Which case will give better airflow Sonata or PC-65?

I am goint to be buying a new case soon and I want to know which will provide better airflow, the Antec Sonata or the Lian-li PC-65B. The Sonata has dual 120mm fan holes. The problem with it is that its front intake is not in the front of the case, it is behind the hard drive rack which means that the fan will pull a lot of air from inside the case instead of from outside of it. The PC-65 has 5 80mm case fan slots, one being a blowhole and two in front of the case. For the SOnata, I would put in two 120mm Evercool 79.14 cfm aluminum fans in. For the PC-65 I would put in 4 80mm Evercool 32.4 cfm aluminum fans in. By total cfm, the SOnata is in the lead by about 30 cfm, but I might mod the Lian-Li with a side intake or a duct. The system will be a 9800pro, 8rda3+, 1700+, 1024MB PC3500 HyperX, slk-900-u with 92mm, 48 cfm Panaflo. If it will be a toss up then I will go with the Lian-li for looks, but I love the vibration stopping features of the hard drive cages and fan mounts of the Sonata. With the quiet fans, I don't think that Noise will be too much. Those 80mm fans are "<25 dba" and the 120mm ones are "<30 dba."

If there is no opening to the front of the antec then there wont really be any air coming into the case, the best setup for any brand case would be air coming in at the bottom front and the same size opening at the top in the back.

Between these two cases, i'd have to say the PC-65 because #1 it's a Lain-Li. The Sonata is known for its noise reduction not its cooling.

i have the lianli... with my slk900u and smart fan 2 it keeps everything cool enough for me

You probably can't go wrong with airflow on either machine. I think the pc-65 is the best case around when it comes to ease of working on the machine and build quality. Thats pretty much the tiebreaker to me (not to mention its stunning looks).

I have the (as yet unmodified) Sonata, and love it on all points.
Room temp is 23C and MB temp is 30C as I write. I watercool externally, so the NB & CPU is not adding to the BTU.

I don't really think the second fan would help much, as it would definately recirculate air inside the case instead of drawing more in. There's so many holes around that drive cage, I'm not sure why the filter's in there at all. The Antec punch hole logo is probably the main air intake....the logic escapes me on that issue.
A second fan would help cool a raid array somewhat though, as the drive mounts stop any case-sink cooling.

If you want cooling, the LL is probably the better bet, but if you want quiet (and beautiful), the Sonata tops 'em all.

Only issue I would have with just running the exhaust on the sonata would be the dust. There are so many holes to pull air in from... Ofc without a window you don't need to be totaly anal about how often you clean it.

Well, I got curious about the second fan issue with the Sonata, and shut down to add new Pabst 120mm quiet fan to the harddrive cage.
Interestingly enough, the motherboard temp went up one degree. And the noise level went up about 3-5 dB too, so it's gonna come back out. To be fair though, it's at full power and not on one of the 'fan only' molex's.

I have a 4 drive striped raid, so there's probably more heat being circulated around the case now.

If my PC-65 had hands it'd wash out your mouth with soap.

If you get the point. If not let me be a bit clearer, this forum is rated "G".

eobard

Aristotle-IV said:

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Now WTH does that have to do with case airflow?

Edit:

The sonata from what I have gathered is lacking on the case airflow range but the Lian Li's do allow more CFM's due to more fans.

You have the option to getting a quiet case with okay airflow or a nice looking case with kind of decent airflow.

That was stressing how much i like the case as for airflow the stock fans are decent but i replaced them all with tornadoes, my case temps are around 25c.

That better.??

Sorry, I was just stressing how much a like it, it wont happen again.

Aristotle-IV said:

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eobard

Wow I didn't realize that pc-65 vs sonata rivalry was as heated as the amd vs intel one hehe. I can understand someone's devotion to the pc-65, its an amazing case, but really you can't go wrong with either. I think they are 2 of the best cases you can get these days. I only wish that Lian-Li would offer a case with 120mm fan mounts on it. I can dream can't I?

I have the PC65B and the case temperature is never more than one degree C above ambient.

It appears that you would get better results with the Antec. I have an Antec right now and I am very pleased with it. It is a SX1000. So if possible I would find reviews of the two cases and then take it from there.

Thank You,
Daniel

You cant go wrong with this case (like the sonata but smooth air flow) http://www.directron.com/cslx6a19bl.html (thx death knight) I almost have this baby painted.

Big_Baller said:

You cant go wrong with this case (like the sonata but smooth air flow) http://www.directron.com/cslx6a19bl.html (thx death knight) I almost have this baby painted.

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Glad you like it That case is definatly a steal.