Now I'm curious as to how much added benefit the separate power supply adds. The Sonata III uses an 500-W Earthwatt's PSU. Are they reliable? Does bundling case + PSU increase a chance of failure down the line because the manufacturers are using less quality components (I don't know if this is true). I don't to compromise longevity of the computer because of cost-cutting factors. My brother is looking to spend ~1000 on hardware, so it is a midrange build or so. i5-750, 5850 or 5770, etc. So I hate to see something go wrong or see the power supply fail.
Additionally, I always take Newegg reviews with a grain of salt but I always make an effort to read the lowest reviews to see if there are legitimate concerns about the product (instead of giving the product a 1 because of poor customer support, slow shipping, etc). There have been consistent bad reviews regarding one issue, which makes me reticient to purchase this case:
more concern though is that Antec still has not solved the static dicharge problem with this case. I installed all components and booted into both Linux and windows with a USB drive to install. almost every time I removed the USB device with the machine running the OS crashed and the machine rebooted. I spoke with people at both antec and new egg about this prior to purchase and they both told me that the problem had been resloved.. IT HAS NOT!!
Same ESD (Electro Static Discharge) issue as many have had. Touching the front USB connector cause the system to reboot without warning.
: The ESD problem on this product has caused me untold amount of hours between mobo and USB based peripheral vendors in order to nail down this problem. This includes many, many painful hours with various tech support personnel, emails, phone calls, ....over the last year and rebuilding systems.
No current, as of 3/9/2010, clear communication from Antec that buying one of these products right now, will or won't cause the purchaser to have to deal with this ESD issue on the front assembly!
TR Gerbil input would be highly appreciated!