Moneual Sonamu G100: Back to the Future
by Dustin Sklavos on June 7, 2011 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Moneual
Introducing the Moneual Sonamu G100
One of the joys of doing case reviews is getting to see more exotic designs from smaller vendors looking to make their mark. Some of them are like ASRock has traditionally been with desktop motherboards, innovating in new (and often strange ways) and adding features or going after markets bigger names don't traditionally gun for. Such is the case with Moneual's Sonamu G100, an enclosure designed specifically to reduce standby power consumption of not just your desktop, but reduce or even eliminate the power consumption of the peripherals plugged into it. That's the theory at least, but how does it work out in practice?
Judging from the press pamphlet, Moneual's claim to fame with the Sonamu G100 is that it can substantially reduce the amount of wasted power drawn by peripherals connected to it. This is handled by a power outlet on the back of the case and toggled using the "Green Button" at the front top. And yes, I said "power outlet." As you'll see later, there's the usual input power, but there's also a three-pronged power outlet that allows you to effectively put the Sonamu G100 directly between the wall and your peripheral hardware.
| Moneual Sonamu G100 Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Micro ATX, Mini ITX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 1x 5.25" |
| Internal | 3x 3.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | - |
| Rear | 1x 60mm exhaust fan, 1x 60mm fan mount | |
| Top | - | |
| Side | - | |
| Bottom | - | |
| Expansion Slots | 4 | |
| Front I/O Port | 2x USB 2.0, mic and headphone jacks, SD/MMC card reader | |
| Top I/O Port | - | |
| Power Supply Size | Micro ATX; 300-watt power supply included | |
| Clearance | 8" (Expansion Cards), 105mm (CPU HSF) | |
| Weight | 11 lbs. | |
| Dimensions | 16.5" x 5.75" x 14" | |
| Price | $139 | |
The Sonamu G100 includes a 300W Logisys brand micro ATX power supply, rated for "250W average, 350W peak," which can be swapped out and replaced with a bit of work. This power supply is honestly pretty dire, and you'll see more once we really get into it.
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tomoyo - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Wow this case sounds like one of the worst ripoffs in a while. At least crap cases like Raidmax with low end power supplies are actually priced properly. I feel like any 3 year old antec case is far more worthwhile then this, at least they mostly all come with decent psus, versus a psu you would only give your worst enemy. Definitely not a company I'll be recommending.Operandi - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Looks like your typical lump of plastic and steel to me, I see no out standing features to justify the ridiculous price tag. I for one don't find overprices low-end cases very exciting.Lian Li is making some pretty interesting iTX cases, review one of those.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
If everything we reviewed was a winner, how would you know what was bad? :)ppeterka - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Thank you for occasionally reviewing bad products! I think the answer to the "what's bad" question is more important than the question to the "what's good", given I want to shell out money for something I'd like to use every day.And I like the style too. Reminded me of Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson reviewing FSO Polonez. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5gETRjT470
Operandi - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Really?Just browse Newegg and look around, 95% of it looks just like this piece of crap and is just as bad, are you going to review all the POS cases out there?
Review the stand out products, high quality, innovative, or at least interesting in some way. Ignore the mediocrity and shitty, nobody cares.
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Sometimes it's difficult to really know how bad something is until we have it in-house. Moneual offered this unit for review, why would we assume it wasn't at least halfway decent?As it turned out, it wasn't remotely decent. I honestly feel like we're doing the readership a solid by pointing out what a bad deal this case is.
A reputable site publishes the good and the bad, that's how you know they're not in someone's pocket. If everything we published was golden, we'd be the hardware version of GameSpot.
Operandi - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Negative reviews are indeed essential and valuable to the readership but I don't see the point in reviewing out right junk. Perhaps there is something there that caught your interest before reviewing it but I can't imagine what it was, I saw the picture on the front page and thought "that looks like a piece of crap", the review pretty much confirmed it.I guess my main point is there isn't any purpose in reviewing mediocrity. Every product has design goals, and on a case like this the goal was obviously set pretty low. Even if it had not utterly failed, it would still not be an interesting product or review.
Impulses - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Plugging all your non-essential peripherals into a surge protector and turning it off does a far better job of being green, total cost: about $10 for the surge protector. Doesn't everyone do that these days? You would think all the TV commercials urging people to unplug their chargers and whatnot would be taking us in that direction, I guess Moneual's just trying to make a quick buck off the green trend tho.GeorgeH - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
I was actually thinking that this was a perfectly serviceable, if ugly, PC case for those on a very tight budget, thinking that $140 was a typo and you meant $40. I was getting ready to thank you for taking the time to review a "cheap" case - then I finished reading the second page.W-T-F. You're being far too generous throwing this case in the $50-70 range; it's only worth more than $45 if you're blind and like the way it looks. $140 is so ridiculous it's almost funny.
L. - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Well .. You're still being generous.This is a 100% "made and designed in china" piece of crap, the likes of which cost 40 bucks WITH a 450watt (lolwatts, not real watts) PSU and an integrated LCD + fan control.
Considering this one has an even worse PSU than the one I'm thinking about, and also lacks the LCD / fan control.. I believe you can at best consider it's worth 30 bucks.. and still -- for 30 bucks you can get a very decent chinese box that has a lateral 220mm fan and no PSU - as you'll have to change it anyway who'd want to pay for that.
By the way, if you're interested in reviewing cheap, you might wanna take a look at real contenders, because there's quite a few unkown brands that produce stuff much better than Tt / CM / Si / Antec -- Just a bit hard to find sometimes.