Antec Solo: huge improvement on Antec SLK3000B/ 3000BQE

[aidanjm]

I have just received an Antec SOLO case (the black version of the P150), and have stuffed it with four SATA drives (3.5 inch) containing music/ video/ documents plus a notebook drive (2.5 inch) for the operating system. I am using the supplied tray mounts for the SATA drives (not the elastic bands). The notebook drive is sitting in the area reserved for a floppy drive. I am using a 120 mm Nexus fan at the rear, and a Zalman 7000 AlCu heatsink to cool the CPU.

The setup isn't silent (I wasn't expecting that, given the 4 hard drives) however it is a vast improvement over my previous case (the Antec ALK3000B). There is almost no transmission of vibration from the hard drives to the frame of the case. I.e., the drive trays with rubber grommets are highly effective. In comparison, the 3000B with the same components would rattle and hum to the point of being annoying. The SOLO is also slightly more petite than the 3000B (and just a touch more cramped, internally).

The SOLO has the facility for suspending your hard drives using included rubber bands (for even more reduction of transmission of vibration from the drives to the frame of the case). I haven't needed to use this feature though.

In summary an excellent case if you have lots of drives (e.g., a home media/ file server) and are looking for a case that won't vibrate or make much noise.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I agree. The Antec Solo rocks.

I've got my backup box in this case, and it does an excellent job.

Link for the lazy

It's the second quietest PC that I own, even though it's got a bunch of fans and 4 hard drives in it.

My HTPC is a bit quieter, but that's because I've only got 1 hard drive in it, and the fans in it are a bit quieter. I've got an Antec Overture 2 for that one.
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2614&p=5

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
My HTPC is a bit quieter, but that's because I've only got 1 hard drive in it, and the fans in it are a bit quieter. I've got an Antec Overture 2 for that one.
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2614&p=5

have you been tempted to try out the NSK2400? It's also supposed to be very good for a silent htpc.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
My HTPC is a bit quieter, but that's because I've only got 1 hard drive in it, and the fans in it are a bit quieter. I've got an Antec Overture 2 for that one.
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2614&p=5

have you been tempted to try out the NSK2400? It's also supposed to be very good for a silent htpc.

The NSK2400 is very attractive actually, however, I'm using a full size ATX mobo in my HTPC (it's my old Barton 2500 rig.) To use the NSK2400 I'd need to purchase a new board, and then I'd be tempted to buy a nice new core 2 duo, and then I'd need ddr2, and pretty soon the bill would come to $1000 ...

So ... I'm sticking with my overture 2 for now, it's not "silent", but it is not at all loud (at least that's my opinion, but I'm still somewhat used to old school high RPM cpu fans that sound like jet engines ....)

As far as I can tell, the Overture 2 is close to silent ....

Maybe in a couple of years I'll be tempted to build another HTPC .... then I'll shoot for something M-ATX rather than ATX ...