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
Conclusion: Time for a Change
Antec's venerable Sonata line feels largely unchanged from its first iteration. That's not entirely a bad thing: aesthetically the Sonata IV is easily one of the sleekest, most attractive enclosures we've tested, and the way the airflow is designed feels about as good as it's going to get without additional hardware and size. For a modest system, the Sonata IV's aesthetics and the included power supply make some sense.
The problem is that the Sonata IV seems to only begrudgingly advance forward. The routing system for the USB 3.0 feels tacked on, as does the extremely problematic mounting system for the SSD. And there's just no sign of any of the advances made over the past few years in enclosure design, many of which Antec helped pioneer. Antec's representative made it clear that the Sonata IV isn't really aimed at enthusiasts. Fair enough, and I can certainly see where they're coming from.
The problem is that a lot of the changes that have appeared in enthusiast cases as of late just make sense from a practical perspective. Intel's heatsink mounting system has sucked since LGA 775 first showed up, it continues to suck with LGA 1155/1156/1366 today, and will continue to suck for the foreseeable future (LGA 2011). Until someone over there wakes up and realizes how terrible the push-pin system is, case designers are going to have to account for it, and that means putting a cutout in the motherboard tray. Likewise, I appreciate Antec including a decent power supply with the Sonata IV, but there's nowhere for the cables to go except cramming them into the open 5.25" bays.
Finally, there's the price tag, and even their rep admitted the MSRP was a bit too high. The Sonata IV released at $169, and can be found at $159 today. Antec's working on getting it lower, and in the meantime the Sonata III will remain available as an alternative. You sacrifice the USB 3.0 connectivity and some video card clearance, but $130 shipped is a lot easier to swallow when you consider that it includes a 500W EarthWatts, 80 Plus Bronze certified power supply. The best price we can find on the Sonata IV is $149 shipped, so at first glance it seems like $19 more for an extra 120W on the PSU, but that's only part of the story; you need to look at what you're really paying for.
With the Sonata IV you're getting a $65 power supply included for "free," which leaves you paying $90 for the case itself--and there's currently a $20 mail-in rebate on the Neo Eco 620W PSU, so it's really a $45 power supply! The Sonata III on the other hand includes a similar case with a $60 power supply, leaving the case costing just $70. Simply put, the EarthWatts 500W is a better PSU than the Neo Eco 620W, which leaves the Sonata IV with too high a price tag for a case that just hasn't advanced with the competition. It's not bad, but it's not the improvement over the Sonata III that it should've been.
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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.