Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail

Antec does it again

Reviewed By: Boogerlip Jonez on 9/10/2007

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Nice power supply, plenty of room, quiet, it looks awful pretty.

Cons: Stupid feet! They fall off very easily

Other Thoughts: Overall I love this case. I've been using Atec cases for a while and this one is nice. The adhesive on the feet is corny but I can get past that. Still a well made case

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Static discharge issue

Reviewed By: SR on 2/20/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

Pros: Well laid out case. I love the ability to pull out the drives very very easily.

Cons: Horrible static discharge problem. Search the internet for Antec Sonata Static problem. If I touch the front of the case without discharging myself, or my dog comes close to the case, the screen will go blank or blue and it will sometimes restart.

Other Thoughts: This problem is confirmed by Antec and I would not recommend buying until it is fixed. From Antec support:

Comment: 1. We are working on this problem with a high priority, and have already tested multiple proposed fixes. Unfortunately, the problem is turning out to be more difficult than anticipated. The case is currently being tested in a special ESD lab.
2. The metallicized plastic IS grounded. That fact is one of the reasons this problem is proving so difficult to pin down.
3. We cannot refund monies that were not paid to us, but if a customer needs help returning product to a distributor we can usually help arrange that if the distributor is being uncooperative.
4. We actually expect an answer fairly soon, and as soon as we can we will be making it available to customers encountering this problem. We definitely apologize for the inconvenience, but Antec is well known for the quality of its customer service and for the way we stand behind our products.

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Terrific Case

Reviewed By: ehidle on 2/9/2010

Tech Level: high - Ownership: more than 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Quiet, heavy, solid case. I've built dozens of PCs with this chassis and never had an issue with them. USB front port ESD tested just fine to +/- 4kV contact and +/- 8kV air discharge. Air filter is a nice touch. Case design is nice and goes with most modern office decor.

Cons: Needs the following improvements: Fewer molex power connectors and more SATA power connectors. Change 6-pin PCI-e power connectors to 6+2pin. Ditch the switch+molex on the case fan and put a SYSFAN power connector on it. They need to start putting stronger power supplies in these. 500W is easily overcome in a modern SLI/XFire setup. Needs longer USB header cable for front ports for better cable routing. The option of an additional cooling fan in the front would be nice, but for most systems built with this case and stock supply, the factory cooling is absolutely sufficient.

Other Thoughts: This case was not really designed to be a 1000W gaming rig. The stock 500W will support a hot CPU and a nice pair of video cards (a 200W GPU setup and 130W CPU leave plenty of room for the mobo and drives). You can't eat your cake and have it too, so if you want to build a 3-way SLI setup with 9800 GX2s and put 800-1000W in this box, you can't also have it be quiet with the fans running at low speed. The stock P/S has a temperature-sensitive fan, and while the switch on the case fan is inconvenient, the fan still does its job. High power = high fan speed = noise. There's no way around that. You can do more for cooling simply be routing your cables properly than you can by adding a fan. Obstructing air flow with bad cable dressing is the #1 mistake that home PC builders make.

i7-920 + GB X58A-UD3R + 6GB + 9800GX2 @ Standard Clocks

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Solid purchase

Reviewed By: tehclong3435 on 2/8/2010

Tech Level: high - Ownership: more than 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Very solid case, I bought two of them in Jan. 08. One for a media center (I put the feet on the side put it in the av rack) and another as a gaming machine for a roommate. The 120mm fan is very quiet and effective, the side loading drive bays are great, and 500w psu included. awesome.
A great solid case, 2 years ownership no problems

Cons: The blue power light on the front can be quite bright in a media center scenario... but when it goes into sleep mode it flashes... also quite brightly. unless you need a good night-light, don't plug it in.

Other Thoughts: 2 years and 2 of these cases, no problems at all, still running the original power supplies.... that's why I bought a 3rd one yesterday for my new workstation.

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Reviewed By: JAOmega on 1/28/2010

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: The case is quiet, and stays cool, even with fewer fans then any other PC I built.
the case is small, which is nice and easier to put in place then a full tower.

Cons: The case comes with an variable speed fan. This is a nice feature (sound/heat). There is no place built into the case to allow the user to adjust it w/o opening the case.
The black finish scratches *very* easily.

Other Thoughts: I recommend the case.

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