Sonata 2 vs Akasa Zen

Northwind · 14 Oct 2006 at 23:10

Which would win in a square go? Both look alright to me, fairly similiar spec, similiar price (well, Sonata costs way more but comes with PSU, Zen I'd need to buy a PSU which would make them about the same) Any advantages or disadvantages to either? Nothing out of the ordinary about what'll go inside it, still to pick out a mobo and CPU cooler but initially it'll be a Pentium D 2.8, which will be overclocked as far as it'll go and probably fitted with a Zalman 9700 cooler. 2 hard drives, one optical, 7900GT card at conservative clocks...

Any other cases in that range I should consider? I'm not going to be modding it, a case is a box for putting stuff in as far as I'm concerned

GinG · 15 Oct 2006 at 10:43

Hi There,

I have a sonata 2 running my overclocked conroe rig.

I feel that the airflow isnt too good, however i have fixed that by cutting away at the HDD mounts in order for nice airflow from the front.

I feel it needs to have a fan mounted on the side and top of the case too as it gets a bit toasty in there!

Its a great looking case and would fit all your components in no problem, i just feel it needs a little tweaking

Cant comment on the Zen, however i do think it looks rather nice

johnno · 15 Oct 2006 at 11:09

i heard the sonata 2 has got pretty bad airflow aswell. this is what stopped me from buying it. got a lian-li pc7+ and have never looked back.

Northwind · 15 Oct 2006 at 18:24

That's handsome, that Lian Li... Hmm. Thanks folks! I think the Zen's probably edging it, but then I have a track record of making the wrong choice

vincent1989 · 15 Oct 2006 at 18:34

TBH i have the sonata II, the case is nice, but the power supply has a lot to be desired, while its a decent brand, they don't seem to put the same care into the PSU's they put in there cases as the 'stand alone units' for example, after 6 months mine developed a squeal, just loud enough to hear, but it's bloody annoying, also, the 'emergeny' fan it has doesnt seem to work, to the point of my computer turning off when it gets to hot, this is a problem only with the PSU, not CPU as i have checked the temps of my 3500+ and they're fine, and, TBH it hasn't been 100% stable since i bought the sonata II, i would have RMA'd it when it got the squeal, but, alas, i lost my damned reciept :mad:

btw, these are problems quite a few people have had with the PSU supplied with the Sonata II, just do a google search, you'll find loads

no_1_dave · 15 Oct 2006 at 18:58

Northwind said:
Which would win in a square go? Both look alright to me, fairly similiar spec, similiar price (well, Sonata costs way more but comes with PSU, Zen I'd need to buy a PSU which would make them about the same) Any advantages or disadvantages to either? Nothing out of the ordinary about what'll go inside it, still to pick out a mobo and CPU cooler but initially it'll be a Pentium D 2.8, which will be overclocked as far as it'll go and probably fitted with a Zalman 9700 cooler. 2 hard drives, one optical, 7900GT card at conservative clocks...

Any other cases in that range I should consider? I'm not going to be modding it, a case is a box for putting stuff in as far as I'm concerned

Akasa Zen

a1ex2001 · 16 Oct 2006 at 09:45

If your going to argue it on airflow then it's faily even the Zen may have the two fan mounts in the right place but the lack of any decent size vents on the front seriously hampers the intake.

Personally I've had no problems with the power supply in my sonata and it's comming up to it's first birthday now obviously that doesn't mean you won't but everyone should be aware that generally speaking it's much easier to find criticism than compliment on the Net as happy customers don't often feel the same need to post!

If I was buying my rig again I'd have saved an extra few quid and got a PC7 but overall I can't complain about the sonata and even if I do replace it for my main rig I think I'll have it in some capacity for a long time to come.

gt_junkie · 16 Oct 2006 at 11:59

Zen would be my choice also!

gt

Zen8 · 16 Oct 2006 at 15:00

a1ex2001 said:
If your going to argue it on airflow then it's faily even the Zen may have the two fan mounts in the right place but the lack of any decent size vents on the front seriously hampers the intake.

Yeah, that's the conclusion Custom PC mag came to, very restrictive front intake on the Zen.

A trick with the Sonata is to use the hdd cage fan, but seal off that cage as much as pos, so the fan is forced to suck air from the intake, rather than simply recirculating air within the case.