3DVelocity would like to thank Soldam Corporation and especially Miho Takei for their help and generosity in providing this case for review.

Who are Soldam? :

Foundation

SOLDAM was founded in 1998 by Izumi Hoshino as a direct sales distributor of Hoshino Metal Industries Co.,.Ltd., which manufactures line of WiNDy cases. It started out its business activity for distributing CPU coolers and has broadened the business field to PC cases and accessories.

Location

SOLDAM is located in Ota city, Gunma prefecture, which is the most industrialized city in Northern Kanto area ( Tokyo suburban area). Fuji Heavy, NEC, Sanyo, Mitubishi and other big corporations activate their manufacturing operations in / around this city.

Business operation

Not only do they sell PC cases, but also arrange for system installation and management, PC education as part of IT ( Information Technology) promotion for local residents, design and customize products. Their knowledge and experienced skills have been appreciated by many users across Japan.
From Soldam's site

 

Internal :

Removing the side panel simply involves driving out two Phillips screws and sliding it back and up. Those who've read my previous case reviews know how much I hate case screws, but when you're dealing with Aluminium it's not quite so easy to engineer a quick release latch. There's no reason though why thumb screws couldn't have been used, and I would strongly urge Soldam to consider this for future cases. I understand that these cases are expensive to make, but the guy in the street will simply see that he paid top dollar and didn't even get a few lousy thumb screws.

Once inside though, all the hassle of fiddling with case screws is soon forgotten. The blue anodized interior really does look special, and again, you find yourself saddened that it will soon be hidden again, unless you can pluck up enough courage to take your Dremmel to it and cut yourself a window (gulp!). Yes, I admit it, that's exactly what I plan to do!

Below you can see what Soldam have called their "Mini Godzilla" cage. Held in place by two thumb screws, the cage slides out towards you, and has room for up to six drives. The cage sits behind the front intake fan which should help to keep your hard drives cool.

At the bottom of the cage you can see the plastic runners that allows the cage to slide in and out without the disconcerting grind of Aluminium on Aluminium.

Removing the other side panel reveals nothing very exciting. You can see the spring loaded retention mechanism for the removable motherboard tray and the mounting bracket for the speaker. The retainer for the motherboard tray just applies pressure, and nothing needs to be pressed or pulled to release the tray, so theres no need to remove this side panel in order to remove the tray.

If you need to move the case around at this point, you'll notice a couple of grab holes have been cut into the top and to avoid severed digits, these have a plastic edging round them. Other than these grab holes, most of the other internal edges are left exposed with no attempt to roll them, so beware when working inside! The Anodizing does take some of the sharpness off them, but you can still find yourself mopping up blood and looking for plasters if you don't take care.

Isn't that fan grill the business?

Both of the intake fans (one in the side panel and one in the front) are fitted with removable filters, another nice touch.

Below is the fan on the side panel, the one that sits behind that rather awful grill we looked at earlier. I've slid the filter out slightly so you can see it.

 

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