[SGVLUG] water cooled cases.

[Mike Dillon]

begin Brian Belgarde quotation:
> Yeah, that's a nice case. I still would prefer the latest Sonata. I don't
> think that HDD suspension thingy would work in a business environment.
> There's a big difference between how computers are treated in the corporate
> environment and in the den. If they're too delicate they'll be broken. 
> 
> Two things I would like to add: One is that the HDDs on the Sonata are
> mounted perpendicular to the length of the case.
> (http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/sonata.ars/2 )
> 
> When you open the case you can easily unplug the power and data connectors
> and easily slip out the drive. It takes just a few seconds. It doesn't look
> like you can do this with the P180. I'm tired of fishing out the drives
> through the mass of cables and obstructing cards and system boards. 
> 
> Second, I favor Antec in general because they make good PSUs. Their
> reliable, efficient and quiet. 

I actually recommended this case to John Riehl off list. I would add a
couple things about this case that I've found really nice:

    * Rolled edges on the aluminum to minimize cuts to the hands
    * Rubber grommets on the hard drive trays
    * Rubber fan mounts
    * Large fan (120 mm) with a mounting point for a second fan near the
      drives
    * Lots of space

Things I don't like:

    * The punched hole "ANTEC" logo on the side seems like it would
      compromise front-to-back airflow

I'm not so sure I'd say the hard drive trays take a few seconds. That's
true when you have one or two drives, but when putting in the third or
fourth drive, I found that you had to move other drives out a little to
get access to the cables. It's not like it has a plug-in backplane or
something, but it is still nicer than any other setup I've used.

Also, while I would recommend the Antec PSUs, I did have the stock PSU
in my Sonata case fail. However, Antec was really good about the RMA and
got me a replacement within a week. I actually ended up going out and
buying a 450W Antec supply from the store in the interim and the RMA
unit is in the closet waiting to be a backup if needed. The broken PSU
still produced power when it was running, but it had weird problems with
the PS/2 power-ready state and refused to come back on after I turned it
off for a hardware upgrade.

-md