Sonata vs Lian Li PC60

[Jibby]

Yeah, I know it's an odd comparison. Well, these are two cases that offer features that I like and I do like the look of the two too, so I'm caught between which one to get. I'm looking for a case that I can keep for a while, and I'm not into heavy overclocking, and will tend towards running a quiet PC.

I'm leaning towards the Sonata, because:
- I like the look of it more (easier for me to get black panels for my drives too)
- 120mm fans
- steel case, so should be quieter
- comes with single-fan TruePower PSU

What I dislike about the Sonata:
- Side panel holes that spell out "Antec," as they don't have filters on them
- perhaps cramped?
- intake fan is a bit far away from the front bezel


What I like about the PC60:
- more spacious than the Sonata
- motherboard tray
- better cooling than the Sonata?
- filters on all intake holes
- light (not too important though)

What I dislike about the PC60:
- no 120mm fans
- aluminium "louder" than steel cases?
- no PSU (so more expensive overall than the Sonata)
- don't have the right aluminium panels for my LiteOn drives. May think about using black... seems to go with the silvery colour better than beige does.


What do you guys think?

I've also been asking quite a few SOnata questions in another thread.

 

[HiTek21]

I like the looks of the Antec Sonata and like you I dont like the way the holes spell out antec, but it's a better value over the PC60 because you get the True 380w PSU and a nice case in general. I'm sure you can rig up a home made filter for those holes.

 

[dpm]

After reading a review on the Sonata, it looks like a damn good case.

However, I've got a PC-60, so i'll answer a couple of your points on that.
It is nice and spacious inside, and very easy to install into. However, it doesn't have the drive rails that Antec use, which are pretty nice. On the other hand, the Antec doesn't have a removable motherboard tray, something that I personally find really irritating.

The front intake fans on the lian li, as well as being filtered, have a built in rheobus, so you can slow them/ quiet them down when you like. This is pretty damn useful, but sadly its got a lot hotter here the last week, so my panaflos are now on full speed.

And about the Liteon drive covers - i've got a liteon CDR and a liteon DVD, and while Lian Li does make stick on covers for liteon drives, I much prefer these - they can go over any drive and make the case look damn sleek, as well as minimising drive noise slightly. The downside is that you lose access to the drive's headphone port, but I realised that I hadn't actually used that in about 2 1/2 years anyway.

Oh, and Lian Li also do the PC-60 in black as the PC-61, in case you like black better. Either way, it looks like you are choosing between two damn good cases. Hope this helps!

 

[JKing76]

The lack of a mobo tray in the Sonata is kind of annoying, but I did not find it cramped at all. The rotated HD cage really helps.

Antec should have filtered those side intake holes. I'll probably rig something up myself sooner or later, but I've been checking inside occasionally and it doesn't seem to be a big dust issue.

 

[pelikan]

This case uses 120mm fans. It's my next case. A lot of people have recommended it over at SilentPCReview. I like the big fans and the stock rubber hdd mounts. If you don't mind beige its cheaper at Directron.

 

[HappyCracker]

hey pelikan, that's actually not a half bad case. there's a local store here i was in yesterday and the guy was trying to sell me on it. overall it looks decent, esp for me since i'm a fan of the 'beige box'

 

[pelikan]

Yeah, me too. I'm going to get the beige one from Directron eventually.

 

[Jibby]

Pelikan, unfortunately, I can't get the D8000 where I live, and I'm not particularly crash hot on ordering outside of my country (Australia). If anyone know where I can order the D8000 from in Australia, and get it delivered by mail, then I'll consider it. It looks to be a nice case though - Katana Man assembled a quiet pc using it at silentpc. Good luck with assembling your quiet pc when you get your D8000.

dpm, I was aware of the "stealth" mod for Lian Li cases, and was considering that. Good point about them limiting drive noise... dunno why I didn't think of that. Cheers. I don't use the drive headphones either, don't use anything except the eject button. I wasn't aware that Lian Li makes stick-on covers for liteon drives though... do you mean there's another company's drives that match liteon drives in front appearance?

