We were expecting maybe more changes in the side of the Antec Solo II. But the old design is still compatible with the world of silence.
Antec SOLO II
For:
The silent operation
The glossy look
The fan upscale
Against:
The price
The position of the power supply
The meaning of hard drives
It's been a while since the Antec Solo II dragged to the editor and we finally decided to relaunch our test cases with him. The manufacturer has used the past to a neat packaging and this model is no exception to the rule. The Solo II is shiny, metallic paint like a pretty car. Who says gloss paint, said a lot of fingerprints on it! Indeed, this case is no exception and it is particularly addicted to fingerprint, which can quickly ruin its aesthetic efforts. Well, one wipe and back again like new.
First positive, two screws that remain attached to the wall can see the lair of the beast. These sheets of access are also covered with black insulating rigid material that improves the sound camouflage. What is surprising since the opening is the location of food on the top (the old, memories ...), the hard drive bays are in alignment with the tower and the four rods for mounting 5.25 "are classics, but we shall return later.
Outside, we find the two 3.5 mm jacks for audio, two USB 2.0 ports and two sockets for USB 3.0 blue, a big button "power" illuminated in blue when the tower is lit, a small button to "reset" a discreet and disk activity light. An air vent is provided on the top for food, a good place to use the power supply fan to create airflow consistent. Welcome a further opportunity as we shall see, the breakdown is not the highlight of the Solo II. For inside, precisely, there is only one of 120 mm rear fan that draws attention by being mounted on Silent Block, expected not to make a fart noise. Unfortunately there is no pass-pipes for the water cooling fans on the back of the box, but this is an eyelet for LAN party fans who want to secure their investment.
For:
The silent operation
The glossy look
The fan upscale
Against:
The price
The position of the power supply
The meaning of hard drives
It's been a while since the Antec Solo II dragged to the editor and we finally decided to relaunch our test cases with him. The manufacturer has used the past to a neat packaging and this model is no exception to the rule. The Solo II is shiny, metallic paint like a pretty car. Who says gloss paint, said a lot of fingerprints on it! Indeed, this case is no exception and it is particularly addicted to fingerprint, which can quickly ruin its aesthetic efforts. Well, one wipe and back again like new.
First positive, two screws that remain attached to the wall can see the lair of the beast. These sheets of access are also covered with black insulating rigid material that improves the sound camouflage. What is surprising since the opening is the location of food on the top (the old, memories ...), the hard drive bays are in alignment with the tower and the four rods for mounting 5.25 "are classics, but we shall return later.
Outside, we find the two 3.5 mm jacks for audio, two USB 2.0 ports and two sockets for USB 3.0 blue, a big button "power" illuminated in blue when the tower is lit, a small button to "reset" a discreet and disk activity light. An air vent is provided on the top for food, a good place to use the power supply fan to create airflow consistent. Welcome a further opportunity as we shall see, the breakdown is not the highlight of the Solo II. For inside, precisely, there is only one of 120 mm rear fan that draws attention by being mounted on Silent Block, expected not to make a fart noise. Unfortunately there is no pass-pipes for the water cooling fans on the back of the box, but this is an eyelet for LAN party fans who want to secure their investment.
Test Setup:
- ASUS ROG Crosshair Formula IV
- AMD Phenom II X4 980
- ATI Radeon HD 6850
- 2 x 4 GB Corsair Vengeance LP
- Seasonic 460 Watts XSeries (Fanless)
- Noctua NH-U9B
- OCZ Agility 3 120 GB
- HDD 500 GB Samsung 7200 rev / min
Antec has a small installation manual in every language possible, to indicate each location and function. But no step by step how to mount the hard drives, DVD player or an additional fan in front of the disk is provided. For a beginner, it will not necessarily easy to find, though, with a little patience, we can see a door on the front of the box provides access to dust filter fan (not supplied) and the cradle of hard drives.
Moreover, these drives can be mounted either through the small silicone spacers to reduce vibration, or on a bed of spring tension on both sides of the cage. Second positive point, the manufacturer of the case has everything to accommodate 2.5-inch SSDs directly with the silicone tips. A DSS that it is also possible to mount directly flat on the chassis. Original, practical and in some configurations because the Solo II offers only three locations 3.5 ".
