Accessories and Getting Inside:

   Before we take a look inside, you'll want to know what other items you get with the case. In addition to the requisite baggie of screws and standoffs, you also get an Antec case badge/sticker, keys (for the side panel and front door), power cord, a nice multi-lingual manual with a case diagram, and a "Thank You" letter for purchasing an Antec case. Overall, when buying this case, which has been explicitly packaged for retail consumption, you'll get a little more than with most cases. The manual was by far more detailed than other manuals I've seen - though you shouldn't need to consult it for proper assembly.

   Getting into this case is easy; you need only remove two thumbscrews on the left side panel and then push the side panel door handle forward to disengage the latch and allow the side panel to be removed. The side panel will basically come out, sideways, though you may have to swing it towards the front a little at first; if you've used these Antec side panels before, you'll know what I mean. Putting the side panel back in place is even easier - if you're not going to be moving your case a lot, you need not even use the thumbscrews as the handle's latch will suffice in keeping the door in place. If, however, you move the Sonata a lot, say to take to LAN parties, I'd suggest using the thumbscrews as a secure means of attachment.
 

Accessories: Manual, thank-you note, baggie of screws, standoffs, etc., keys and case badge.	Top thumbscrew; one more at the bottom must be removed as well.
Side panel comes out easily.	You can see the handle, lock and stamped "Antec" logo a little better.

   The top and right side are one piece of metal, and this piece has been riveted onto the case chassis, making removal both impractical and difficult. Of course, you don't need to remove the other side panel since the case uses drive rails for the 5.25" drives and has removeable cages for the 3.5" drives. However, it would have been nice to be able to, since a modular design often helps when one wants to modify a case.

  With the side panel removed, you can perhaps get a better idea of the "Antec" logo that adorns or perhaps mars it. Looking at the inside of the case, we again see some similarities to the X-Sonic case, which itself resembles Antec's LANBOY case. A horizontal bar runs from the back to almost all the way up front, and lends additional stability to the case as well as providing support for the PSU. This bar undoubtedly makes installation a bit more troublesome, but in the end it does bring a little more quality to the case.

Side internal view.	Front drive bays.
HDD bays/trays slide out sidewards.	There are four independent HDD trays.

   Looking at the upper front, you can see the familiar Antec design that uses drive rails to hold all of the 5.25" drives in place; some may love drive rails, and some may detest them because of the trouble it takes, sometimes, to get a drive's faceplate aligned with the front bezel.

   However, Antec's drive rails have always been nice for me, and with this case and its non-removeable right side, drive rails are a must. The most interesting aspect of the inside of the case, however, has to be the cage that supports up to four HDDs. In a somewhat unusual arrangement also seen in the Enermax CS-10182, the drives are inserted into the cage from the side, not from the front or back.

   Even nicer, are the independent trays for each HDD; the tray is what each HDD will be screwed/attached to, and it is the tray that then slides into the cage and snaps into place with a resounding "click", in much the same way that drive rails clip into place. I found each tray was held very sturdily in place, so there was no room for movement and hence unwanted clatter or vibration.

  The PSU itself is a quality Antec 380w-rated unit; as I said before, when you buy this case, you at least know that you won't have to spend extra money on a good PSU; heck, the PSU here is worth quite a bit by itself! Unlike in some other cases, it has been mounted with ample support, so it won't be sagging downward as if only the four screws were holding it in place.

   On the back, you'll be able to see the external 4-pin molex connector I commented on earlier; the cap covering this connector is somewhat hard to remove, there being no grips on it, but once it's out of place, you can have the convenience of plugging in components to test them, without having to open up your case; this is ideal for testing fans, lights, or other devices that are meant to be powered off of a computer's PSU.

   Feature-wise, the PSU comes with seven 4-pin HDD-type molex connectors, two FDD power connectors, and AUX, +12V and ATX connectors; the ATX power cable's 20 wires have been sheathed/wrapped for neatness. Other additional connectors are two "Fan-Only" connectors, meant to power, you guessed it, fans; any fans plugged in here will have their supplied voltage regulated by the PSU depending on temperature. Thus, your fans will spin faster when the PSU's temperature sensor records a higher reading than when it records a lower one - this is a nice feature, but even in the manual, Antec recommends that if you overclock or even game a lot, that you do *not* use these Fan-Only connectors, and instead plug them into a regular 12V supply to get the full speed out of them, at all times.

