Antec Sonata II and P180 coming soon

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Compddd

Golden Member
Jul 5, 2000
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Why on earth are people asking for sideways drive cages? Right now the HD cage has it so the 120MM fan between the PSU and HD cage is drawing cool air in from the front right over the drives, thats a big plus. Asking for sideways drive cages in this case is idiotic lol. Keep it how it is Antec!
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
1
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Originally posted by: Compddd
Why on earth are people asking for sideways drive cages? Right now the HD cage has it so the 120MM fan between the PSU and HD cage is drawing cool air in from the front right over the drives, thats a big plus. Asking for sideways drive cages in this case is idiotic lol. Keep it how it is Antec!

Personal preference. I'd rather have sideways drives myself.
 
Jan 27, 2005
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Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Have you used them for yourself? Sideways hd cages are great!


I had sideways HD cages on my last Antec case. Sounded great on paper, but, I found routing data and power cables to be a pain. I had four drives installed. What made things painful is the fact that there's less than an inch clearance between the end of the drive and the door with the case closed. It really pinched rounded cables. I ended up snaking cables between drive bays to get everything to fit which in turn reduced air flow. Maybe if I was running SATA drives with some sort of connector end that won't fall off I would have been in better shape.

I since went back to the rear facing HD drive cage (Antec SLK3000B) and cable routing was so much nicer. Yeah it's a pain having to unplug up to five drives when you want just replace one, but, I can live with this. I can also live with having to snake rounded cables between PCI cards.

Of couse, if you don't have a lot of drives and do have a case window (e.g., LanBoy), the sideways HD cages are really nice. They might expose more of the motherboard.
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
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You can try rotating the drives the other way so the data cables are at the back of the case (back being the motherboard tray).
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
6,770
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Originally posted by: MDE
You can try rotating the drives the other way so the data cables are at the back of the case (back being the motherboard tray).

I only have two HDD's but this is what I did with the superlanboy, just routed the cables around back so the round cables are squished back there instead of in front by the window. It worked really well and did not hurt my airflow.

-spike
 

MarkM

Senior member
Oct 16, 2001
394
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Originally posted by: Suups
Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
And worse, on the P180 they're drawing air from directly above the PSU exhaust
I think you got it wrong :), they're blowing air OUT.
Are you sure about that? Most coolers blow air down on to the heatsink. The duct sits directly above the fan. If it was exhausing air it would be creating a vacuum effect directly above the cpu cooler, reducing its efficiency.
Actually, no, that's just the way everyone THINKS they're supposed to do it. I have a Fong Kai FK320 (?) case right now (heavy as a tank!), with a CPU duct system standard issue, and when you receive the case the rear mounted fan that connects to the duct is installed to blow air OUT, the idea is to pull the hot air right off the heat sink & out (it's even recommended to have the cpu fan, if you bother to use one, blow up not down). However, the geek chat boards are filled with messages from a few years ago (when this case was the rage) from people talking about how this fan was installed "wrong" when they got it & thgat they had to reverse it. There was even a published interview with a Fong Kai engineer explaining that the fan was right, but people refused to believe it made any sense.


I am actually building new machine right now, using the Sonata I case that I picked up for $70AR (that Fong Kai is just too darned BIG for my desk setup! and also I want to get a quieter PSU) I would love to hear an explanation from the Antec CSR about whether they recommend using it as shipped, with the "Antec" holes open & UNFILTERED. I think the holes are probably somethign I should leave open, I have read comments that it is integral to the design to keep the PSU cool (after all it only has that one fan), but it seems like it is really asking for trouble to not devise some kind of filter to cover them & prevent dust from coming in. I'm thinking getting some kind of fine nylon screen mesh from the hardware store & rigging up some kind of custome filter, does that makes sense (maybe just on one side, & cover the holes on the other side, since it will be impossible to get at the filter to clean it well once the mboard is in).
 

The Pentium Guy

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2005
4,327
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Really? Then what about the side fan - isn't that supposed to be intake? If that's intake and the CPU fan is exhaust (blowing up).... then you'd have a bit of an airflow issue.

I don't have fans in the front, so my only option is to use my side fan as an intake, and I'm somewhat convinced that the rear fans are exhaust.

-TPG
 

Suups

Junior Member
Jan 24, 2005
10
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Actually, no, that's just the way everyone THINKS they're supposed to do it. I have a Fong Kai FK320 (?) case right now (heavy as a tank!), with a CPU duct system standard issue, and when you receive the case the rear mounted fan that connects to the duct is installed to blow air OUT, the idea is to pull the hot air right off the heat sink & out (it's even recommended to have the cpu fan, if you bother to use one, blow up not down). However, the geek chat boards are filled with messages from a few years ago (when this case was the rage) from people talking about how this fan was installed "wrong" when they got it & thgat they had to reverse it. There was even a published interview with a Fong Kai engineer explaining that the fan was right, but people refused to believe it made any sense.
[/quote]


OK - here's how I see it.

Put your hand over the top of any of the vast majority of CPU coolers on the market that push air down onto the HS. What do you feel? Air rushing past your hand, on to the HS. Now put a cardboard tube over the top, and put your hand over the other end of the cardboard tube. What do you feel? Air rushing past your hand and down the tube, as before. This is scenario one, with the duct in place an no additional fan. I can't see how it can do anything but draw air in with the majority of coolers out there.

