My Antec Solo next to a giant pepper grinder

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:47 am

I've not show off my computer in all its glory before, so here it is!

Starting at the front, I removed the fan grills from in front of the two Glacialtech Silentblade 92mm fans. They are controlled by the Silverstone fan controller so that they are silent when idle but do draw a fairly significant amount of air when turned up under load. You can also see the filters for the start of my PSU duct above the DVD drive:

Moving to the side shot, you can see all the components in my sig. There is the Turbo Module on the Accelero S1 Rev 2 and both the 120mm fans are Yate Loons. You should also be able to see the piece of card that forms the PSU duct, which prevents hot air from all the components in the computer from reaching the PSU. As many of the wires as possible are tucked in the wire organiser behind the drive cage and all wires are flat against the motherboard allowing as much undisturbed air as possible to reach the GPU and CPU coolers. The heat-spreader has been removed from the CPU, so the TRUE makes direct contact with the core. I had to remove the massive heatsinks from the RAM so that the modules would fit next to each other and under the TRUE:

Moving to the rear, again all fan grills have been removed. I have also blocked the intake vents to the right of the PCI slot covers to stop any unfiltered air entering the case. All air is taken in through the dust filters at the front of the case and exhausted at the rear:

Finally, here is the finished build. This emphasises the slight overhang of the filters at the front of the PSU duct and the small difference in colour of the DVD drive. However, when the computer is on the floor in its normal position, both of these are unnoticeable:

I know it is only a Solo, but I feel I have a somewhat unique build that is both nearly silent and keeps temperatures very low. The loudest thing is the rear Yate Loon at under 1000rpm, and both the CPU and GPU idle at ~32 degrees and never reach more than 50 degrees under load. The only thing I've not shown is the Acoustipack on the side panels, but that is pretty boring.

Cheers!

FartingBob · Post by **FartingBob** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:12 am

Very Nice clean build. The TRUE facing up does look to me to be less effective in terms of airflow, not sure how much air the case fan would be pully out since most would be aimed at the PSU, atlhough it solves teh problem of having to mangle your heatsink to bit it in.
Do you have any way of seeing how hot the air is coming out the PSU? Would be interesting to see just how warm your power supply is under loud.

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:34 am

Unfortunately, due to the AM2 HSF retention bracket, that is the only way the TRUE will face. All air from the main chamber is pulled out by the rear case fan and none makes it to the PSU so I am not too bothered about it really.

The air coming out of the PSU does get fairly warm under extended load. However, I am sure that it is noticeably cooler than if the PSU were scavenging air from the CPU HSF and other heat producing components. The main thing is that the PSU fan never ramps up; it is inaudible at all times.

Tkpenalty · Post by **Tkpenalty** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:42 am

roadie wrote:Unfortunately, due to the AM2 HSF retention bracket, that is the only way the TRUE will face. All air from the main chamber is pulled out by the rear case fan and none makes it to the PSU so I am not too bothered about it really.

The air coming out of the PSU does get fairly warm under extended load. However, I am sure that it is noticeably cooler than if the PSU were scavenging air from the CPU HSF and other heat producing components. The main thing is that the PSU fan never ramps up; it is inaudible at all times.

Hey, just to warn you, the extra heat MAY cause damage to the PSU if you constantly run it like that. My PSU when i was using the TRUE ran much warmer with the TRUE facing up (i couldnt fit it normally because of the HR-05 and the PSU support bar).

Excellent setup anyway! Another SOLO user *high five*

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:06 am

Is the peppermill oak or maple?

Rewdoalb · Post by **Rewdoalb** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:52 am

please get a new imagehost. It may be because I'm on a school computer, but clicking an image link opens the hosting site along with 2 popups, and then the image site goes away and gets replaced by ANOTHER advertising website. Summary: I can't see your picture and there are ads everywhere.

On a more encouraging note, it looks like a great setup based on the thumbnail shots.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:19 am

i got 1 popup. 1st one i've seen get past my blocker in a long time....

My pepper mill is a Peugeot but not so tall. It was the the first thing I bought when I moved out of my parent's house long ago, still makes a perfect grind.

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:20 am

Tkpenalty wrote:Hey, just to warn you, the extra heat MAY cause damage to the PSU if you constantly run it like that. My PSU when i was using the TRUE ran much warmer with the TRUE facing up (i couldnt fit it normally because of the HR-05 and the PSU support bar).

Excellent setup anyway! Another SOLO user *high five*

The PSU only draws air from the front of the case through the filtered 5.25" bays because of the duct. It's not a regular design with a fan on the underside and thus runs as coolly as possible.

Rewdoalb wrote:please get a new imagehost. It may be because I'm on a school computer, but clicking an image link opens the hosting site along with 2 popups, and then the image site goes away and gets replaced by ANOTHER advertising website. Summary: I can't see your picture and there are ads everywhere.

On a more encouraging note, it looks like a great setup based on the thumbnail shots.

I don't see any ads from the imagehost using Firefox and adblock plus. I guess I can re-upload the pictures when I get home from work.

Ralf Hutter wrote:Is the peppermill oak or maple?

Good question! I am not sure to be honest, as it was a present from my parents at Christmas. I think it is oak, and it's a fantastic product.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:24 am

Hi Ralf,

Ralf Hutter wrote:Is the peppermill oak or maple?

It looks like maple to me -- with a honey colored stain.

Torajirou · Post by **Torajirou** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:46 pm

Nice build

Where did you find those 5.25" filters ? I'm highly interested !

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:50 pm

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:StarTech.co ... 1991030238

thats basically what it is. i've seen them in stores, but wasn't interested in them much.