Antec Sonata IV vs. Progress: Round Four
by Dustin Sklavos on June 10, 2011 5:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Antec
- Sonata
Assembling the Antec Sonata IV
If nothing else, the Sonata IV is pretty easy to figure out, and though it may be missing a lot of modern accoutrement it isn't lacking in polish. Unfortunately there's one specific element to the design that makes the entire thing a little more difficult than it ought to be: the crossbar.
The crossbar that supports the power supply, coupled with the power supply's lack of modular cabling, means you're going to have to shimmy the motherboard in a bit. It's not a huge nuisance but it makes things a little difficult. And to anyone suggesting removing the power supply first, have I got a story for you.
During acoustic and thermal testing of the Sonata IV, the 620W Neo ECO power supply gave up the ghost--never a good thing. This is the first time I've seen an Antec PSU die, and it's not a cheap-sauce over-specced part. I'm really inclined to blame this squarely on bad luck, because the replacement unit was able to handle our overclocked workload perfectly fine. But when the first one went, there weren't any sparks or anything like that, the computer just shut down and the power supply emitted a soft buzzing. Antec rushed me a replacement power supply, and it was there that I truly experienced the most frustrating part of the assembly.
The crossbar that supports the power supply also makes it impossible to remove the power supply without also removing the heatsink from the processor, and for some heatsinks this is an exercise in "easier said than done". Missing the Allen wrench required to remove our testing heatsink, I wound up having to remove the entire motherboard to swap out the power supply. There really is just no easy way to do it. Now I know why Antec included such a beefy unit to begin with, because upgrading the PSU is a PITA.
Mounting the drive sleds to the 5.25" drive was easy enough, as was mounting the rails to the 3.5" hard drive. 3.5" drives are now secured to the case using easy-to-remove thumbscrews, and the arrangement does ensure proper airflow. Getting the 2.5" SSD we use for testing mounted was, however, another major issue.
The mounting system they use for a 2.5" SSD has two serious problems. The first is that while it's space economical, lining up the thumbscrews to attach to the bottom of the drive through the holes in the drive cage is an exercise in frustration. There's no way to sugar coat it: this is needlessly difficult to do. Yet even when you do manage to get it mounted, you'll be confronted with another problem: there isn't enough clearance between the lip of the drive cage and the drive connectors. I wound up having to remove the drive, connect the power and SATA cables, and then squeeze it back into place. This is a problem that could've been avoided by moving the drive mounts a few millimeters toward the right side, but that still doesn't correct the poorly conceived mounting system.
Thankfully, getting the video card installed wasn't a big deal. While I wouldn't even try getting a Radeon HD 6990 or GTX 590 into this case, our GTX 580 fit without too much fuss. Cards that connect the power cables to the back instead of the top are going to be more problematic, but clearance is reasonable enough.
Finally, getting everything wired up is difficult for two reasons: there's no cable management to speak of, and the lack of a modular power supply means you wind up with a lot of extra harnesses on most systems. The latter can be ameliorated by simply swapping in another power supply (thus defeating the purpose of using a Sonata IV), but the former has no real solution. Antec probably should've widened the case and allowed for cables to be routed/stashed behind the motherboard tray, especially for a design so dependent on clean airflow. Clearance between the top of the motherboard and the bottom of the power supply means more trouble with the AUX 12V line.
On the flip side, the Neo ECO includes the needed cables to connect the GTX 580 we used in testing: 6-pin PCI-E and 6+2-pin PCI-E connectors are present, both through a single cable. I get the sense Antec expects builds using the Sonata IV to peak at about the configuration we use. Certainly we've powered dual GPUs off of lower wattage PSUs, but if you want to stick with AMD/NVIDIA spec you'll want at least 600W for SLI/CF builds.
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inspire3 - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Nice Review.I hope Antec uses this review to get back to being the leader in cases again. I've bought my first Cooler Master case in a long time (Centurion 5 was the last CM I bought). Now I am buying a CM HAF 932. Its looking like I'll be moving to CM or InWin. :( Come on Antec, Longer and Wider cases.
I have a P182, P183 and 2 300 cases.
fb39ca4 - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
That's what she said.This case looks kind of disappointing. You could get a $50 dollar case with more features, a decent 600w psu and quieter fans for less.
