Does Antec Sonata III have enough airflow for quadcore & vc?

[wchang99]

I noticed that it doesn't have side vents (possibly to keep it more silent, as that's one of its features), while it seems like most cases nowadays do. With that, the front vents also aren't huge (not the full face, but slits) and the optional front fan sits several inches back in from the front face, at the rear of the HDD cage (more in the middle of the case rather than stuck to the front of the case, so it's not directly pulling in air from the outside).

I guess it's the lack of side vents that seems more unusual to me. (All the reviews I've read don't really comment on this; the ones that do, on temperature, seem to be using older processors, and they don't note a lot of difference in temperature between the different fan speed settings.)

Does anyone have any opinions on this? Is it not a problem for recent systems (modern, loaded systems)?

Many thanks..

 

[Eureka]

I found side vents aren't really that useful. Its purpose is to intake air, and on mine it stays cooler without the fans than with it. I wouldn't worry too much about it. A good CPU cooler will do a lot more than side holes.

 

[wchang99]

Thanks... Do you think a stock CPU cooler would be alright in this circumstance (if you're not overclocking -- I guess a good additional CPU cooler might be all the more important if you are)?

 

[Eureka]

If you're not overclocking, anything works. The stock fans are meant to work on stock settings. I even found that the stock fan from my old dual core worked just as well even with overclocks.

 

[wchang99]

Thanks.. I guess I misunderstood what you meant -- what you meant is that the cpu cooler should be doing most of the job, regardless (not compensating for the lack of vents).

 

[deimos3428]

The Sonata III doesn't have fantastic airflow, but it's not bad. It really depends more on the fan setting. It might get a bit hot with a stock quad if the fan's on low. Just kick it up to medium or high if necessary.