I love the SOLO, only reason I'm not using it anymore is that my HD6950 won't fit in front of the drive bay. I can't tell if the drive bay will block the card with the SOLO II, probably not since the top slot is usually a PCIe x1 slot.
Two immediate drawbacks that I can tell:
They haven't fixed the incredibly poor power and reset buttons, those are really spongy and prone to break. Something more clicky, firmer with less travel and better response would have been good. Also, something less prone to snap off from the front panel.
I'm not so sure I need 4 USB ports in the front, I'd rather have just the 2 USB 3.0 ones and team those with a powered eSATA and a Firewire port.
Yeah, almost nothing uses Firewire but we still get them on many motherboards.
Another option would have been a card reader.
Finally, I had hoped for a solution that would allow me to use my fanless Seasonic PSU. Unfortunately that requires ventilation from the top, which means a bottom mounted orientation.
Still, I'm glad to see this great chassis is still getting updated.
I have to agree. I was really looking forward to this case. Hopefully the reviews will show that they also improved the space for cable management. They should at least have eSATA on the front or maybe a card reader (like the CM 550 Silencio). I would've also preferred them putting the front panel connections up top as well like the P280, which looks like a great case (but too pricey for me).
It probably isn't a bad case, but it doesn't seem like a slam dunk choice over the Cooler Master Silencio which I was also considering.
I confess I wrote this before Anand corrected that it won't be included in the next chipset. ;) …because the case is probably going to be released at about the same time.
But why won't they simply make one or two of them swappable? (I mean besides obviously wanting to sell you another case) They could then sell each 2 cents replacement for $9.99. I would be more willing to buy an expensive case if I knew it's upgradeable.
I agree, this looks very promising, precisely because it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, or in this case, the Solo.
The key features which made the original case so amazing for the price are still there, all the necessary upgrades like USB 3.0 and adjusting for the ever-growing size of modern video cards werde made. If they managed to improve the fan as well, this is just the icing on the cake.
As of now, this looks like it has everything I want, for an affordable price, and that makes it the only one on the market right now.
We've had a discussion about it on spcr too. http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php... Overall very disappointing since the Solo was my favorite case. This goes backwards in some ways, fails to fix a number of things, and only has very minor improvements. Who ever thought that reducing the number of hard drive bays was a good idea? Let alone not fixing the terrible power button.
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Exodite - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
I love the SOLO, only reason I'm not using it anymore is that my HD6950 won't fit in front of the drive bay. I can't tell if the drive bay will block the card with the SOLO II, probably not since the top slot is usually a PCIe x1 slot.Two immediate drawbacks that I can tell:
They haven't fixed the incredibly poor power and reset buttons, those are really spongy and prone to break. Something more clicky, firmer with less travel and better response would have been good. Also, something less prone to snap off from the front panel.
I'm not so sure I need 4 USB ports in the front, I'd rather have just the 2 USB 3.0 ones and team those with a powered eSATA and a Firewire port.
Yeah, almost nothing uses Firewire but we still get them on many motherboards.
Another option would have been a card reader.
Finally, I had hoped for a solution that would allow me to use my fanless Seasonic PSU. Unfortunately that requires ventilation from the top, which means a bottom mounted orientation.
Still, I'm glad to see this great chassis is still getting updated.
stromgald30 - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
I have to agree. I was really looking forward to this case. Hopefully the reviews will show that they also improved the space for cable management. They should at least have eSATA on the front or maybe a card reader (like the CM 550 Silencio). I would've also preferred them putting the front panel connections up top as well like the P280, which looks like a great case (but too pricey for me).It probably isn't a bad case, but it doesn't seem like a slam dunk choice over the Cooler Master Silencio which I was also considering.
Belard - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
Doesn't look any better than my white P150 (which was renamed into the SOLO)... Where is the picture of the entire front?My P150 is over 4 years old, still works very good... but the power LED has died. (I swapped it with the HD one)
There are more interesting cases on the market nowadays.
Exodite - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
I don't really want 'interesting' myself though. I want discrete, silent and functional.Preferably black, most definitely no annoying leds, clear sides, exotic designs or panels looking more like swiss cheese than, well, panels. :)
I'm kinda traditional like that.
Unfortunately that's made finding a case the absolutely hardest part of building a new rig.
dnd728 - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
"I'm not so sure I need 4 USB ports in the front, I'd rather have just the 2 USB 3.0 ones and team those with a powered eSATA and a Firewire port."Better yet, Thunderbolt...
Exodite - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
I confess I did mention useless obsolete port already, no need to take it to the next level... ;)Exodite - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
And with typos, no less. *sigh*dnd728 - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
I confess I wrote this before Anand corrected that it won't be included in the next chipset. ;)…because the case is probably going to be released at about the same time.
But why won't they simply make one or two of them swappable? (I mean besides obviously wanting to sell you another case)
They could then sell each 2 cents replacement for $9.99. I would be more willing to buy an expensive case if I knew it's upgradeable.
Exodite - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
That's an excellent point, a choice in front panel configurations would be very nice.Zap - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
I loved the original Solo, but this one seems a bit... meh.Exodite - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
It's the same chassis, only with USB 3.0 ports in the front panel and what looks like a better fan.Also, it would actually fit my graphics card.
voidi - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
I agree, this looks very promising, precisely because it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, or in this case, the Solo.The key features which made the original case so amazing for the price are still there, all the necessary upgrades like USB 3.0 and adjusting for the ever-growing size of modern video cards werde made. If they managed to improve the fan as well, this is just the icing on the cake.
As of now, this looks like it has everything I want, for an affordable price, and that makes it the only one on the market right now.
tomoyo - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
We've had a discussion about it on spcr too.http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php...
Overall very disappointing since the Solo was my favorite case. This goes backwards in some ways, fails to fix a number of things, and only has very minor improvements. Who ever thought that reducing the number of hard drive bays was a good idea? Let alone not fixing the terrible power button.