Installation

All in all, the overall installation experience with this case was no different from installing the components into any other case which is this size: it is cramped but manageable. Just remember: the Antec Sonata III does not feature tool less installation of the drives. I will take you through a few of the highlights of the installation.


The first hurdle you will probably hit is when you go to install more than one hard drive. Antec recommends that you use 4 screws per hard drive tray but the only problem is that they supply you with only 4 screws of the proper length. So, if you want to install more that one hard drive, you should make a trip to your local Home Depot first…but make sure you take one of the screws with you for reference. After the hard drive is installed on the tray, it is a simple matter of pushing it back into the cage until it locks in place.


Mounting the DVD drive was completely uneventful other than the fact that you have to make sure to attach the rails into the proper location on your drive. There are two positions on each rail with one usually coming out too far and the other position will have your drive in exactly the right position which is flush with the front of the case.


It is recommended that you install the front 120mm fan before you start installing overly-long graphics cards like these two 8800GTS cards. As you can see, it is possible to install these cards with the 120mm fan installed...though it takes a bit of wild cable routing. In this case the 120mm fan was installed with rubber washers from the Noctua 120mm fans we reviewed here. If you choose to install this fan you should also locate your hard drive to the upper hard-drive slot since this will allow for better airflow to the fan. In this configuration, the front-mounted fan blows cool air directly at the top-mounted graphics card and the CPU cooler.


Here we have our finished installation; it is especially cramped with a pair of 8800GTS cards and the Arctic Cooling Freezer64 Pro. The process of plugging and unplugging components is a chore and usually results in at least some blood being drawn and a few choice words cursing yourself for not buying a bigger case. If you constantly tinker around the inside of your case, the Antec Sonata III is not for you. The space for the power supply is more than adequate and in our benchmark tests it accommodated the length of a Silverstone DA650 power supply without a problem. In this case the cables of the Earthwatts show what a whole 2 minutes of cable routing can do.

All in all, the installation of components into this case is relatively pain-free for a case of this size. There are no sharp edges or design SNAFUs which is definitely welcome when you have to wedge your hand into small areas.