Hi, wonder if anyone was installed a CSE-M35T-1B in a Antec Sonata III case. Would like to know experience from others before I pull the trigger on purchasing one and find out it does not fit.

 

Also the case has a 500W power supply in it, how many drives can that support?

I have a Foxconn C51XEM2AA MB in it running a  AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+, 8GB Ram, will have 5 fans total (1 cpu fan, 1 bridge fan(small), 120mm at back, 120mm for Antec integrated HD cage, 92mm swap out for the CSE-M35T-1B). And would like to power 9-10 drives, can the PSU handle this? Not sure how much draw a HD has...

 

Does that case use drive rails?  I can't tell from the Newegg pictures.  I've installed drive bays in my Antec p180 using drive rails and it usually works.  Single width drive bays weren't secure enough for my liking, but 3-in-2s were fine.  I expect 5-in-3s would be fine too.

 

The included PSU is a Antec Earthwatts 500W which has dual +12V rails with 22A each.  That means that you'll have to pay attention as to where you plug things in, as it is possible to overload one rail.  The rule of thumb is that a green drive pulls 2A and a 7200rpm drive pulls 3A.  You'll need to look at the PSU's manual or wiring diagram to see how the rails are divided among the plugs.  One of them may be dedicated to the motherboard, meaning that you have only 22A to run all your drives and fans.  10 green drives will pull around 20A, so that's cutting it pretty close.  A PSU upgrade may be in order.  I would recommend the Corsair 430W.

I have linked these images for your review to help answer the 5-in-3 with the CSE-M35T-1B  for this case:

 

 

 

Thanks for the great insight on the PSU Rajahal, I will look into how the dual rails are allocated this evening. Hopefully the MB does not take up on whole rail

I see what looks like a drive rail on the right side of that optical drive.  So it should work.

On the back side of the black panels that block off the optical bays, there should be rails that screw to the side of the device. Then you pop it in, and there are tabs in the recesses seen in your photo that allow you to pop them out. I suggest 2 at most. Put 3 pairs on and you won't have enough hands to take it off.

Thanks guys, but I have one more worry. I measured last light and per newegg 9.7" deep... Looks like it will hit my memory banks that are all full... Dont know what to do. Can someone measure how deep the CSE-M35T-1B cage is without the fan so I have an idea were the cage end and the fan begins. I would be most appreciated.

 

I think it will clear. Here is my old Sonata with an SNT 4-in-3.

 

Yeah my friend told me about the 4-3 SNT, but thats (184mm) 7.2441", the CSE-M35T-1B 9.7", do you have another 2.5" to spare chuck?

Not even close to 2.5".

Yeah I had a friend send me over some pictures of the CSE-M35T-1B installed in his case, that thing is DEEP + the fan. So it would be a no go for me.

 

4-in-3 it is for me. Which is ok because I did not want to upgrade my PSU. Once I get this up and running and critical plugins and exceed the drive limit I will look foward to building a brand new 20 drive setup. Many thanks for all the support!

 

Rajhal, here is what I came up with for my needs and the PSU that came with the case, looks like I will be OK.

I already plugged in 6 of the drives as the first test. Will be added the last 2 and extra 2 fans, x1 PCI-e card soon to test (as they come in).