Antec Sonata, Compucase CI-C920 or other similar case in UK?

gildenman · Post by **gildenman** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 4:53 am

Hi,
Got an Antec 1080AMG a couple of days ago. I previously had a Globalwin YCC-820. This new case is so much noisier. The main problem is the hard drive whine is not baffled at all. It comes straight out the front of the case. This is due to there just being a pretty direct path out of the front of the box.
The drives were contained within the Globalwin case so this was never an issue.
I'm gonna send this thing back, but need a replacement first.

The Antec Sonata looks like it might fit the bill, but doesn't seem available in the UK yet. Anyone know different?

I've seen mention here of the Compucase 6A19:

http://211.20.198.74/online/ecase/products_new.cfm

The rubber mounted HDs, 2x120mm fans plus the extra 3.5" HD bay and external 5.25" bay seem an advantage over the Sonata. However, they show another better looking case the CI-6920.

Does anyone have experience of these Compucase cases are their web-site is rather unhelpful.

Or is their a reasonable way to make the 1080 queiter? I'd rather not make loads of mods to get it just as quiet as another case will be off the shelf.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 5:20 am

I'd scratch the Compucase oof your short-list, it's a reproduction of tne Antec Sx10x0 series and the front configuration/openings is exactly the same as the SX10x0 case. Look at the pictures of the inside of the Compucase on this page. Notice any similarities between it and your 1080AMG?

The Sonata will be a little quieter than the SX10x0 series but that's because the fron grill/bezel area is more closed off which blocks noise coming from inside the case. This is one of the reasons the Sonata runs a little hotter than a typical Antec SX10x0 series case. The more open and free-flowing the front of the case is, the more sound escapes from the inside of the case.

If your HDDs have an objectional whine but you want a free-flowing case you should think about putting the drive(s) inside a noise reduction enclosure like the Smart Drive. The darn Smart Drives are almost as expensive as a new 80GB Barracuda IV though. If it was me, I'd buy a new, quiet drive and be done with it. That way you could keep the Antec case (which has very good ventilation and can be cooled quite well with only one or two Panaflo L1As, or other low flow, low noise fan) and still have a quiet PC.

gildenman · Post by **gildenman** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 2:21 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:I'd scratch the Compucase oof your short-list, it's a reproduction of tne Antec Sx10x0 series and the front configuration/openings is exactly the same as the SX10x0 case. Look at the pictures of the inside of the Compucase on this page. Notice any similarities between it and your 1080AMG?

Yeah. The same apart from they've made the case a little wider to fit a 120mm fan at the back and various cheapening all round.
However, I was talking about the CI-6920 case:

http://211.20.198.74/online/ecase/produ ... ductid=101

It looks nicer and has 5 internal drive bays at the base. So it's just ripped off the SLK3700 then?

Ralf Hutter wrote:The Sonata will be a little quieter than the SX10x0 series but that's because the fron grill/bezel area is more closed off which blocks noise coming from inside the case. This is one of the reasons the Sonata runs a little hotter than a typical Antec SX10x0 series case. The more open and free-flowing the front of the case is, the more sound escapes from the inside of the case.

I don't mind it running a little hotter if it's quieter. I forgot to mention that this PC is in my bedroom. Where I sleep, the front of the case is about 6ft from my head. I used to leave the Globalwin case on all the time. I've found myself turning the 1080 off at night, because the hard drive noise is now too much. This is clearly a step back-wards

Ralf Hutter wrote:If your HDDs have an objectional whine but you want a free-flowing case you should think about putting the drive(s) inside a noise reduction enclosure like the Smart Drive. The darn Smart Drives are almost as expensive as a new 80GB Barracuda IV though. If it was me, I'd buy a new, quiet drive and be done with it. That way you could keep the Antec case (which has very good ventilation and can be cooled quite well with only one or two Panaflo L1As, or other low flow, low noise fan) and still have a quiet PC.

