Maybe, i was thinking the same. OMG, we need Mulder and Scully here... and i still need a new case. Fractal Design Arc Midi i'm coming?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4730/ante ... ta-evolved

Maybe I missed it before but he mentions the support bar is removable with a Phillips screwdriver.

It came up in the comments. Dustin double checked for it and he updated the article.

New page on Antec site: http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA0NDkz
Video on official Antec TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyHMMQi7ny4

50 seconds into the video you can see the @#$% plastic power switch assembly. Darn.

and for some reason the support bar in the video has pop rivets instead of Phillips head screws. I've yet to see pics of the screws holding in the support beam.

FYI guys, we're well aware of the issues with the original SOLO and the power button. We did take steps to reinforce it to prevent this from coming up with the SOLO II.

Give me a few minutes and I'll have pictures of the screws for the PSU bar...



The product video was done with the first tooling sample that we had which did still include the rivets. Once the feedback came from Computex that users didn't want the rivets in there, we made it so two small phillips screws would hold it in place. Unfortunately we had to do the video with that T1 sample.

Thanks for posting, Jessie. Now get a sample up to Vancouver for testing!

With the original Solo, some users had problems with cheaply constructed power and reset buttons. This isn't the case on the Solo II. Both buttons are sturdy and slightly recessed. No problems with accidentally toggling the wrong button. The power button is pushed easily enough when desired, and the reset button requires some extra force. This is exactly how buttons should behave.
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=842&Itemid=61&limit=1&limitstart=2

Dear Jessie, can you confirm this statement?
Anyway, i like it. I will buy it when it becomes available here in Italy, because i need a case with the same size of P150 but with better ventilation for PSU and more room for graphic card.

It strikes me that this case might work really well as a positive pressure case, with two ~700 RPM intake fans and no exhaust fan. Especially with a tower CPU HS pointed out the back and a fanless PSU or semi-fanless PSU with the fan not spun up.

If you're asking me to confirm that we improved the power switch from the original SOLO, then yes. Confirmed.

SPCR's review: http://www.silentpcreview.com/antec-solo2

Thanks, Lawrence! Glad to see the case holds up vs the current crop.

Looking at the closeup of the power/reset assembly, it looks the same. Except, having metal screws instead of the plastic extrusion/fastener in the original. That should help. Yes, the "spring" assembly is still thin...but the weak point was the fastening point and that plastic was 1/3 the width of the springy part.

My pros:
-Glad the bar is removable, but does it really need to be there? I don't mean is stability required, I mean an inconvenience is still somewhat of an inconvenience, if it requires an extra step to accomplish something many other cases do without the need, granted those are all prob bottom mounted PSU's.
-Hooray for positive air pressure!
-Same for longer video cards! Who needs tons of HDD cages? Get a server case if you do =P
-Glad for reduction of 5.25" bays, and 2x1200mm fan intakes.
-I'm for the PSU up top if it's oriented outward, the Silverstone Temjin TJ08-E did this just fine.

Cons:
-Could use more room at the back for wiring
-Front panel should be removable without needing to remove the side one
-Front buttons can still be better, why are good buttons so hard to find?

I just feel for the price, the niceties could be bumped up. Look at some of the cases from Corsair and Silverstone. I'd like for Antec tough durability, with Corsair/Silverstone niceties. The best example is the 600T's springs to open the side panel. Furthermore it's power buttons, and fan control, etc. For the current price, it's not much more than this Solo II, and I for one am geared towards value, rather than just a raw lower price. I too loved the Temjin TJ08-E. Give me that with a tad more wiggle room, with maybe some dampening layers, more solidly built? and give it to me in white! =P Note that I've been using a P150 and Solo ever since they first came out and have performed dozens of upgrades within them (and yes, the reset button on the P150 gave out a couple years ago lol).

This was not mentioned explicitly, but it seemed obvious that the bar can be removed... and simply left off.

lol...
no need for structural integrity? Ok. Would a large CPU hsf still get in the way of a PSU removal? Seeing as the PSU is somewhat seated above?

It would depend mainly on the cooler being used and how close it sits to the bar and the bottom of the PSU.

With original Solo, the support bar is basically flush with the bottom of the PSU, and you really only need about and inch to drop down the PSU enough to clear the top cover.

It think that ditching the rivets on the top panel for screws would have been a much better solution than making the bar removable. It would let you just install the PSU from above and not encroach on the motherboard/HSF section at all.
Still, the removable bar is a decent alternative.

I'd like to get one, as I like the changes for the most part. A gaming machine with a long Video card realistically doesn't need more than 3x3.5" drives and a 2.5" drive. The box I'm building now would be a nice match, since I don't plan on using any 3.5" drives, just an SSD or maybe two.

I'm hoping the 'street' price for the Solo II will be closer to $100 (USD), as $129 is definitely too pricey.
I suppose we'll all find out once it's for sale somewhere besides the Antec Website.

Can I just say... too little too late? Also, very expensive for what little improvement it brings.

I mean, the Define R3 is superior in every way AND costs less. Antec is losing its touch.

About the SPCR review (i post my comments here too since the official article comments thread is a bit dead):

It would be great if the case could be tested with more fan configs. Two intake fans at varying speed settings would be interesting; I think most people interested in this case are looking for such a positive pressure setup.

I would also like to see testing with and without airfilters (especially with front fans installed), such testings have been made on other cases before (P18x, FT-02 etc) why not now?

And, I would like see the case tested with a (semi)passive PSU.

