Antec Sonata Proto Case Review

The Disk Drive Bays

As explained, this case has the same configuration used on Sonata III 500: three external 5.25” bays, two external 3.5” bays and four internal 3.5” bays for hard disk drives. On Sonata Proto the manufacturer added a place for installing a 2.5” hard disk drive or SSD unit (see Figure 10), feature not available on previous models.

Figure 9: Disk drive bays.

Figure 10: 2.5” bay.

The installation mechanisms used for fastening disk drives are the same ones used on Sonata III 500 and Sonata Elite, except on the new 2.5” bay, which requires you to add regular screws from the bottom of the case.

The 5.25” bays use installation mechanisms based on rulers, but these rulers must be installed to the devices using regular screws. External 3.5” devices must be installed inside a cage using regular screws, although this cage is attached to the case using a screwless mechanism. And hard disk drives are installing inside small drawers using regular screws. These drawers have silicone rings to prevent the vibration generated by the hard disk drives from becoming noise.

Figure 11: Drawer for hard disk drive.