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My first heavy Antec Sonata mod: blowhole, sidefan, floorfan, duct. 56K beware!

MajinWu

MajinWu

Senior member
It's Memorial day weekend here in Atlanta GA and its a rainy day outside so I thought I'd hack up my Sonata a bit. Since I did all this in one go, I couldn't determine out much help each mod did to my temps.

Before:
With Panaflo 92mm M on my SP97 and a 120mm L as exhaust. Stock passive Epox heatsink on NB.

200x11 1.65 vcore: About 43 idle, 49 load, 32 system constant

After:
With Panaflo 92mm H on SP97, 120mm L as exhaust, Panaflo 92mm M as side intake, Zalman 92mm ZM-F2 as blow hole exhaust, Antec 120mm as floor intake, Vantec Iceberg4Pro on NB. All either plugged into "Fan Only" connectors or into the Sunbeam Rheobus pumping at most 60% power to each of the four ports.

219x10.5 1.825 vcore: About 41 idle, 48 load, 31 system constant
EDIT: Did a spacer mod, and slowed down all fans with Rheobus (see http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=296524&highlight=spacer) and now:
215x10.5 1.650 vcore: About 38 idle, 44 load, 32 system constant
Sweet! It's even quieter before the mod! Just wait till the AS5 finishes its burn-in period.


1.) Floor fan
I asked about this idea on these forums earlier, and quite a few people tried it out and liked it a lot. Here's mine:
floor fan
It's the stock 120mm Antec fan that came with my Sonata. My first time using a dremel, too. Oh yea, the case is sitting on stacks of paper, so there's plenty of breathing room for the floor fan

2.) Blow hole
Inner view (can bearly see it, but it's there):
blow hole 1
Top view:
blow hole 2
Those scratches aren't really there, my camera just did a bangup job of revealing them.

3.) Side fan:
Outer view:
side fan 1
side fan 2
Inner view:
side fan 3

4.) With duct (ghettofied):
Used those plastic cylindrical container you get for free when you order soup at Chinese takeouts. Attached them on with some Erector set screws and holsters.

duct 1
duct 2
duct 3


The complete image:
ta da!

Some nice wire management too:
wires 1
wires 2

Tell me what you think! Constructive criticism please.
 
Try to route the big ol' ATX cable over the top of the CPU (up behind the PSU) and run the wire to your rear fan under the AGP card. Other than that, nice job :beer:!

I like that fan in the bottom but my Audigy2 takes up a TON of space down there.
 
Originally posted by: Mermaidman
Nothing like cabin fever to spur some modding.

I take it that your rig is no longer quiet 😛
Click to expand...

Well, it's not quiet, but it's at the same noise level as pre-mod since I try to get my fans as quiet as I can with my Rheobus fan controller
 
Originally posted by: Nebor
Originally posted by: Mermaidman
Nothing like cabin fever to spur some modding.

I take it that your rig is no longer quiet 😛
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

A few additions have been made. It's in bold in the 2nd paragraph somewhere. Now it's actually quieter before the mod.
 
I see you've added quite a few fans, and a very noisy northbridge. I can't imagine how it could be quieter, unless you weren't regulating the voltages before.

Nice job on the mod by the way, the Sonata is known for poor airflow, looks like you flogged it good.
 
Seems like with all the extra holes, why go with the Sonata to begin with? I run a pair of 120's on a fan speed controller and IMO it's ridiculously quiet and cool already. Not a cahnce I'd cut holes in this thing, no need.

Glad to see modding though, in any case.
 
The PSU isn't that great. It's the stock PSU that came with my Sonata: Antec TruePower 380S. Still going strong too.
 
I donno, my PSU is loud to me. I want to swap the fan out with 2 Panaflo L1As front and back of my PSU blowing air out side of my case.
 
Originally posted by: MajinWu
I donno, my PSU is loud to me. I want to swap the fan out with 2 Panaflo L1As front and back of my PSU blowing air out side of my case.
Click to expand...

You really only need one. The power supply should run it ok w/ temp control if you connect it the way the original fan was connected. Or you could hook it up to a fan controller for added control.
 
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