Looking for a nice black ATX case

[Satyr]

I have the Antec Sonata and it's really cool looking and very quiet. If you want to have a look at it before buying from a store, just let me know.

[GTI]

I've got the Sonata at home and 3700BQE at work. I'd pay a bit more to go for the Sonata. The Sonata has front audio inputs and if you like them blue lights in the front too. Also lockable side, and nice long power wires. The downside is that dust really shows up on the glossy black. I think I've seen NCIX have them as low as 115 during their sales.

[felix]

If you want quiet, get the Antec Sonata. It comes with a not very quiet power supply though. Or if you can wait, get the Antec Sonata II. And if you have a lot of money, get the SilverStone one.

[felix]

I just noticed something. Staples sells the Antec Sonata case too ..
http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/ca...affixedcode=WW

Was thinking, if you can find it in stock locally, you can possibly get them to price match any local store and then use 20% off gift cards if you have them on top of that! Wow ... gonna try it myself tomorrow hehe ... if it works I'll post in hot deals. Cuz that would be one heck of a hot deal.

[felix]

Darn, never mind the 20%. Says "Available through catalogue and online only"

[bug]

I just got a deal on a silver Thermaltake Kandalf case for $175. Even comes with the optional BTX upgrade kit for future motherboards. In my opinion, Coolermaster and Thermaltake have the best designed cases.

[akwok]

That's because ThermalTake steals their ideas off of their competitors.

I will attempt to list some of them but time is of the essence!
=> Denotes stolen from

Soprano => Wavemaster
Armor => Stacker
Tenor => Silverstone HTPCs
Rocket Watercooling (penis tower!) => Zalman Reserator
New Purepowers => Coolermaster RealPower => Seasonic Tornado
Beetle HSF => Asus StarIce
Silent775 => Coolermaster Vortex TX
Fanless VGA Cooler => Coolermaster Coolviva => Zalman ZM80C (old generation)
SilentTower => AeroCool HT101
BigTyphoon => ThermalRight XP-120
Fanless PSU => SilenX Luxurae
CircleFire => Coolermaster Musketeer

That's it for now. It just pisses me off to no avail that Thermalcrap is still selling products! THEY RIP OFF EVERYTHING. Nor do they improve on the copied products!

SHAME. Name me ONE INNOVATIVE PRODUCT that THERMALTAKE has ORIGINALLY thought up!

I've been screwed over by Thermalcrap three times now; 3 years ago, I bought a Volcano 7 (ripoff again of the Aeroflow) and it sucked - extremely loud and poor performance. Then I forgave them and purchased the Xaser III. Another disappointment; the paint started chipping the first week I got it! I immediately sold it after a week or two of using it. Then finally, and the last straw, I purchased the Purepower 560w last year due to rave reviews; HORRIBLE. I just purchased a Seasonic S12-430 to swap, but the Purepower gave me nothing but trouble this past year. It has an emminent clicking sound (Silent my ass), extremely bad motor noise from TWO 80mm fans, and has <70% efficiency, overheating my CPU right under it.


To the Original Poster : I highly suggest the Wavemaster (Black). It has an amazing automotive glossy finish, and is not as cheap looking as the Soprano. You will notice a big difference when you're building the case, the Thermaltake just feels cheap, while Wavemaster is the epitome of PC classiness. And the Wavemaster is much more inexpensive than when I first got it a year go.

Here are some pictures from last year, note the reflection of the monitor on the side panel!

[felix]

hehe ... you forgot the Thermaltake Fanless103 cpu cooler ... probably stolen from SilverStone SST-NT01 (I wanted to get the v2.0 which is for AMD processors .. but it's still not available here in Canada yet )

[NeilMcduck]

Ok, so I'm 90% sure i'm going with the Sonata now...one question for people who are using it though...how sturdy is the door on the front? I'm pretty clumsy and would hate to snap it off.

[GTI]

Not that strong since it's plastic. I just checked mine and the top hinge is cracked, but it's still functional. I guess my case is in a tight spot and sometimes I hit it spinning my chair.