I'm glad they kept the PSU on top and added a vent.

Will probably get this case then remove the 3.5" drive bay and separate the main board area from the PSU and 5.25" bays. Kind of like the 3480.

This kind of review throws me back to the last decade. I've given up gaming (almost, slower games now) and moved from gaming rigs to the smallest possible rigs: a Thermaltake Element Q with a mini-itx board and a 3GB HD as a NAS/Torrent/FTP/... server, and an E-360 nettop. Planning on moving the server to a Raspberry Pi ( http://www.raspberrypi.org/ ), too, for even less power and noise. And maybe the nettop, too, but then I'll need 2 Pis for dual screen ^^

Aside from the cost, most of the changes seem to be pretty good. I don't understand all of the complaints on the first page. To me they just sound like people complaining that the SOLO II is not designed like most cases on the market. The biggest complaint I can't understand is the need to have the PSU at the bottom. Having the PSU at the top makes use of the dead space behind the 5.25" bays so that you have a more direct front-to-back airflow. Sure a large tower cpu heatsink gets in the way, but let's not pretend that having the PSU at the bottom has zero drawbacks.

Define R3 is clearly inferior when it comes to build quality, effectiveness of fans and so on. R3 is only superior when it comes to number of poorly dampened HDDs and cable management. It takes 3 fans for the R3 to provide the same amount of cooling as the Solo II can accomplish with only two of which none is a side fan. True Quiet is also a superior fan compared to everything Fractal Design have branded their own.

+1 here.

I can't argue with your take, 80 Plus Gold makes top position PSUs less of an issue I'd say. But as to complaints on page 1 I have to at least say;
3 months ago we had far less information about this case. The early pictures from summer 2011 don't match the case as you would get it if you buy one in 2012. So some of our complaints were from us looking at prerelease prototypes/engineering samples.

After reading the latest Anandtech review and the SPCR review I have more respect for this case than I had before each review.

I don't remember any mention or speculation of such a higher quality stock rear fan being included. Maybe I missed mention of that while looking at the more obvious changes?

I was assuming the Tri-Cool would be replaced by the Two-Cool as seen on the Antec TWO HUNDRED V2 (1500 and 900 RPM on the twocool). Having a stock fan with 1000RPM max is a plus as it's one less fan swap for me should I ever get my hands on one. On the old Solo my swap was to take out the Tri-Cool and put in a Yate Loon 1350 RPM which was quieter or at least better sounding than even the Tri Cool on low (1200 RPM?). I've never heard the Two-cool or the Truequiet but I'm assuming either would be an improvement over the tricool.

As to the power buttons for any that don't know there are now at least 3 revisions

Original Solo
Solo with Antec replaced front cover*
Solo II**

* They added a plastic backstop to reduce the chance of excess button travel which was an improvement just not a huge one. They also shipped these out free to customers that had a broken power button. The whole front cover design changed to strengthen the button so that cost them a decent amount in materials, shipping, and handling.

** additional improvement by using some metal to fasten the plastic pieces to the front cover. Maybe other changes I didn't notice. Presumably this will be enough to keep people from breaking the buttons in normal use? I haven't seen one up close so I'll have to take their word on it for now.

I like the changes to the drive cage and the support bar. I consider those win/win.

I'm pleasantly surprised they went with 2 120mm fan mounts on the front. I was thinking they might do a single 120mm mount on the front.

Going over the cons from the article

Group 1
* Expensive
* Only one fan included
* Questionable power/reset buttons

Group 1 is all about price. If this were a $50 case I wouldn't care as much about including only one case fan or even the power buttons. The Antec Online store lists the Solo and Solo II with only a $10 premium for the II revision. I'd pay $10 more just for the USB 3 front ports and the better quality fan. All the other improvements are gravy assuming I will eventually be able to get a Solo II cheaply.

Group 2
* Glossy finish attracts fingerprints
* Missing con of reduced external drive bays.

Glossy vs Matt vs White. They would make some friends by offering 3 paint options but I'm OK with either black option. I think the all black front looks better than the old silver/black front. I do wish they hadn't reduced the number of external bays so much. Where do you put a fan controller front plate if you have two optical drives?

Group 3
* Only two sets of hard drive suspenders
* Could use better cable management

Doesn't bother me at all. Those that are bothered by this could argue for these to be in the price related cons of Group 1.


All in all I still like the Solo/Solo II but I'm not ready to toss >$100 for it and so long as it looks to be in that price category I'll be more likely to mention any flaws in the hopes that someone from Antec will address them in a V2 style manner like they did with the TWO HUNDRED (no I'm not yelling but product names that are spelled out in all caps are what someone at Antec thought would be a good idea) or in the hopes they'll see fit to drop the price to offset it's flaws.

Wish the I/O ports and power/reset buttons were on top. Other than that, it doesn't seem too bad.

I noticed the Solo II did not merit either an SPCR recommened or an Editor's Choice rating.

oversight corrected. it is recommended -- lower price could change this to EC.

Majorly disappointed to expensive and not even close to the bang for the buck of the Define R3. The design is still obsolete for modern system.

Maybe you have not understood the meaning of this case. IT IS still the best COMPACT & QUIET-ORIENTED case existing for ATX motherboards.
It can be used for a great gaming rig in a mere 440 mm (H) x 205 mm (W) x 470 mm (D). It have defects, i know, but Define R3, NZXT H2, Silverstone, no brand had a similar compact mid-tower case for ATX mobo.

The Antec link goes to the Coolermaster website.