Hey there,
as promised, here is my shiny new Antec SOLO, is that
shiny enough for you?
System specs are no big deal: Athlon XP2800+, 1Gb Ram, Radeon 9800, 3 hard drives (total 570Gb). I only play two games, GT Legends and GTR2 so my system is more about silence. In that respect, here are the real silent-specs:
»» VGA Silencer for Radeon 9800 (it's that big cooler on the graphics card; has a 2 speed selector, low is inaudible and fast is good enough for gaming)
»» Antec Tricool fan (came with the case and it's already rattling in it's 2nd day!! anyway, inaudible on the low speed setting; will get a silent Noiseblocker or Scythe to replace it)
(by the way: the cable arrangement was not finished, it's much better now, and the CPU cooler is a crappy one from arctic, I'll only change it when I upgrade the cpu and then will get a fanless one)
»» Antec SOLO case with suspended hard-drives (fabulous case, fantastic hard-drive solution... more on this later; the 'suspenders' are not rubber as they used to be - they snapped apparently - they're a kind of
elastic nylon or something; in case you're wondering, the drive are very stable and I can move the case around with no problem)
»» BeQuiet 350W PSU (nearly 2 years old but pretty silent; will only change it for a fanless one; used soft silicone for damping between the case and the PSU - check the pics)
Finally a panoramic view; the case is hidden away; Hi-Fi to the left and monitor (more like a media center actually) to the right.
Antec SOLO
I cannot tell you how much this case has improved my
listening experience. I think this subject hasn't been discussed in this forum as much as it should. Silence, (even for head-fiers) is should be top priority, a basic ingredient for a proper listening experience.
Hard-drives by themselves, sitting on your hand while idling sound like 'wooshh'. True!! just like a fan. But they vibrate A LOT. that vibration does not cause the drive to emit any noise. however, when it touches the case chassis (just barely touching it will do) those vibrations are transmited to the entire case which will vibrate and do a lot of 'HUUUMMMM'. with this system there is NO 'humming' and resting my hand on the case doesn't reveal any vibration.
another thing worth mentioning: grabing the side panel with one hand and knocking it with my 'highly calibrated fingers' produces a dry "thump" instead of the normal "pooow" with kind of an echo that the old case did. I believe it's because it has a vinyl layer on it but the metal itself doesn't seem like metal...more like plastic... but it is metalic.
This case is everything I could want from a 'silent' case. The perfect starting point for a silent system. My advice to anyone into silent computing is either an Antec P180 if you need extreme cooling besides silence, and a P150 or Solo if you have normal/moderate cooling needs. (P150 is a white Solo with PSU).