Now take another fan and set it to exhaust air out of the tube i.e. the Fong Kai scenario. What happens? The CPU fan speed increases as air pressure decreases - it's pushing less air, hence less air resistance, hence higher speed. Why? Because it's creating a vacuum effect inside the tube. I can't see how this can make the cooler more efficient, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong - do you have a link to said article with the Fong Kai engineer? I can only imagine he must have been referring to a cooler configuration that draws air away from the HS instead of blowing down onto it, similar to the cases Dell were putting out a couple of years ago. These typically have a shroud that partially covers the base of the HS with a gap at the bottom to allow air to be drawn in. Does the duct in the Fong Kai look like one of those?
 

shira

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
9,500
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Originally posted by: Suups

Put your hand over the top of any of the vast majority of CPU coolers on the market that push air down onto the HS. What do you feel? Air rushing past your hand, on to the HS. Now put a cardboard tube over the top, and put your hand over the other end of the cardboard tube. What do you feel? Air rushing past your hand and down the tube, as before. This is scenario one, with the duct in place an no additional fan. I can't see how it can do anything but draw air in with the majority of coolers out there.

Now take another fan and set it to exhaust air out of the tube i.e. the Fong Kai scenario. What happens? The CPU fan speed increases as air pressure decreases - it's pushing less air, hence less air resistance, hence higher speed. Why? Because it's creating a vacuum effect inside the tube. I can't see how this can make the cooler more efficient, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong

I don't think you CAN be proven wrong. Your analysis is spot on.

Of course, unless the HSF is underpowered, I don't see what the point would be to adding an input fan at the top of the tube. The only real benefit I can see is if you placed a filter at the top of the tube. Then the additional fan would help to overcome the resistence imposed by the filter. Come to think of it, this might be a good idea. If you could protect the heat sink from dust by enclosing the HS fins within the tube and placing a good air filter at the top of the tube (with an additional fan to assist the flow rate), there would be less of a maintenance problem.

 

veggz

Banned
Jan 3, 2005
843
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Has antec announced when exactly these cases are coming out? I'm waiting for the sonata II to come out to build my new rig.
 

JerryT87

Member
Jan 5, 2005
43
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Originally posted by: veggz
Has antec announced when exactly these cases are coming out? I'm waiting for the sonata II to come out to build my new rig.


I'm waiting for the P-180 and Phantom 500w PS to come out, but I'm gonna use my ol' Antec 1040 until then.
 

AntecCSR

Senior member
Jan 18, 2000
394
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We typically don't announce when a product will ship until it's actually shipping. Sure I can spit out a date, but too many things can go wrong between now and then that will make us miss that date.

Check our site, once we have a new product up, it means it is shipping. Figure for most places another week or 2 (ie to get to retail/etail places as in stock) for North America.


AntecCSR
 

Gerbil333

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2002
3,072
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76
Considering the next-gen Lanboy wasn't presented in the articles linked in the first post, which are all the sites I've been able to find regarding the new line of Antec cases, I don't think so.
 

ddviper

Golden Member
Dec 15, 2004
1,411
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when are these cases going to be relesed again, i know i read it somewhere, but cant find site again
 

Gerbil333

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2002
3,072
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76
Originally posted by: ddviper
when are these cases going to be relesed again, i know i read it somewhere, but cant find site again

The answer resides 4 posts above this one...

Originally posted by: AntecCSR
We typically don't announce when a product will ship until it's actually shipping. Sure I can spit out a date, but too many things can go wrong between now and then that will make us miss that date.

Check our site, once we have a new product up, it means it is shipping. Figure for most places another week or 2 (ie to get to retail/etail places as in stock) for North America.


AntecCSR

He doesn't say exactly, but it seems soon. I think I read that they should be here in Feb-April. I can't wait :D
 

JerryT87

Member
Jan 5, 2005
43
0
0
Originally posted by: AntecCSR
We typically don't announce when a product will ship until it's actually shipping. Sure I can spit out a date, but too many things can go wrong between now and then that will make us miss that date.

Check our site, once we have a new product up, it means it is shipping. Figure for most places another week or 2 (ie to get to retail/etail places as in stock) for North America.


AntecCSR

Hi AntecCSR;

Really looking forward to the new P-180. :) Slightly OT, but do you have any guesstimate of when the 500w Phantom will be out?
Thanks.

 

columbiaflier

Banned
Jan 26, 2005
203
0
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Originally posted by: JerryT87
Originally posted by: AntecCSR
We typically don't announce when a product will ship until it's actually shipping. Sure I can spit out a date, but too many things can go wrong between now and then that will make us miss that date.

Check our site, once we have a new product up, it means it is shipping. Figure for most places another week or 2 (ie to get to retail/etail places as in stock) for North America.


AntecCSR

Hi AntecCSR;

Really looking forward to the new P-180. :) Slightly OT, but do you have any guesstimate of when the 500w Phantom will be out?
Thanks.

How many times does he have to keep saying he can't provide a release date?! JerryT87, you even quoted him saying this, and then you went on to ask him anyway! Enough already!
 

JerryT87

Member
Jan 5, 2005
43
0
0
Originally posted by: columbiaflier
How many times does he have to keep saying he can't provide a release date?! JerryT87, you even quoted him saying this, and then you went on to ask him anyway! Enough already!

By guesstimate, I was looking for a general idea, not an actual release date I was going to demand Antec meet. Lightn' up. :)

 

Noobody57

Junior Member
Jan 30, 2005
1
0
0
I cannot wait for this case, my beautiful new a64 system is sitting in a cheap case (and I mean cheap - $7, I'm regretting buying the POS, but I had to put my baby in something) until it comes out.
 

Zucarita9000

Golden Member
Aug 24, 2001
1,590
0
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Wow, the P180 looks excellent. Antec is coming out with some nice stuff for this season. I'm really liking Antec so far. Lian-Li's are good, but way too expensive IMHO.
 

MTSteel

Member
Jan 26, 2005
126
0
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Any word on what PSU the Sonata II will ship with(if any)?

Damn trying to figure out what to buy is frustrating!! Sonata looks like a steal with a good 380W PSU in it, BUT the newer Mobo's I am looking at need 24 pins. :)