Which Antec case?

clv101 · 13 Nov 2006 at 17:29

Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) £78.71
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming case (CA-065-AN) £75.19

Which case? I'll be building a Core 2 Duo system one of these days. I've currently got the original Sonata, very happy with so I was naturally drawn to the Sonata II. The system isn't going to be crazy, will only have one graphics card, probably the 7600GT but I'll be looking to overclock the E6600 as far as possible. The other slightly unusual thing is that I'll have lots of HDD, at least 4 and maybe as many as 6. Quieter the better.

So given my requirements which case is better, does the Antec Nine Hundred have any key benefits over the Sonata II? I don't care about LEDs and windows! I do care about good cooling, lots of space for drives and quietness.

If I were to go for the Nine Hundred I'd need a PSU - can anyone recommend one that can cope with an overclocked E6600 and up to 6 HDD? The 7600GT is pretty low power so I shouldn't need anything crazy! I guess the PSU in the Sonata II is good enough - how much can I buy one of them on their own for?

Is the Nine Hundred as quiet as the Sonata II?

Lastly, any other cases come close to Antec that I should consider?

p4radox · 13 Nov 2006 at 18:11

Firstly I'd get an E6300 and a better graphics card, not the 6600

.

Personally, I find a case is only as quiet as the stuff you put in it, and with most cases coming with 120mm fans these days, it's relatively simple to make the system quiet.

The only reason I can see for getting an Antec is the value aspect - you get a PSU with the case at a very good price. I have 2 Antec Cases for this reason. I wouldn't go with the Nine Hundred - for me it just looks too "bling" and you need to buy a seperate PSU. I'd get an Akasa Elcipse/Lian Li PC7+ with a Seasonic PSU. The Sonata II is a good case - you can't go wrong for that price.

If you want a silent system, you'll also need quiet case fans (Nexus, Yate Loon, Akasa Amber etc), a quiet CPU cooler (eg one with a 120mm fan, or the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 etc), and a quiet graphics cooler (VF900). You might also want to consider some form of HDD sislencing, like a Silentmaxx HDD enclosure or bungee suspension (but this will be hard with 6 drives!)

clv101 · 13 Nov 2006 at 18:22

p4radox said:
Firstly I'd get an E6300 and a better graphics card, not the 6600.

I don't really play games... I think the 7600GT is already an overkil but it's quite a lot better than the 7600GS and only a little bit more money.

p4radox said:
Personally, I find a case is only as quiet as the stuff you put in it, and with most cases coming with 120mm fans these days, it's relatively simple to make the system quiet.

The only reason I can see for getting an Antec is the value aspect - you get a PSU with the case at a very good price. I have 2 Antec Cases for this reason. I wouldn't go with the Nine Hundred - for me it just looks too "bling" and you need to buy a seperate PSU. I'd get an Akasa Elcipse/Lian Li PC7+ with a Seasonic PSU. The Sonata II is a good case - you can't go wrong for that price.

If you want a silent system, you'll also need quiet case fans (Nexus, Yate Loon, Akasa Amber etc), a quiet CPU cooler (eg one with a 120mm fan, or the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 etc), and a quiet graphics cooler (VF900). You might also want to consider some form of HDD sislencing, like a Silentmaxx HDD enclosure or bungee suspension (but this will be hard with 6 drives!)

Thanks - I think I'm going to end up with the Sonata II, it is really good value. Anything that needs a PSU adding is going to be some £50 more... and for what?

Jonny L · 13 Nov 2006 at 18:28

Edit: Oh, my post isn't needed

Jonny

p4radox · 13 Nov 2006 at 18:39

clv101 said:
I don't really play games... I think the 7600GT is already an overkil but it's quite a lot better than the 7600GS and only a little bit more money.

Fair enough, can't argue with that really.

Thanks - I think I'm going to end up with the Sonata II, it is really good value. Anything that needs a PSU adding is going to be some £50 more... and for what?

Absolutely.

Arthalen · 13 Nov 2006 at 20:08

Just to add, on the quiet scale, the 900 is not a bad setup at all!

Despite its 4 fans, it is very reasonably quiet when I had chance to fire it up in a local PC shop.

Unfortunately, I've been shopping for something to install a major W/C setup in, and although the idea of a Rad sitting behind the front two fans appealed it would have left me with just two bays for HD/CD drives :/