TrackSmart - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
I've always liked the Sonata line (My current build is in a Sonata III), but I'm not sure that Antec has gone far enough in this rebuild to justify the higher price. Some observations:On the old Sonata III I had to put the fan-control wire through the back of the case so I could change the speed without opening the case (kind of ghetto). I'm glad such "hacks" are no longer necessary. That said, why doesn't Antech include a smarter fan whose speed can be controlled by the motherboard? It's now a $160 case - they can afford to do that now.
And the price increase seems unnecessary. There are few new features. The beauty of the previous models was that for $90 - $100 (online) you got a classy looking case, that was reasonably quiet and came with a quality powersupply. At the current price point, there's a lot more competition, and Antec hasn't stepped up their game in terms of features or design.
I *have* seen a failed Antec PSU (on my previous Antec case). But you know what? Even though the case was 2 years and 11 months old (on month away from the end of the warranty) Antec sent me a new one and didn't fuss in the least about it. So they have earned some loyalty from me for their good customer service.
I just wish they'd stop being just a few easy steps away from making a truly gread case!
TrackSmart - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
One last thing: Nice review. It's sad the the street price of the old Sonata III seems to be *higher* than it used to be. Given how it's aged, I couldn't justify spending $120 on it for a new build.Dustin, what's your new recommendation for the $100 price bracket? (Something with a design that an adult won't be embarrassed to have in the family room.)
nowayout99 - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
I like Antec's Sonata line. I've used a Solo for 2 build generations now because I wasn't able to find a suitable newer replacement for my Sandy Bridge build a few months back. It even has decent cable management to boot.I like the Sonata line because they're clean and simply designed. They're almost old fashioned in their simplicity by today's gaudy standards. Cases are getting bigger, uglier and louder, which is turning me off every step of the way. Openings for half a dozen fans = more noise = wrong direction for me.
All that being said, the Sonata line could use some update tweaking. They don't need to reinvent the wheel as far as how HDDs or PSUs are mounted. Does it REALLY matter? Just keep it true to its purpose -- clean, simple and quiet.
rgsaunders - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Local pricing in Kingston, ON is 109.99 after $20 MIR, quite reasonable considering the enhanced power supply, however, I do think it is time for them to make the case a little deeper and wider so that enthusiast level components can be fitted easily, Antec needs to do a little demographic research.Hrel - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
It's overpriced and doesn't offer silent enough operation or tooless enough design.velis - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
I had sonata 1 and I almost laughed when I read about all the woes you had:I had the exact same problems with PSU in the original. That crossbar is insane and to top it all off, the PSU vibrates against it (in time) which was the ultimate reason I changed the case for.
Also the video card clearance - OK, they added half an inch, but that is only enough for mid-high end cards - this is ridiculous. I don't buy dual GPU cards, but still I'd like enough clearance to not break my fingers every time I mess with my gfx card.
And finally the drive mounting: I must say I liked the mounting in the original Sonata: it reduced the vibrations and made more than enough room for my drives, all of them easily manageable. The only thing I missed was the pre-mounted power and sata connectors so that I could just slide the drive in and it would be plugged in already.
Looking at the pictures and reading your woes, I see that they got even worse in the latest generations: I now have a P180 and its bottom drive bay is a nightmare to handle. You break your fingers and still the cables rattle against the fan mounted 5cm after the darn thing.
While at P180 I must also say comment on those tri-speed fans: they are a bunch of rattles. The only tolerable setting is low and that one does not cool. I ordered decent fans TOGETHER with the P180 order and replaced them immediatley. They never saw a volt from my PSU.
I moved to P180 because I hoped for better cooling. SPCR was praising the case left and right. Turns out the Sonata was just as good. I went water after that.
That said I must agree that this is one of the most beautiful cases around...
Any chance for a review of a really minimalistic case? As small as possible still fitting an ATX Motherboard?
Dustin Sklavos - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
I had a P182 and honestly I kind of miss it. Cooling is very effective, and the P183 does solve a lot of the problems the P182 had: there's a hole in the motherboard tray for heatsink backplates, and that stupid center fan in the bottom chamber was moved to the front of the case.Once I've cleared my current queue of cases, I'll start explicitly requesting some smaller cases.
Daeros - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
I built my most recent computer a bit over 2 years ago now, and I love my case. I have the antec 300, and it is fantastic. No, it isn't silent, but it supports a 3.8GHz overclock on an i7 920 and xfire 4870s with no issues. and it idles very quiet. Just don't get the one with the crummy 2 speed led fans. Plus it only $60, leaving plenty left over for a very nice psu of your choice.