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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Bozo - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
I stopped buying a lot of Antec cases because of the power supply mounting. That goofy cross bar makes changing a power supply a real pain, usually requiring the motherboard to be removed.If the crossbar was an inch lower or installed with screws, that would be great.
I still buy other Antec cases though. Ones that are easily serviceable.
just4U - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
I can honestly say that I've used 100s of Sonata Cases over the years and I am a fairly casual builder (10-40 systems a year) The III had some failure rates on the PSU for a time... and they've always been a bit of a pain to get in and out. The bottom feet were nice until glue gave way and they fell off to.I've emailed antec many times to make suggestions for case changes... but minimal stuff. Adding a window that sort of deal. Out of all their cases I think I still like the Super Lan-Boy as it had a similiar design to the Sonata's interior but had alot of polish to it as well. Would love to see a return to that with brushed black aluminum and ever so slight changes. But no.. they have gone gaudy and big of late and are screwing with designs that really worked. It's a shame.
When the price comes down I will likely start buying the IVs.. although your review sugggests there will be things about it I definitely dont like it's still nice to get a case with an included decent psu for a very reasonable price. (currently its not reasonable though so .. yeah)
shkup - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
I had two Sonata cases 1 and 3 gen.It was a great case. A super silent solution.
The problem is that for new builds with cards like GTX-570 it's just not enough.
There is no cable management, Not enough cooling, the PSU is located at upper section of the case and the design is far from real tooless design.
Antec should reinvent this case.
Maybe 3 140MM fans and solitude will make a worthy product.
At the mean time I got a LanCool PC-K62B which is quite silent and has very high finishing quality.
Anyway, I'll always have sympathy to the Sonata line.
ehume - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
Learned my lesson with the first 4480-II I bought. It should never have been for sale in 2009. And now this dinosaur. It might as well be a Dell. Antec is coasting on their rep.ditroia - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
It's a decent case.Optical Drive rail instillation is easy, just make sure to use the lower wholes and have the clips point out where the door is.
The HDD goes in easy as well, and it's easy to plug in. there's some room at the bottom inside right to store the cables for PWR/Reset/HDD Light & front USB/Audio etc.
The USB3 front cable is a nuisance to deal with while installing it should have been fed under our around the MB back plate.
The case comes with lots of screws in three different bags & cable ties.
There are plenty of Power cables with the included power supply and a little bit of space to bundle the left over ones together.
The fan comes with a male/female molex connector. and works well.
it can be had for $187AU and would recommend for first time builder on medium budget who wants front USB3, and a nice quiet case.
Otherwise I would recommend the Lian-Li (Lancool) PC-K57 which also has front USB3, and 2 fans for $98 plus a Silverstone Strider Plus 600W ST60F-P for $99AU, for a total of: $197AU or $10 more. but that gets you a modular PSU,and a case with better cooling.
Cheers
Dave
kevith - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
Will it not increase HDD wear to store them vertically? All bearings and other movable parts will be stressed much more on one side than on the other.BernardP - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
More and more motherboards are appearing with the new standard header for front USB 3.0 ports. As USB 3.0 ports are compatible with USB 2.0 connectors, case manufacturers should rush to implement dual front USB 3.0 ports.Instead, we are getting only a trickle of cases that are compatible with the new internal header, while it's mostly business as usual for USB 2.0 front ports.
Plugging a front USB 3.0 port into the back panel was good only as a stopgap while there was no USB 3.0 internal header standard.
enterco - Monday, June 13, 2011 - link
I own a Sonata III, and I'm happy with it. I know that it doesn't feature 'cable management', but Sonata III's design allows ti hide most of the cables behind 5.25" bays and/or 3.5" hard drive bays. I can also route hard disk cables on the back side. Sonata III lacks SSD mounting adapter, but it's still better than Sonata IV, IMO. Sonata IV is using a totally different airflow, forcing users to leave the cables visible.About the USB 3 front connector: routing the connector to the back of the case it's not a very good idea. I'd rather build a system with a front USB panel, instead of using this method.
TrackSmart - Monday, June 13, 2011 - link
I partly agree. I love my Sonata III and don't plan to change it anytime soon. It was a great value at the time (1.5 yrs ago) for a classy, quiet case, with a high quality, high efficiency powersupply. But we are halfway into 2011 and the street price is now $130 for the same case i purchased for $100 back then. That's definitely a step in the wrong direction and makes it less of a bargain than it used to be.semo - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
I didn't even bother using the SSD mount on the Sonata IV. I didn't think it was a good idea to bend the SATA connectors that much permanently.