Yeah, I'm thinking of getting air conditioner filters for those side panel holes. My remaining concerns about the sonata are:
a) cooling... I won't be overclocking, but I would like it to still run cool-ish, just so that I can run hotter cpu's further down the track with the exact same setup (same HS, same fans, same PSU, and same case of course).
b) the PSU. I've been hearing that people are very happy with it, while others find that it isn't as quiet as they would have liked and consequently replaced it with another PSU.


With regards to the PC60, I'm wondering:
a) how does running 3-4 (depending on whether I get one with a top blowhole) 4V 80mm Panaflo L1As in the PC60 compare to running 2 4V 120mm Panaflo L1As in the Sonata, both cooling-wise and noise-wise?
b) I know that steel cases generally perform better than aluminium ones noise-wise, but is it really that big a difference when using those panaflos? I guess, in other words, is not so feasible to make a quiet pc using the PC60?


On a tight-ish budget too... the more I spend on this, the less I can spend on an upgrade to my gaming rig (not the one I'll be using the SOnata/PC60 for) at the end of the year (Doom3, HL2, DX2... ).

 

[dpm]

Jibby.

Well, my pc-60 isn't silent yet, but then I've got it on my desk, about 10 inches from my left ear, so I'm quite sensitive to the noise.

I wouldn't want you to think that the stealth bay covers completely silence optical drives - they do help, but not massively. With my hurricane of a DVD drive, though, every bit helps!

I've got 3 panaflo case fans, an NMB case fan, another panaflo on the heatsink and an unmodded PSU.
A couple of weeks ago, when it was cooler, I had the intake fans on low (the built in rheobus has a low -med - hi switch) and the case seemed almost silent...

Now its on high, and... I can hear the air moving! I guess that from 2 or 3 feet you wouldn't really be able to hear it, but I can and I want it damn silent!

Of course, even as it is its a massive improvement for me - I've got a GF4 ti4400 - the creative one with what sounds like the loudest fan in the world (not quite as loud as the FX, but close). I took off the fan and put on the zalman hp-80 heatpipe, which cut down the noise drastically, but meant that I needed more airflow. Once you start trying to silence a case, its easy to get obsessive about it!

 

[Tripitz]

I have a Lian Li PC60 and a LIan LI PC68 all with Panasonic L1A's on it. I would say with those fans the biggest problem for the system is finding an adequately quiet PSU.

Cooling is generally adequate with the fans at low speed. (I have a 2.0 willy in one which is a heat monster and a p4 2.4 at 3.06 with a 10k rpm and 15k rpm scsi drive along with a radeon 9700 pro fanless in the other)

 

[paperfist]

I have a Sonata case. It was a little cramped trying to put the motherboard in, but after that all the drives, cables and such go in without a hitch and it?s not cramped. Not sure of the exact weight of the case but it?s heavy, almost as heavy as my 19? monitor. The case is very quiet, I moved my old system into the Sonata and it's almost half as noisy as it was in the old case. In about 3 months since it's been running (24/7) I don't notice any more dust inside the case then you usually get. Where the drives mount in the front you can see a little dust accumulating around the holes where the drives slide in and out from. My motherboard and CPU run 5-6 degrees C cooler then they did in the other case.

 

[EeyoreX]

I have a LianLi PC-65USB case. I have two intakes, one exhaust my two PSU fans and a ThermalTake Volcano 7+ HSF. The Volcano is the loudest fan in there with a fan speed of about 1500-2000rpms. All in all, my case is mostly silent. Once I get a better HSF (I am thinking of a Zalman) that is quieter, it'll be near silent. My other fans are connected and controlled via rheobus, and I get fairly good cooling. I don;t fo over 51*C under load (This is a file server and SETI@Home machine). I like the size, the removable motherboard tray, and all the drive bays. Personally, I don't think beige drives look to bad in the silver case.

\Dan