Antec Sonata II ATX Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by SidneyWong @ 2005-10-06

AMD or Intel; ATI or Nvidia; Water Cool or Air Cool; Huge heatsink or Normal size; it does not matter here; we are talking about a new Sonata II ATX case from Antec. Unless, you are one of those fanatics who doesn't need a case at all. Armed with 1x120 mm fan and room for one more it comes with unique fan duct. Can Sonata II be a quiet case?

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Air Duct & Power Supply

Air Duct:

Dissecting the air duct -

There are two main sections of the air duct: the rear portion attaching to the rear case vent holes and the air duct main body.

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Adjustments - Left & right via the lower rear portion with set screw: Low & high / in & out using two set screws. Don't expect much of an adjustment, ~3.5cm at best in both directions.

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The bottom of the air duct is secured to the bottom with two screws.

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The main body itself has two more parts - the optional 92mm fan housing and the 80 mm fan for graphic card.

Antec suggests that if you choose to use the 80mm for the graphic card, you must install the 92mm fan for the CPU at the same time. Otherwise, this will impair the cooling effect of your graphic card and CPU cooling.


The Power Supply

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Opening the cover voided my three year warranty, it’s simply Madness.

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No voltage trim pots to be found. Two 80mm fans; one 80x80x15 the other 80x80x25 horizonally to each other.

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The 20/24 pin main with the add-on 4-pin using bayonet type engagement from the side rather than top to bottom makes it difficult to disconnect. There is one PCIe 6-pin connector; 4 SATA; 5 standard 4-pin molex and 1 4-pin for floppy connectors should provide enough plugs for many. Not pictured is the fan speed sensor wire/connector.


The last photo for now is the rear 120 mm fan using 4-pin connector and HML fan speed setting.

  • High = 2,000 rpm
  • Medium = 1,600 rpm
  • Low = 1,200 rpm

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    A word of caution; due to the design of the PSU support at the upper rear of the case, PSU removal and installation requires the removal of even low profile heatsink/fan.

    Time to do the fun installation part ->
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