata can make a very quiet computer.

[roystarman]

In reference to my SONATA recomendation, I guess I hould have included my specs on my minimalist sytem.

Gigabyte MB
AMD 4200+ 2.2G daul core (Stock cooler) (65 watt version)
2GB Corsair memory (DDR2 800)
80G Maxtor Drive sata.
Onboard sound and Video (Nvidia 6100)

Wireless Lan card
Samsung IDE CD drive.

CPU temps upper 20'sC
Running 1instance of PRime 95 35C after several hours

Tri Cool Fan on Medium for safety reasons, Low seems too quiet and not enough air flow but it never seemd to bother anything.
I donot oc or plan on adding much else. This is mainly for surfing from another room other than the office.

[Das_Saunamies]

Oh my Sonata II is quiet too... it just took a lot more money to be that way than an already proper case would have.

[kattskralle]

Thanks for all the replies, it's been really helpful.





I've decided to go for the sonata designer, i figured it's not too much more money and i can go a month without buying new pants.


I'm planning on buying a 92mm nexus fan to improve airflow and maybe a nexus 120mm to replace the one that is shipped with the case. I've read that they put some noice out. good idea?

And also, the designer 500 actually has a firewire port on the front bezel which would be good if i decide to buy a firewire based sound card.




My 'rig' will look like this:

Case: antec sonata designer 500

Hdd's: 2x Samsung t166 250gb sata3 16mb

MB: Gigabyte p35sc-ds3r

Cpu: C2D E6750

Mem: kingston 2gb ddr2 667 cl4

Gpu: Ati radeon x1950 pro 256

Fans: probably nexus 120 and 92 mm




The video card will be the noicemaker but it's ok when playing games, which doesn't happen too often.



I'll write back later and tell you how it sounds.

Cheers

[Das_Saunamies]

Designer sounds just fine if you don't mind the colours.

Should definitely invest in proper fans(better airflow for less noise, win-win), one for intake and one for exhaust. Nexus is a good brand, just on the expensive side of things. Noctua is in the same category noise, quality and price-wise. Noiseblocker makes good budget fans and their 92mm is on the Recommended List.

Your choice of HDD size is rather surprising. Wouldn't surprise me if you wanted 250 for system drive(probably 133 platters, less noisy than 166, guaranteed) but another 250? RAID?

What's with the low-rated DDR2? 800 kits cost just an inch more, probably save the price difference on fans if you wanted to.

256 vRAM? Nonsense! Get one of the new cards with 512. The 1950 Pro's value for money is hard to beat though.

Check back a week or so after use, let's hear how you like it.

[roystarman]

The designer is a good choie. After you posted and I replied I went and looked at prices. New egg plays games with the case prices. Suggest you use the notify me when price reaches xxx function. Somtimes they throw in free shipping other times it 15 to 20 dollars. the Sonata III was 119, today it was 129 and no free shippping. the Designer last week had free shippng at I believe 139 so. The 10 or 20 bucks will keep you from pizza one night but I don't think any componets you are goign to buy will have to wait. I disagree with the memory DDR2 800 memory is pretty inexepnsive. You maybe able to OC to get the performance but that will make your computer noisier. Also the Gigabyte mother boards are notorious for not having fire wire. The P35 MB I am considering for Gigabyte doesn't. So look to make sure. They are good stable boards however. The designer has teh suspended drive rubber bands you can use but you sholdn't move your case around with drive installed. It comes with the blue bezel I think.

In fact for price I just checked Newegg. the designer has free shipping which pretty up makes the difference of the prices.

[kattskralle]

Sorry for confusing. i've already got all the pars except the case. I'm running my MB and all the components hanging out in the open. Just kidding, i'm having the shittiest case ever, namely this: http://www.colors-it.com.cn/03_products ... _search=33
When running 'world in conflict' yesterday the computer got so hot i shut itself down. That was after torturing my ears with loud noice from the psu. The only thing good about it i guess is the price, about 470sek, that'll be $71.

I chose the memory because i wanted them to be low latency instead of high mhz, and the price was right

The hdd are quite small but they're very good for recording music onto it using pro tools, they're really quiet and have a quick search time.

The best price now in sweden for the designer case with shipping would land on approx 1450sek - $221. I wish i lived in the States these times
Do you know if there's an european counterpart to newegg? they don't ship to sweden..

[andyb]

I found on Komplett the Solo (which looks nice, unlike the designer 500) and a good PSU, but that comes out even more than the price you quoted

http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=326412
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=335948


Andy

[Live]

Here is a link with vendors of the Designer in Sweden:

http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=197981

Here is a link to all Antec cases sorted by popularity.

http://www.prisjakt.nu/kategori.php?k=s ... =prod_rank

The Designer is about 200kr more expensive then the Sonata 3. A small price to pay for a more quite computer IMHO.

If you look for prices or places to buy electronics in Sweden http://www.prisjakt.nu is the place to go. It’s the best pricefinder I have ever seen. Web 2.0 at its finest.

[kattskralle]

Now I've got my case, i've mounted my hardware and tried it out.
I ended up buying the Designer case and a 92 mm nexus fan.

The case is not very quiet but quiet enough, the 92 mm nexus is really good, you can't hear it.

I suspect the tricool 120 mm fan is the noicemaker, i'll have to replace that. Also, my stock intel cpu cooler seem to be making a fair share of noice.

When running the included fan[tricool 120mm] at medium or high it's unacceptably loud. at low it makes a low frequency humming noice.

Overall i'm impressed by the designer 500 case. it's way more solid than i though it would be (really heavy to carry home from the post office). It's a bit tight when putting things in it, but it's ok if you havent got more than your average size hardware.

The earthwatts 500 psu got a million cables and it get's more cramped when you're trying to find places for them to go when you're only using 25% of them. Too bad their not removable. It's really quiet too.

A good buy so far

[FreeBaGeL]

I think the opertive words of cheap and student are being missed here. THe value of a Sonata III case at 120.00 is pretty hard to beat. Yes the P150 or 180 or others are better but at more cost. For the value hard to beat.

The p180b is 89.99 at newegg...

[Das_Saunamies]

Good to hear you like it.

I would definitely swap out the TriCool for silence. They're not noisy, but not silent either. There are better options and the cost is negligible. Do remember to use silicone studs or some other decoupling method!

Hard to say about the Intel cooler. Quite possibly quiet enough, but undoubtedly there are better models available. The price will start to stack up though, especially if you want to swap your VGA cooler as well.

Here's for a happy ever-after!