   The last connector is a 3-pin one, meant to plug into one of your motherboard's fan headers. This connector does not draw power from the mobo, but will rather just send its RPM reading to the mobo so you can use a program like MBM 5 to monitor the PSU fan's speed.

 

Fan-Only connectors and PSU fan header for monitoring its RPM.	Rear 120mm fan mount is in a nice position.
Mobo tray is non-removeable.	Slot covers are replaceable.

  In the upper back of the case, you can see the large mount for a 120mm fan; this spot is ideal since it's right near the CPU area, so removing hot air from this area should help in lowering your CPU's temperature.

   The grill, while still a factory punch, isn't so bad, being in a honeycomb configuration that allows a decent amount of air to flow out of the case. Also at the back of the case, you can see that the slot covers are held in place by screws and are replaceable - far better than tear out slot covers, which are pretty much worthless.

   The mobo tray of this case does not provide a lot of room; the top of your motherboard will come near to the PSU, and it's likely you'll have to install the heatsink onto your CPU before installing the motherboard into the case, especially with AMD CPUs. This is not helpful, especially since the motherboard tray is not removeable.

   Additionally, if you have a larger motherboard, it'll come close to the edge of any drive you have in the lowest 5.25" bay, especially if the drive is quite long; most optical drives nowadays conform to the smaller standard and are around only 20cm in length, so this shouldn't be a major problem. However, don't think this case will be like your SX1030 - space comes at a premium in this case compared to most other towers.

  A standard ATX I/O panel is provided, but with most motherboards nowadays, you get an I/O shield meant to accommodate the included layout, and since these shields are exchangeable, there should be no problem. You can also see that the standard front panel connectors have been grouped together in a ribbon cable for tidiness, but strangely, the Power Switch connector is separate.

   The 4-pin power connector and pass-through pictured above is for powering the two blue LEDs that are on each side of the front access ports; Antec probably did not want to draw too much current from the standard front panel connectors on your mobo, which are usually only meant to support one LED, not three.

   The front panel access port wires are, for the most part, separate pins that you must individually connect - all of which makes for a tedious and time-consuming process as you must not only get each pin into place, but reference your motherboard's manual to find the correct pin-out configuration. The exceptions are the audio connectors, which have been combined into one connector, thank God, but still have separate connector for each wire spliced into place, just in case your motherboard's pinout is different from the one Antec used. This was a great idea, as it saves time while still insuring compatibility.

   However, this begs the question: How come Antec didn't use this idea for the firewire or, at least the USB connectors? Internal USB headers have been on motherboard for a while now, and I'm willing to guess a lot of them use a somewhat standard configuration, so why not try and save end users some time? With all these wires, you can guess that their might be a big cable mess, but thankfully there is space behind the HDD cage to shove this cable mess, where it is out of sight and kept under control.

 

Front bezel removed.

Wire/cables kept in place with a plastic clip to ensure they don't come loose.

Other components hot-glued into place. (The blue LEDs are on either side of the connectors.)

 The front panel can be removed, but not easily. Since the right side cannot be removed, it's hard to get at the plastic tabs on that side that hold the front panel in place; you instead have to remove a HDD tray or two, and then reach in from the left side to push out the front bezel's tabs. Once it's out, you can see both the front filter, in place, and the drive rail sets that are affixed to the back of the 5.25" drive bay covers.

   The cables for the front ports are held in place by a plastic clip, and this makes sure that they aren't disconnected from the PCB at the front; the LEDs on the front have been hot-glued into place, so if you want to change them for another colour this may be a little more tricky.

   Since there are no drive shields to tear out, you don't really have or need to remove the front bezel, so I'd save time and just leave it alone since it's so dang hard to remove. However, this fact isn't too nice if you want to mod the case.