Antec P150: Back in Black? [called: Solo]

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:37 am

Greetings,

NewEgg has the Solo! They are charging $90 plus ~$19 shipping.

Sohjen · Post by **Sohjen** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:14 am

Solo available at Provantage here. $67.52 plus shipping.

vitaminc · Post by **vitaminc** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 9:36 pm

Solo is not really finished at the back side. Got cut twice trying to wire.

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:20 pm

Solo in stock at Overclockers in the UK - price Â£64.98 including VAT.

It's not bad in absolute terms I suppose, but it seems a bit steep given that the P150 is Â£79.84 from the same outlet, and includes an expensive PSU (note also the extra 18 quid for a black P180 over the silver version)

Unless black paint is more expensive of course...

Goldmember · Post by **Goldmember** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:28 am

Thanks for the updates everyone. I do believe this thread had the first and the best reviews of this case!

Here is an off-site review for the Solo. It seems the bezel is FUBARed around the front inputs and the optical drive. Maybe the door is on wrong or was damaged in transit?

DaveLessnau wrote:...Sixth, and very surprisingly, even though I used the built-in drive suspension system, I could still clearly hear the ramp-up whine and drive seeks on my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA - ST3120026AS drive...

I feel your pain.

IMO, the 7200.7 SATA and its loud seeks do not belong in a quiet PC. Mine will not be making the transition into the new build.

vitaminc wrote:Solo is not really finished at the back side. Got cut twice trying to wire.

I assume you mean around or near the cable management hooks?

MasterWerk · Post by **MasterWerk** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:32 am

Hey guys - I've been trolling SPCR for a LONG time, and now that i've put all i've learned here to good use, i thought i'd weigh in about the SOLO.

I love Love LOVE this case. Just got mine in the mail and started to build. Using an antec NeoHE 550, cable management is a snap. Also I really love the 92mm fans.

I used to have a sonata (1st gen) and because of the placement of the fan, the air was all routed underneath the gigantic x1800xt. i really had to work for every bit of cool air to the cpu. Now, one fan blows on the NB and gpu, the other goes right to the top half of the board.

it really feels like antec is listening and evolving their cases to the user's needs. I tried a p180 and it was quiet, but my temps spiked. took it back 2 days later. The Solo is just big enough and the air flow is superb, even for bigger components.

all in all, this is by far the best case i've ever owned (take THAT, P180). my only beef is that i had to move my hard drives around. one of my three drives was butted right up against the video card. i could BARELY get the power cord in. now my 2 raptors sit in the bottom 2 HD slots and the 320gb got bumped up to the floppy "cage."

also, there's just no good way to get the cable from my x-fi to the front panel unit (boy did i try). anything i do will be very ugly and restrict airflow.

I did a little bit of modification to the fans to keep this beast silent. I installed 2 12v/5v switches to an empty drive bay cover (thanks for the guide, Mike!) and now i can have my cake and eat it too.

for general use, 5v's is fine for the zalman 9500 and the panaflo exhaust. at this voltage, QUIET. but when it's time to game, I can now hit the switch and temps DROP (though the jet engine sound isn't too pleasant). this is fantastic. no more sacrificing performance when i need it most.

I also just added 2 92mm Nexus fans to the front and my temps dropped even further, without any more noise! This thing is mean. I can't even hear it when the air conditioning is on. Any gamers with silent aspirations REALLY need to look into slapping this mod into their rig.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:41 am

Greetings,

Now that we know that you're here, Welcome to SPCR!, and thanks for the mini-review, too.

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:48 am

I've just been checking the current prices of some Antec items again at Overclockers:

Antec P150: Â£79.84

Antec NeoHE 430W: Â£61.04

Antec Solo: Â£64.98

So if you wanted a Solo/NeoHE combination (a black P150 in other words) it would cost you Â£126.02, or an extra Â£46.18 for the black paint (58% more). You might as well buy a Solo *and* a P150, and get an additional "white Solo" for just Â£18.80...

Goldmember · Post by **Goldmember** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 8:56 am

Another review

Nick,

I agree that for someone building a quiet PC from scratch, the P150 is the better deal because of the NeoHE. No arguments here.

Although, if their NeoHE is a dud then they might have to pay a little extra for an RMA.

It does seem you guys are getting the shaft again on pricing.

That works out to $120.

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:06 pm

I really like the new "square" look of the new Antec cases (Solo, NSK3300, etc). Sitting next to my old 3000B, the newer cases seem somehow more "crisp" and modern. I guess it's the sharp, geometric lines, compared to the rounded edges of the 3000B. I also like the two-tone coloring (silver, black).

simbloke · Post by **simbloke** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 1:35 am

Hi,

I got an Antec Solo yesterday and very nice it looks too. The black is very shiny and the silver front panel has a clean simple style. I'm in the UK and got it from here http://www.lambda-tek.com/ for Â£53 + postage, a good Â£15+ cheaper than other places, delivered next day.