- ASUS ROG Crosshair Formula IV
- AMD Phenom II X4 980
- ATI Radeon HD 6850
- 2 x 4 GB Corsair Vengeance LP
- Seasonic 460 Watts XSeries (Fanless)
- Noctua NH-U9B
- OCZ Agility 3 120 GB
- HDD 500 GB Samsung 7200 rev / min
Antec has a small installation manual in every language possible, to indicate each location and function. But no step by step how to mount the hard drives, DVD player or an additional fan in front of the disk is provided. For a beginner, it will not necessarily easy to find, though, with a little patience, we can see a door on the front of the box provides access to dust filter fan (not supplied) and the cradle of hard drives.
Moreover, these drives can be mounted either through the small silicone spacers to reduce vibration, or on a bed of spring tension on both sides of the cage. Second positive point, the manufacturer of the case has everything to accommodate 2.5-inch SSDs directly with the silicone tips. A DSS that it is also possible to mount directly flat on the chassis. Original, practical and in some configurations because the Solo II offers only three locations 3.5 ".
The location of the optical drive is unfortunately not as well finished as the Bay of HDD storage. Four rods are fixed on the drive that is then slipped into a rail of the 5.25 "bay. What we are criticizing here is not the finish of this mounting system, but it lacks an anti-vibration that comes to be lacking when playing a movie or music, the vibration of the drive is being greatly affected.
Food is not too much of a problem position. Four screws on the back keeps it as before, but like the optical drive, we would like a system of vibration protection, handy in case of a power supply fan. Slips on the motherboard at an angle to fit into the holes of the plate interface and then match the copper spacers provided in the bag of screws from the housing.
If you forget to mount the CPU cooler, do not worry, Antec leaves a gaping access backplate to the motherboard with the ability to mount / dismount the fastener of your cooling system preferred. Otherwise, the cables run well at the back to make space between hard drives and the motherboard. By cons, we are not convinced by the HDD cage that falls right in front of the power cable from the motherboard (on our config 'test), which does not help connecting his own way. The cable-management is fairly standard and the passages are well placed to supply the different locations, necklaces are made ??to refine the installation and finish on a high note.
Food is not too much of a problem position. Four screws on the back keeps it as before, but like the optical drive, we would like a system of vibration protection, handy in case of a power supply fan. Slips on the motherboard at an angle to fit into the holes of the plate interface and then match the copper spacers provided in the bag of screws from the housing.
If you forget to mount the CPU cooler, do not worry, Antec leaves a gaping access backplate to the motherboard with the ability to mount / dismount the fastener of your cooling system preferred. Otherwise, the cables run well at the back to make space between hard drives and the motherboard. By cons, we are not convinced by the HDD cage that falls right in front of the power cable from the motherboard (on our config 'test), which does not help connecting his own way. The cable-management is fairly standard and the passages are well placed to supply the different locations, necklaces are made ??to refine the installation and finish on a high note.
As we have seen in the editing part, this case is pretty good overall design with a "legacy" including through the supply position. But is it damaging to the quality of this case or its thermal dissipation? Also fulfill its contract on the noise? To get to the bottom, we submitted the Solo II to our usual tests (a small burn session of 30 minutes with the apps that go to the CPU, GPU and hard).
Result, these tests allow us to say that this case is really quiet, knowing that our configuration was placed at 50 cm from the workstation and proved silent in idle and almost inaudible burn in complete silence. So, put under a desk or in a salon, it will be for sure very discreet.
As we can see with this graph, the only fan provided in this case does not provide a heat dissipation than average. The possibilities of creating an air flow of interest is very limited, and it will invest in at least one additional fan to be placed before the hard drives to improve this situation. This explains a descent in temperature not optimal. FYI, we took our measurement points in the upper part between optical drive and power supply, where there is an empty space, to avoid false measurements, and also down below the hard drive cage, and on the heatsink of the graphics card and hard drives.
Antec gives us here a case of good quality, metallic black, old school design, but hands down filling his contract on the acoustic part. We do have some complaints about mounting the optical drive and the food that lack of vibration attenuation device. This is not fatal, but a case of this stature, we expect better. For the price, € 120 on average, because we expected a finish a little further even if the case remains good overall, to mount the proper config ', if you know how to go about avoiding small traps that the Solo II provided for beginners. Its fan Silent Block is really quiet, and we appreciate both effective systems for setting records. In the end, the Solo II is a good product, but is quite expensive compared to some competitors who do not lack arguments.
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