Buy Antec Sonata III 500 Quiet Super Mid Tower ATX Case (Black)Antec Sonata III 500 Quiet Super Mid Tower ATX Case (Black) Product Description:
- Metal double hinge door opens up to 225 degrees
- Constructed from 0.8-millimeter cold rolled steel for durability
- Built-in washable air filter to keep dust out of your case
- Front-mounted USB, eSATA, HDA, and AC'97 audio in/out ports
Product Description
EarthWatts 500 Watt power supply (80 PLUS certified) Front mounted USB, eSATA, HDA & AC 97 Audio In/Out ports 9 Drive Bays: - 3 x 5.25" external drive bays - 2 x 3.5" external drive bays - 4 x 3.5" internal drive bays in individual trays with silicone grommets to absorb hard drive vibrations Cooling System: - 1 rear 120mm Tricool fan (standard) with 3-speed control to balance quiet with cooling - 1 front 120mm case fan (optional) Motherboards up to Standard ATX
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
By Don Young
This is an excellent case for my home theater needs. Very quiet and extremely well put together. Installing the motherboard and drives was very easy. The locking front is absolutely essential if you have young children. It prevents them from powering on and off the system. I previously had one of my hard drives crashed by one of my cute little button pusher. Thank goodness for backups. Could not ask for a better case in this price point.
93 of 115 people found the following review helpful.
By S. Roberts
There is a very big and annoying problem with this product. It does not adequately discharge static electricity. If it has been running for a while and you, or your pet, brushes up against the metalic insert on the front of the panel, you can discharge your energy and crash the system. This happens all the time for me when inserting a USB drive. Antec is aware of the problem, here is their response: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.UPDATE 3/17/08: As an update, Antec has come up with a solution. they have replaced the front silver metallic panel with a flat piano black panel. I have yet to see if this will fix the problem, but I think that bodes well to their commitment to fixing the issue.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
By KJ
This case is nice and sleek, had good access to ports and is quiet on the low or medium setting, but a bit loud on high. It would be nice to adjust the fan speed from the exterior (it is on about an 8in cable inside the case and would take some work to get it on the outside). I haven't had any the static problems that others reported (had it since beginning of Feb '10). The case is a nice black piano finish everywhere except the front, which is black plastic. The front panel is nice and opens wide (I have a 2 yr old, and a 9 month old who is starting to walk and it keeps them out of the optical drives/card reader I have installed). I didn't have any cuts from the metal from the initial install or when adding all the extra hard drives and re-routing cables, but there are a few sharp edges, so be mindful. Also, one of the rubber feel fell off when I was sliding it back into my desk, but it caught on an edge (it went right back on and have had no problems since, but it's only glued on not screwed). The internals are nice too. The front panel cables are long enough to reach near the back if your motherboard has connections toward the rear. The motherboard installed easily, and the power supply has plenty of power connectors (see Antec's web site for specifics). I don't think it will work with dual video cards though. I have 2 optical drives, card reader and 3 hd (going to ad a 4th soon) and the power supply still has extras if I need it. The hard drives have rubber gromets that isolate them. There are a few areas that allow you to tuck away the extra cables to keep the case clean. There's not a cable management system, but it was easy to zip tie where I wanted to to keep things clean and organized.Air: I initially used only the single 120mm fan on medium and everything kept cool, so I put it on low and found that everything was still very cool. When moving large files though, my hard drives got a little warm, so I added a second Antec Tri-cool 120mm fan in the front to help. It actually mounts in the middle of the case (if looking at the side-shot photo) just to the left of the hard drives. This is ok, but I had to move a few wires around since this is right where all my SATA and front panel hookups are on my motherboard. Not a big deal though, and my hard drives are running a little cooler. The power supply is also amazingly quiet and, along with my hard drives during larger transfers, is the only thing that gets even SLIGHTLY warm with my setup. Overall, still quiet running the rear fan on med or low and my front (middle) fan on low. The front fan isn't even necessary though, just thought I'd add one since they're under $15. Can't even tell the cpu fan is running, and can barely hear my caviar black hard drive and 2 older western digital ide drives.My setup: - This case - AMD Athlon II x2 240 w/stock fan & radiator - Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H Micro ATX Motherboard - Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 XMS3 4 GB PC3-12800 Core i5 Memory Kit (yes, it works on an AMD system too) - Windows 7 - 2 120mm fans (1 included (rear), 1 added in front (mounts behind hard drives) - 1tb wd caviar black hdd, 2 wd ide hdd
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