VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications download pdf (Page 24)

ANTEC SONATA II

It sure is quiet, but still a little underwhelming

The Sonata II, Antec’s follow-up to the original “quiet case,” has

changed only slightly—for the worse.

INSTALLATION

The Sonata II is a bit more cramped than most steel mid-towers we’ve

seen. Drives use screw-on rails, rendering them easy to snap into and out

of their cages. The side-facing hard drive cage is convenient, despite the

fact that SATA and power cables must be stuffed into the case in order

to close the side door. As with Antec’s P180, the Sonata II includes a

shroud you mount over the CPU area. We installed the shroud and case

temperatures actually rose by 2 C at idle. The case performed better when

we removed the shroud to promote airﬂow and free up space. The 450-

watt power supply includes a 24-pin power connector and a PCI Express

videocard plug, too.

GOODIES

What makes this case quiet is a lack of fans—there is only a single 12cm

adjustable-speed Tri-Cool—and the presence of rubber grommets on the

hard drive mounts. It’s deﬁnitely whisperville when the fan is set to low.

There’s no intake fan, and the CPU/GPU shroud doesn’t include any fans

either, which is bunk. The Sonata is classy and low-key, but because of

its minimal cooling and lousy shroud, the better-equipped cases in this

roundup leave it in the dust.

The double-

hinged door

swings out 270

degrees—a

feature

all cases

should have.

The front-mounted

USB/FireWire ports

are flanked by two

super-bright blue

LEDs, which seem

out of place on such

a quiet and other

wise classy case.

The included

SmartPower 450W PSU

has cables for both ATX

2.0 and PCI Express.

This case is so hardcore you can run dual

power supplies. A two-into-one adapter

lets you run both in serial.

44 MAXIMUMPC HOLIDAY 2005

3R SYSTEMS R900

Plenty of space, but a bit rough around the edges

When we requested this case for review, the vendor told us it was too

big for home use.

INSTALLATION

As with any full-size case, the R900’s cavernous interior makes for sim-

ple installation. Still, we ran into a few roadblocks, the ﬁrst being inad-

equate documentation: The case came with only a dinky leaﬂet explain-

ing its power connectors. This wouldn’t have been much of an obstacle,

except that both of the included case fans have two-pin male connec-

tors that plug into a fan bus, and we couldn’t get either fan to work. It

was impossible to diagnose the problem without any documentation.

Meanwhile, the side doors were mounted so tightly we thought

they were welded shut—not good. After 10 minutes of work with a ﬂat-

head screwdriver and a lot of elbow grease, we ﬁnally had them off.

GOODIES

This case isn’t entirely tool-less, because screws are required to install

everything, but it does come with a nifty toolbox full of thumbscrews

for every possible scenario. 3R also includes a probe that measures the

ambient temperature near the probe’s mounting point and displays it

on a front-panel LCD. Thermal tape isn’t included, so you can’t mount

the probe near the CPU out of

the box; it’s best used to moni-

tor internal case temps.

The Great CASE RACE

3R SYSTEMS R900

$125, www.3rsys.com

This little knob theoretically

controls the speed of both 12cm

intake and exhaust fans, but we

couldn’t get it to work

The R900 has two power

buttons, so you can choose

which one to connect and

use. Sadly, neither button

is labeled, so hooking up

a single PSU is a trial-and-

error affair.

ANTEC SONATA II

$130, www.antec.com

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VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications Page 24

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