4870x2/4850x2 into Antec Sonata III case

G'day all,

Does anyone know if the 4870x2 will fit into an Antec Sonata III case?

I'm actually more interested in the 4850x2, but I doubt the it would be any larger than the 4870x2.

Cheers,
Tudz

You MAY have to hack that front cage a bit. Also, be careful. I have seen some partners now placing the PCI-e power connectors on the end of the card (like most cards) instead of the side. That would make it even longer! FWIW, I had the system in my sig in an original Sonata with no cooling issues, if that helps you any.

I know I had to hack up the drive cage in my Antec SOLO to fit my 9800GTX boards into it....

Look at my sig. I'm running 2 3870x2's in my Sonata case.

It's a bit tight near the end, but completely do-able. My only complaint is that the bottom card pinches one of the sata cables going into the port, but that's a function of the foxconn board I have, not the case.

With good cable management, it should fit just fine.

I got a 4870x2 right now sitting in my Sonata I.

kadozer said:

I got a 4870x2 right now sitting in my Sonata I.

Click to expand...

I really wish I had kept my Sonata 1. It was a damned fine case. I added a slow 120mm intake to the side, near the VGA area, and it was great.

-=PESTILENCE=- said:

Look at my sig. I'm running 2 3870x2's in my Sonata case.

It's a bit tight near the end, but completely do-able. My only complaint is that the bottom card pinches one of the sata cables going into the port, but that's a function of the foxconn board I have, not the case.

With good cable management, it should fit just fine.

Click to expand...

How long are the 3870x2s?

I dont really want to hack my hard drive bay, I've got 3 drives.

I'd worry about heat with so much power.

I couldn't keep a nice Quad cool in my S3. My VGA was fins, with the AC unit, but so little airflow in that case.

Looks super nice though!

I have 3 drives in the case as well. It really isn't a problem if you have good cable management.

Down8 said:

I'd worry about heat with so much power.

I couldn't keep a nice Quad cool in my S3. My VGA was fins, with the AC unit, but so little airflow in that case.

Looks super nice though!

Click to expand...

Yeah, its basically got a small intake at the front (most of which is blocked by the plastic bit of the front of the case), an exhaust near the CPU, and a couple of holes near the PCI slots. Hard to get good airflow. I set up some ducting inside the case which dropped my GPU temperature a few degrees (8800GTS 320mb), but I want to remake it and using some quiet fans. I'm sure I can get another couple of degrees off the GPU whilst making the case quieter as well.

Thats the whole reason I got the sonata III. Well, half the reason was that its a very quiet case, which I like when I'm trying to study, and also because it came with an antec earthwatts 500W PSU, which a year ago when I got the case was enough to power any single GPU from the 8800 series.

It seems as long as the 4850x2 is no longer than the 3870x2 I should be set then, cable management in my case is decent, except for an annoying IDE cable which has to get around my video card thanks to an old IDE DVD drive that I should probably upgrade anyway.

As for air flow, my cpu rarely goes above 40-45c, and my video card [with the fan speed hacked to 40% constant] idles around 45c and on load gets up to about 80c.

This is only with the default fan at the back of the case.