In and Around the Antec Sonata IV

Superficially, the Antec Sonata IV looks very similar to the Sonata III. The overall fit and finish is extremely clean: the front panel and drive door are an attractive matte plastic, while the rest of the enclosure is SECC steel with the top, bottom, and sides painted black. The back of the Sonata IV is pretty familiar, with the power supply at the top, an I/O shield, and then seven expansion slots.

One of the first big changes is the inclusion of a USB 3.0 port on the front of the enclosure, and it's routed to the back to connect to the I/O cluster. You'll also notice if you look below the ports that there's no front ventilation to the Sonata IV, and if you open the door to the power and reset buttons and the drive bays, there's no external 3.5" bay. Antec includes a 3.5"-to-5.25" adapter kit for just this purpose. 5.25" drives are also removable using attachable drive sleds that are concealed behind the bay covers.

So where did the ventilation go? To the right side of the case, actually. There's a vent on the right side that allows air to flow in through the hard drive bays and into the body proper. This vent is removable and can be easily cleaned.

When I opened the case I found the arrangement very familiar. The major change is in the way the hard drives are mounted in the Sonata IV. Every generation prior, they were mounted horizontally in drive trays that were fairly easy to remove (although the specialized screws needed for the rubber standoffs were also fairly easy to lose). In the Sonata IV, there are unusual rails that have the screws built into them, and the drives mount vertically, basically stacking two to a row. It isn't a bad system necessarily, but it's also not as convenient as previous generations. Antec's representative told us it was altered to accommodate the change in cooling design.

In the wall of the drive cage there are also four mounting points for a 2.5" drive, which can be secured with thumbscrews. There are no silicon grommets here to reduce vibration; this was designed specifically for SSDs. Unfortunately as you'll see in assembly, this solution leaves a lot to be desired.

As for the rest of the Sonata IV's internal design, the enclosure feels almost anachronistic. The power supply is mounted to the top of the case instead of the bottom and supported by a cross bar. There's no cutout in the motherboard tray for aftermarket cooling and no cable routing, an issue exacerbated by the included power supply which lacks modular cabling. The power supply's bottom-mounted fan seems to be there to aid in exhausting hot air through the case along with the single 120mm Antec TriCool fan. That fan's control is mounted to the back of the enclosure, so at least you don't have to pop it open to control the fan speed.

Introducing the Antec Sonata IV Assembling the Antec Sonata IV
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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.

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