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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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.