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Antec Solo

Stellar

Stellar

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2003
Messages
1,975
Anyone have this case that can recommend it?

Currently I have a Lian Li PC-7B that has minor, but annoying, rattling that I can't seem to track down.

Therefore I decided to go to a quieter, more sturdy steel case and the Antec Solo piqued my interest. Especially the insulated panels, suspended HDD mounts, and holes for hiding wires behind the mobo tray.

The price point isn't bad either at $79. I just don't have much experience with Antec. I had two aluminum Coolermaster cases before the Lian Li.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129018&Tpk=antec+solo
 
ya its not bad... id say look at the p180 series stuff before the solo but the solo is alright...
 
This particular Antec case is one I was using in budget builds for people for a while, but it is far too cramped to work in. Especially with the Cooler Master 590 and 690 being the same price if not cheaper, and much roomier, and with more features.
 
ya bit supports full size atx mobos so i guess it all depends how crazy ur setup is...
 
I have Antec Solo and PC-A09, which is internally similar to PC-7B. Antec Solo is fine, but be prepared for some space constraints.
Few restrictions :
  • PSU support bar running from back to front can make installation of some coolers impossible.
  • It's hard to put in motherboards with already installed bigger CPU coolers like Ninja. Not impossible, but there is only very small place.
  • HDD tray is not removable, so you can have problems with your hard drives colliding with bigger graphical cards (concrete example - power cable to ATI HD3870 vs back of disk).
  • Even with silicon gromets (tray mount) a highly vibrating disk can force vibrations to the case (concrete example - Seagate 7200.10 400GB). You should use disk install via those black stripes (suspension mount).
  • Only 9,2cm fans at front.

On positive side it has :

I have some rattling with my PC-A09 too, i'm thinking about using home-made solution like black stripes in Solo (didn't decided yet).

soulliea said:
ya its not bad... id say look at the p180 series stuff before the solo but the solo is alright...
Click to expand...

P18x have one big problem - front doors. Without them the noise is higher, with them you must open the door everytime you need to push power/reset button or do something with DVD drive.
 
Thanks, Faugus. The door is a big turn off for me to the P18x series, due to the X-Fi panel and card reader that I use frequently.

The Coolermaster 690 looks interesting, but seems as though it wouldn't be near as quiet as the Solo, which is main reason I want to get away from my current case.
 
After my past couple rebuilds I gave the parts to my parents. Two rebuilds ago my mother and stepfather got the parts in an Antec P150 (a white version of the Solo, now with color trim and called the "Sonata Designer 500"). They love the case. Last rebuild, my father got the parts in a Solo. He loves the case. (My stepmother uses a notebook and pretty much ignores his PC.)

Both builds use an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on the CPU, and an Arctic Cooling AF12 (one of their open-frame rubber-suspended fans) as rear exhaust. Both have one 92mm front intake fan, too, though I don't remember what fans I used.... Oh, an Antec NeoHE PSU in the P150, and an EarthWatts in the Solo. Anyway, both systems are inaudible (except for the whiny-ass hard drive in the P150). When I first unpacked the P150 I was surprised by its solidity and build quality, and impressed by the details like the cable-wrapping hooks.

As I was prepping the Solo, one of my roommates was looking it over, and he eventually asked, "Why'd you get your dad such a nice case?" Just because your mother uses a Mac, I answered, doesn't mean other parents can't have nice computers. :D
 
I love the Solo myself, but I was a little space limited, and very noise limited. I didn't need a bunch of internal space(2 DVD's, 3 HDD's), but I needed it to be quiet as it was going to be in my living room, attached to my TV. My living room also happens to be my bedroom(Go go studio apartment life!) and my computer is on 24/7.

The space is a touch limited, but if you go with a modular powersupply, and you don't need a ton of space it's fine. And the cable management is great IMO.
 
Solo is not very noisy. Put a silent PSU here (Corsair, Seasonic), use some non-OC E2xxx Pentium Dual Core, add passive Ninja onto that, one 9,2cm fan at the front, one 12cm fan at the back, then regulate fans to 50% and you will still get great temperatures. Of course it's a bigger problem for gaming rig (but you can still use Accelero S1 with some graphical cards and use low speed fan for CPU when doing small OC), but it's ideal for my small server (CPU had 42-44°C when compiling Gentoo !).
 
Exactly the kind of replies I was looking for. I think I'll go ahead and pull the trigger.

Right now my rig consists of a C2D 6300 with a Zalman 9700 and an 8800GT with an Accelero S1 (passive). 1x SATA HDD, 1x SATA DVD-RW, and an X-Fi Platinum with front panel which is the only thing that takes up any extra space due to the ribbon cable, although I may replace that soon. PSU is an Antec Neo (modular). If I could get by in the PC-7 I think the Solo will be an adequate fit.
 
If you care to shop around and wait, rebate offers pop up once in awhile with the Solo. I picked up my Solo case a two months back for $50 after rebate from Newegg.

The Solo case is pretty nice. It's smaller and easier to handle, unlike my previous Antec 1000AMG. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get use to the smaller inside coming from a larger case, but the case is pretty cleanly laid out and the space for excess cabling helps keep the clutter down. I didn't have any problems with transferring the guts of my PC to the Solo.

My problems with the case is that the 92mm intake fans are very restricted with the front bezel closed. The bezel presses almost up to the intake fan grills. I was able to drop my CPU temps by 3C just by running the PC with the bezel open. I wound up buying a Kama Bay to fill the 3 unused drive bays which brought in alot more air to the case.

Also the Firewire front connector is pretty useless. I wish Antec replaced it with an e-SATA port or something.
 
faugusztin said:
Even with silicon gromets (tray mount) a highly vibrating disk can force vibrations to the case (concrete example - Seagate 7200.10 400GB). You should use disk install via those black stripes (suspension mount).
Click to expand...

If you do use the tray, the manual warns against over-tightening the screws, which squeezes the grommets and makes them useless to dampen vibrations. I almost made that mistake with my install.
 
Teh Lurv said:
If you do use the tray, the manual warns against over-tightening the screws, which squeezes the grommets and makes them useless to dampen vibrations. I almost made that mistake with my install.
Click to expand...

That was not due overtightened screws, i'm sure about that. That disk had worst magnitude of vibrations i ever seen, when placing your hand on it you could feel it was jumping. I got rid of that disk, my next disks (WD5000YS and WD5000ABYS) were fine.
 
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