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Questions for Sonata Owners

A

ath50

Member
First off, I have a thread in the cases/cooling section but its starting to get buried and I think I'll get more reponse here anyway, so disregard that. I underlined questions so they won't be evaded 😉

So I'm starting to get convinced on the Sonata, but I have a few questions

I was worried about cooling a little bit a first, but I think I will be ok with this:
A64 3000+
Chaintech VNF3-250
1 SATA HD
Optical+Floppy
And 1gig PC3200 RAM

Do you think I should get the optional fan that goes in the front of the case?

And for cooling the CPU, the A64 I am getting comes with a combo and will be retail. But I also saw this deal for the heatsink+fan+grease.

Considering its a Sonata and the rest of it is quiet, would the retail fan stick out (be loud in comparison)?
With the deal, the Panaflo fan looks nice and AS5 is good, but whats that headsink like? I read it doesn't cover all of the A64 chip, but I guess thats not too much of a problem? So question 2

Do you think I should stick with the retail kit, grab the deal, or get a different heatsink kit?

Final Question With the HDs mounted 90 degrees to the side, is there any trouble fitting the cable/power for a SATA drive in with the door right there?

Thanks a lot.
 
The fan in front isn't necessary. If you want to OC a lot, it might help but if you do want to oc a lot, get a different case, the sonata is about quiet, not performance.

That heatsink is top-drawer at the moment. I use a pos TT Venus with panflo L1A 80mm and it works fine, load temps are 45 C (oc'd, under 40C if its stock). FYI, with a vga silencer on low on my 9800 Pro, the panflo L1A is the loudest part in my comp.

I use a PATA drive so I can't help you there but someone in another thread said something about being careful with SATA drives, they do fit though.
 
The door should not be a problem for the hard drives...you can set it up so the cabling and the back of the hard drive is towards the right side of the case (looking from the front).

Fan in front....probably. Get a quiet one, and it should be fine.

Dont know bout the 64 heatsinks. Shouldn't be too bad.....The computer won't be silent regardless, but it'll be quiet enough you can think it's off from 5 feet away.

EDIT:

As far as the hard drives, I wouldn't set them up facing inward if you'll be unplugging them alot (don't know why you would, but you never know).IT's not hard to reach in there, but not easy either.
 
My system has:

XP 2500+ @ 3200+
Abit NF7-S
2 WD Raptors, 1 80GB Maxtor
2 opticals
BFG GeForce FX 5900
1 GB RAM

All in a Sonata with just the rear fan. I think you'll be fine 🙂. The retail heatsink should definately be fine if you aren't overclocking, and actually comes with a very good thermal pad on it (Shin-Etsu). My hard drives mounted without a problem either frontways or backways. If you decide to mount the hard drive backwards (cables facing the non-removable side of the case) just make sure there isn't anything else back there, as you can very easily snap the SATA connector off of the drive.
 
Thanks for the replies. Think I'll stick with the retail heatsink and only add more fans or a better heatsink if I have cooling problems or the retail fan seems hideously loud.
 
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