Antec Sonata Elite Case Review

Inside Sonata Elite

Both panels are fastened to the case using thumbscrews, which is excellent. On Sonata III 500 the right panel is permanently attached to the chassis and thus not removable. The side panels from Sonata Elite have a polycarbonate layer to absorb noise. In Figure 7 we have an overall look from inside Sonata Elite.

Figure 7: Overall look.

The motherboard tray is permanently attached to the chassis, as it happens on most cases. Unfortunately this tray doesn’t have an opening on the area where the CPU is located, so if you want to upgrade your CPU cooler in the future with a model that comes with a different kind of back plate you will need to remove the motherboard from the case in order to install it. On the other hand, Sonata Elite does come with a couple of holes for you to route cables from behind the motherboard tray, organizing the cables inside the case and improving the internal airflow.

Figure 8: A view from behind the motherboard tray.

Daughter boards are fastened to the case using regular screws. It would be nice seeing at least thumbscrews here.

Figure 9: Rear panel viewed from inside the case.

Sonata Elite comes with a 120 mm blower to remove hot air from the case. It is installed above the expansion slots and thus primarily targeted to remove the hot air produced by the video cards. It has a three-speed switch (low, medium and high) and uses a standard peripheral power plug, so you can’t install it on the motherboard to monitor its speed. This device is not present on Sonata III 500.

Figure 10: Blower.

Figure 11: Blower installed.