I'm using it for our home server (MythTV/SlimServer) which is pretty well packed:
An old SuperMicro MB, 2.2G P4, Seasonic S500, AGP VGA card, 1 x DVB-T + 2 x DVB-S cards, IDE raid card, network card, two Seagate 7200.7 200G disks, DVD RW.

The P4 is not particularly cool, the motherboard has very little onboard so requiring extra PCI cards, the Seagate disks don't seem to be that cool at the best of times (unlike a Samsung P80 in another machine which barely gets abover room temp).

I use a 92mm Papst fan at the front and a CPNS7700 on the CPU. In an old case the disk were getting up to 40 degrees. Now (with most fans at a medium/slow speed) the disks are 32-34 degrees. The drives are mounted on the trays and rubber bushes, not the bands, but I can't here them over the Papst.

The system is in a back room doing a server job so doesn't need to be silent, it's quiet enough though. For a desktop machine I'd find a quieter front fan, then again a desktop machine might not even need one.

The case it really easy to work with. The hooks for coiling up spare wire are a neat idea. The HD bays are nicely space out and the option of two 92mm fans is better than one 120mm I think. I also like the black drive bays and the lack of 'stealth' covers. Just my opinion but I find them tedious.

Overall very nice and makes my desktop machine look very shabby indeed!

Sim

eoctanker · Post by **eoctanker** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 8:11 am

Just powered up my Solo and Asus A8N-SLI last night and wow! great setup! I will start posting photos this weekend of my build. I love how the rails come right out, the front case opening for the HDD enclosure. Right now there are two loud parts in my system. 7900 GT KO (which I will mod when I get a chance with a Zalman HS) and the tri-cool case exhaust 120mm fan (only hear the air flowing over the grill, may cut the grill out too

. My initial look at the CPU temp was 30C... I am running the ninja plus which fills up the case quite well too. One question for anyone who has built a Solo system, is the front audio wire AC 97 compliant? I know it is a standard intel audio connector, but my Asus A8N-SLI Premium is AMD and has two jumpers on the audio pins... I emailed Asus and they said that I could remove the two jumpers and attach the cable as long as it was AC 97 compliant. I want to know if anyone has the Premium mobo and the solo and if they connected it to the mobo by removing the jumpers and attaching the 10 pin connector or if they removed the jumpers and attached the pins individually?

Thanks and I will post my build in more detail with pictures when I get it completed.

Goldmember · Post by **Goldmember** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 3:14 pm

eoctanker,

I'm not sure I understand your question exactly, but you can find the pin assignments and instructions on page 4 of the Solo owner's manual. It does seem you will have to remove the jumpers and install each pin individually.

I wish Intel and AMD could agree on the same standard!

Take care.

eoctanker · Post by **eoctanker** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:42 pm

I saw the pin assignments, but I was concerned that the jumpers on the mobo were there for a reason... I still am not sure what they are there for, if there were no jumpers on the ten pins, I would have connected it in a heartbeat! I have not connected it becuase I wanted to know if someone else had done this and if it was ok. I will do the individual pin connections when I get in the nexus fans for the front intake. Right now my CPU is running at 27C and my mobo is running at 31C with only the rear fan and the ninja plus! A great case!!!!

Trunks · Post by **Trunks** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:28 pm

eoctanker wrote:I saw the pin assignments, but I was concerned that the jumpers on the mobo were there for a reason... I still am not sure what they are there for, ...

At least in the AC 97 pin out the jumpers are needed to close the output to the back.
With the header plugged in, the front jack cuts out the back. (so if you plug head phones in the â€˜speakerâ€™ out is cut off.)

Goldmember · Post by **Goldmember** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:23 pm

eoctanker wrote:I saw the pin assignments, but I was concerned that the jumpers on the mobo were there for a reason... I still am not sure what they are there for, if there were no jumpers on the ten pins, I would have connected it in a heartbeat!

Ok, I understand now. I don't know what half the things on a mobo are for. I just now they look really pretty.

Trunks wrote:At least in the AC 97 pin out the jumpers are needed to close the output to the back.
With the header plugged in, the front jack cuts out the back. (so if you plug head phones in the â€˜speakerâ€™ out is cut off.)

Ok. Thank you for the information. I learn something new everyday on this website!

Goldmember · Post by **Goldmember** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:12 am

Two more reviews: Bjorn3d and Virtual-Hideout.

A pic from the Bjorn3d review showing the brushed aluminum of the P150 versus the silver paint of the SOLO. It's a very subtle difference.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:45 am

Greetings,

I think that both the P150 and the Solo use aluminum on the front panel? It certainly doesn't mention the silver paint as a difference in the list on the page...

eoctanker · Post by **eoctanker** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:25 am

Its not silver paint, it is a clearcoat type of paint that accentuates the Aluminum panel.

Antec P150: Back in Black? [called: Solo]

NewEgg.com has the Solo!