In Figure 4, you can see the front of the case with its front door opened. One of the main flaws of Sonata III 500 and Sonata Elite (at least in our opinion) was not fixed on Sonata Proto: the power button is located behind the door, making you to have to open the front door every time you want to turn your computer on. After a while it is really tiring.

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Figure 4: External bays.

The disk drive bay configuration from Sonata Proto is the same from Sonata III 500, with three external 5.25” bays and two external 3.5” bays. On Sonata Elite Antec removed the two external 3.5” bays.

Like the other members from Sonata series, Sonata Proto doesn’t come with fans installed on the front panel or on the side panels.

Like Sonata III 500, Sonata Proto has a washable air filter on its front panel, which is accessible from the bottom part of the case. This feature isn’t available on Sonata Elite.

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Figure 5: Washable air filter.

In Figure 6, you can see the rear panel from Sonata Proto, which is identical to Sonata III 500’s. The case comes with a 120 mm fan with a switch to select between two speeds (low or high) – both Sonata III 500 and Sonata Elite use a three-speed fan controller. Like Sonata III 500, this switch is left hanging inside the case – on Sonata Elite the manufacturer fastened this switch on the rear panel. This fan comes with a standard peripheral power connector, so you can’t install it on the motherboard to monitor its speed. Above the expansion slots there is a mesh for air exhaustion. On Sonata Elite this mesh is a little bit different, with the case coming with a blower to remove hot air from inside the case. This other model also has a tab for installing a padlock (or warranty seal) to prevent unauthorized persons from opening the case, feature not present on this new release.

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Figure 6: Rear panel.

Now let’s take a look inside Antec Sonata Proto.