I wish I could just buy a quiet drive. I have a 7200rpm D740X Maxtor 80GB, a 5400rpm D540X Maxtor 80GB and a WD2000JB 200GB. Not so cheap to just drop them all and go for quiet drives. As i say, they were bearable in the Globalwin case, because they were contained deep inside the bowels of the thing. Although their cooling did concern me then, as there was no direct airflow over them.
Having the drives in an enclosure with it's own fan, just as the 1080 has, is great for cooling them. However, why does it have to be right next to the front of the case? That type of enclosure could be anywhere within the case and still keep the drives down to the ambient temp of the case, which is a damn sight cooler than they want to run at.
I was interested in those other cases, because they all provide rubber mounting for the drives which has got to be useful? Maybe that isn't going to help me with the whining? If I can stick with the 1080 I'd like to, because apart from the drive noise escaping the front, it's a decent case.
But, anything to get a good nights sleep

Currently I'm having to run my PC in an entirely different way, just because of the case.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 5:44 am

Ralf I cant believe you didnt even mention the 3700slk. It can be found for $70 shipped, has the rubber hd mounts and blocks noise better than the standard antec/chieftec type cases. Or you could get the sonata and maybe cut a little bit of the plastic and or metal in the front out, enough that air would flow over the drive better but still wouldnt let sound directly out. Although that will kill your waranty

Frustrating isnt it, they get so close to being a "perfect" case, and then there are little problems with each case that have to be modded to fix.

Antec should fix the bottom front of the sonata to allow more airflow without letting too much more noise out. (Maybe something similar to the evercase 4252 type front and harddrive bay). Then they should remove the side intakes as it lets sound out (and also looks kinda tacky to me). No offense to antec as they are a great company but I dont want their name stensiled across my case. If they could make a case like that and still keep it under $100US that would be great

Sorry for the rant, I guess im just passionate about computer cases.

AntecRep · Post by **AntecRep** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:50 am

Sonata should be in available in the UK/Europe soon. They've received their first shipment earlier this week, so by now they've sent out to their various customers.

SLK3700AMB should be available as well.

Worst case call our European office +31 (10) 462-2060

AntecRep

JimK · Post by **JimK** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:12 pm

Why run the Hard Drives all night if it is next to your bed? Try going into the BIOS and set the powersaving features so the drives sleep when you do. Might contribute to their cooler running and longer life too.

Jim

Gandalf · Post by **Gandalf** » Sun Mar 30, 2003 1:57 am

JimK wrote:Why run the Hard Drives all night if it is next to your bed? Try going into the BIOS and set the powersaving features so the drives sleep when you do. Might contribute to their cooler running and longer life too.

Jim

I wish I could find a programme that would just allow me to pick a harddrive (I have 3 of 'em) and tell it to power down.

frodo · Post by **frodo** » Sun Mar 30, 2003 9:39 am

It's not really that difficult to "tell" particular hard drives to sleep while others don't. I've set mine up like this.

I've got two IBM 60GXPs that are my main (RAID 0) drives. And two WD 30GB drives that are obnoxiously loud. I decoupled all the drives but realized that the WDs were still too loud. The only thing they are used for is backups (run at 2am every day) and the occasional large file (ie. movies) that need to be moved around.

Solution:
1. Set the computer to have all drives sleep after three minutes. This takes care of quietening the WDs. And the only time they are used is once a day, so they weren't going to be coming up and down all the time and ruining the drives.
2. Have some sort of client (in my case Kazaa Lite) running all the time on the drives you don't want to sleep. Because I'm running RAID 0 this means that my IBMs (which are quiet enough...for now) never go to sleep, even though I've got 2 partitions on them.

If you don't like the idea of running Kazaa or something, just have an AT job that runs every 2 minutes that creates and deletes a file, or does a dir. You might have be careful with the dir though as the machine may cache that information and not actually read the drive.

Maybe this will work for some of you.

My two cents.

Chris Ochre · Post by **Chris Ochre** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 4:10 am

I ordered one from http://www.mighty-micro.co.uk/, and they said they were getting some in today. Fingers crossed I'll get it Monday or Tuesday. Can't wait! £96.72 in total.

Haven't really been able to find them anywhere else. I'd be great if Dabs or Komplett stocked a few more Antec cases.

livedistortion · Post by **livedistortion** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 2:01 pm

Just to clear it up for Gildenman, that LX-6A19 is an OEM version of the Antec 3700, it just doesn't have the door basically. And if you go to coolcases.com it's the same as the D8000. By the way that's a great site, you can definitley get what you want there. And by the way I have alot of interest in that CI-6920 as well. I asked Jim at coolcases about it and he's going to try and get it for me, maybe he could do it for you as well. Also there are two versions of that case, one with the two 80's in front and one with a 120 and a flip door for the USB ports. They seem to be all over the place overseas, but not in the states, where do you live? I forget if you said in your post. I've also seen it with a blue bezel and silver as well as green. Maybe if Jim tracks it down we can get an order together as he may have to order multiple units to get a good price. I just can't decide if I want that one or the LX-6A19, the 6920 blows it away looks wise, but I don't know if I want to deal with a door, anyone have good experiences with cases with a door?