Antec Solo II Review: Sonata Evolved
by Dustin Sklavos on September 6, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Antec
- mid-tower
- Sonata
Conclusion: Silence at Any Cost
The takeaway from all of our testing of the Antec Solo II is a pretty simple one: if you prioritize silent running above all else, your choice is fairly clear. For the office environments Antec hopes to cater to, the Solo II is going to be a stellar enclosure with its understated appearance and equally unobtrusive acoustics. It's simply one of the quietest cases we've ever tested, if not the quietest.
Unfortunately, Antec also wants to cater to enthusiasts with the Solo II, and in that respect it's just not competitive. In order for Antec's offering to compete with cases like the much less expensive BitFenix Shinobi or Corsair Carbide 400R, they really needed to at least include one intake fan, and preferrably two. I have trouble fathoming a situation in which building an enthusiast-class machine in the Solo II would be wise. If you want a quiet machine for moderate gaming, then yes, it'd probably be adequate. But just because you can fit an AMD Radeon HD 6990 or two into the Solo II doesn't mean you should.
I also think Antec is having the same problem with the Solo II they had with the Sonata IV: it's priced right out of competition. At $129 it just doesn't make sense. Is BitFenix's Shinobi a little smaller and chintzier-looking? Sure. But it's also a lot less expensive and capable of offering only slightly louder acoustics in exchange for much better thermal performance (which is probably what would happen if you added a 120mm intake to the Solo II). If you're willing to switch to Micro-ATX, then SilverStone's $99 Temjin TJ08-E will blow the pants off of the Solo II. I recently assembled a system for a sound engineer in the TJ08-E; get even an inexpensive tower cooler in that case (Cooler Master's Hyper 212 Plus is my personal favorite) and marvel at how quietly and coolly it actually runs. That's an enclosure that's arguably as attractive as the Solo II, but both smaller and more efficient.
Antec's engineers have a lot of good ideas in the Solo II, but there's still a ways to go. The suspension mounting system should probably just be ditched entirely (personal preference) in favor of four drive sleds, and the case desperately needs intake fans. This is a very quiet case with excellent soundproofing, but adding intakes might actually improve acoustic performance under load as the processor's fan will have much less work to do. I'd also like to see just a little more room behind the motherboard tray. Finally, that pricetag really needs to go down. $129 is unreasonable for what you get when other vendors are willing to give you more for less.
I'm a huge Antec fan—always have been, always will be. The Solo II is definitely a much stronger step forward compared to the middling Sonata IV, and their engineers seem to be on the right track. But the enclosure market is extremely competitive these days, and this design still has a ways to go before it can earn a full-blooded recommendation. If you're interested in silence above all else, it doesn't get much quieter than the Solo II, but I'm not sure it's worth the costs.
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DrJ-10 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
FWIW, I tried this some time ago and it didn't work for me. I must not have been patient enough, or my hand are too large, or something.I note that this sort of nonsense is not part of the Fong Kai cases that HP has used for a long time in their workstations. The bar simply is not necessary for a case to be solid or quiet.
MrMaestro - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
I owned a first-gen SOLO in my previous setup and I loved it, though admittedly I didn't truly appreciate its qualities until I got rid of it. It was soooooo quiet, I would leave it on all night in my bedroom and in the dead of night I could only just make out that it was on. I've stopped doing that since I got my P183 because it makes too much noise, and that's with the TriCools swapped out for Scythes.This looks like a nice evolution of the old design, though there are a couple of things I'm disappointed about. Firstly, it looks good, but a bit boring. I had the Sonata Plus (which was a SOLO bundled with a PSU) which has a dash of orange on the front, and it looked great while being a tiny bit different. This plain black is a bit boring.
I also wish they would have moved the PSU to the bottom of the case, as the support bar is a bit of a pain, and out of place in a modern, name-brand case I think.
I will definitely look into this for my next build though. Thanks for the review AnandTech.
Menty - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Nice review, thanks :).Did notice you mentioned the PSU-installation difficulty. I saw it mentioned elsewhere that the bracing bar would be removable in the Solo II, and indeed it looks from the photos like it has screws instead of rivets on it. Could you check that? :) It might make a substantial difference to the build difficulty for some people.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
The PSU support bar has a screw in the back of the case, but unfortunately uses rivets to attach to the optical drive cage. :(Menty - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Well that sucks :( thanks for replying though.Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Double-checked, this is my error. The case uses small phillips head screws, not rivets. The crossbar can be removed!soydios - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
So, how would it perform with both intake fan slots populated with low-speed fans, acoustically and thermally?This case meets all of my requirements for a new case besides thermals, thus I'm curious to try it with two added intake fans.
- full ATX
- 3x HDD mounts w/ vibration isolation
- 1x 5.25" bay
- sound-deadening panels
- intake air filter(s)
- good selection of front ports
nowayout99 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
The noise is dependent on the fans you select. This case, like the original Solo, gives you just about every advantage you can have, but the part selection is up to you. Get quiet parts and you will have something you can barely tell is on.This review does not include any front intake fans, so any front fans you add will only improve thermals. Unless you are doing SLI or Crossfire, the thermals will be well within operating spec for the components. Again it'll come down to part selection. Low-speed fans will be silent inside this case.
jwaight - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Dustin, could you install 2 intake fans and redo the thermals again?I know you test the shipping unit, but who wouldn't populate the intakes?
flipmode - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Nice review. Nice to see Antec trying to recover from the follies of recent Sonata models.I have a Sonata III and I really do like it. But there are some things Antec has not addressed that I don't understand.
1. Bottom mounted PSU. This is almost a necessity IMO. It helps with cable management since excess cables don't have to defy gravity with bottom mounted PSUs. This might make very long graphics cards incompatible with the case since a bottom mounted PSU would push the mobo upward and therefor the graphics card upward into the drive cage, but I'd be willing to accept that compromise. If you're a gamer then get a gamer case.
2. Side-facing drive sleds. This is a necessity. You can skip the cable management hooks if you have to in order to get the sleds to face sideways. The ease of use of side-facing sleds is a tremendous convenience over the front facing scheme. Also, Antec's designers should consider how the cables route to the drives. In the Sonata III the cables can be routed in a pretty clean manner but I think that it more from luck than any strenuous thought on the part of the case designers.
3. Tri-cool is better than dual cool. I have the Tri-cool fan and I love it. It's a terrific fan. And include the fans at the front of the case too - even if it means charging a little more.
4. The cross-bar must go. It's a coincidence, but just this past Sunday I spent 30 minutes with a drill removing the cross-bar from my Sonata III so that I might possibly be able to get a PSU in and out of the case without removing the CPU heatsink. And the case is plenty sturdy without it. The side panel goes on and off easier without the cross-bar.
Well, now for some compliments:
1. The sound attenuation is a wonderful thing to see and Antec should keep that up and in as many of their cases as possible.
2. The understated look of the case is quite nice and approaching beautiful. That is first and foremost what has always drawn me to the Sonata line and now Fractal's cases too.
3. The cable routing space behind the mobo and the cut-outs in the mobo tray are absolute must-have features these days and kudos to Antec for including those.
4. I also like that there is no handle on the side of the case like there is on the Sonata. And I love the fact that there is no side vent. Side vents are ugly, and cases should achieve adequate air flow without them. Good job there!