Soldam Polo R
Introduction
I’ve been a huge fan of Soldam barebones systems since they started making small form factor systems back in 2001. My first experience with their products was the Pandora S, a souped of variation of Shuttle’s groundbreaking SV24 product. While Soldam used the same Shuttle FV24 motherboard, the Pandora S was no mere clone. Being a true cube, the Pandora S featured two 5.25” bays (something that barely exists in the SFF world even today), a high quality paint process, an acrylic faceplate (first company to do this), high quality system fans (Panaflo), and a unique internal design allowing two 3.5” devices. On top of all of the innovation, the build quality of the system was far and away much higher than the Shuttle SV24.
Soldam’s innovation would continue with newly refined Pandoras (featuring two 5.25” drives expandability) and newer systems called Polo (featuring a slimmer design with one 5.25” drive bay). It was the Polo designs that would later influence Shuttle’s SS40, SS50, SS51, SB51, SB52, SN41G2 and SB61G2 designs.
Not content to rest on their laurels, Soldam sought out the services of photographer Rowland Kirishima and designer Masamichi Katayama to come up with a refined product that would define a new concept in PC design. Their search for high functionality, style, quality and finish, performance, and value resulted in the Soldam Polo R with CONCEPT R.
First Impressions - Simplicity Refined
The Polo R is Soldam’s highly refined version of the Polo concept. It’s a forward looking product that stresses both functionality and aesthetics. I was simply blown away by the design the first time I saw it. Perhaps the most striking feature of the system is it’s clean and simple faceplate with a simple slot-loading design, a single optical disc eject button, a single power button, and two high powered blue neon indicator lights.
What separates the Polo R from it’s regular Polo sibling is it’s use of a slim slot loading DVD/CDRW combo drive. This enables the system to be much smaller than a traditional design. Additionally, the Polo R will only take one 3.5” device unlike it’s larger sibling which can take two 3.5” devices.
Of course, I had to see this product in person and so I placed an order with Soldam for the first version of the Polo R. I chose the white pearl mica version and eagerly awaited its arrival.

Because Soldam is located in Japan, they have to ship the product to you (unless you’re lucky enough to actually live there and can go pick one up at a store). My Polo R arrived in a double packed box that was reinforced with extra cardboard to ensure the box wouldn’t be damaged. The main box was full of really nice packing peanuts and a smaller box containing the actual unit.
Unpacking the box revealed the following items:
- Soldam Polo R barebones system
- The installation manual
- Warranty Card
- Motherboard (Shuttle FS51) manual
- PowerDVD software
- 1 x power cable
- 1 x 80-pin IDE cable
- 1 x 40-pin IDE cable
- Extra screws
- Base feet

Specifications
Before we take a detailed look at the system, I’ll discuss the specifications of the system. This particular Soldam system uses the Shuttle FS51 motherboard as the base of the system. The Shuttle FS51 motherboard is chockfull of built-in options making it a very flexible system.
Shuttle FS51 Flex ATX Motherboard
- SIS 651 Pentium 4 Chipset
- 2 x DDR SDRAM 184-pin DIMM Slots (Up to 2GB Maximum Memory)
- Built-in AC97 Realtek Audio ALC650
- Built-in 256-bit VGA
- 1 x RJ45 10/100 Ethernet Realtek RTL8100B
- 2 x Firewire IEEE 1394a 6-pin ports
- 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
- 1 x AGP 2.0 Slot (4x)
- 1 x PCI Slot
- 2 x IDE UltraDMA/133
- 1 x SPDIF-in
- 2 x Serial Ports
- 1 x Line-Out
- 1 x Line-In
- 1 x Base/Center-Out
- PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse ports
Additionally, the system comes with a 200W ACHME powersupply featuring a temperature controlled fan and an 80mm SF80 Windy System Fan (an OEM Panaflo 80mm fan). You will need to install your own heatsink/fan into the system.
Here’s a view of the rear of the system with all of the available ports. Since the system has a clean front, all of the connections are on the back. This makes for a clean desktop although you’ll need some hubs if you need more Firewire or USB ports.

The SIS651 chipset has been out for a while and is definitely not the best available but it was the only one available when I originally purchased the system. Although the Intel 845, 865, and 875 chipsets have been released since then, the SIS651 still performs admirably and has been reliable. The system has pretty much all of the connectivity most people would ever need so it’s pretty complete in my opinion.
Additionally, because of the unique design of the system, the system ships with a Panasonic/Matsushita CW-8121-B slot loading DVD/CDRW drive (although it may be shipping CW-8122-B now).
So, the only other expansion is the single 3.5” hard drive bay. You can potentially install a 2.5” laptop drive if you wanted something smaller and quieter but you will need to install an adapter kit.
Detailed Look
As you can see, the insides of the system cleanly organized despite the lack of space.

One of the secrets allowing the system to be so diminutive is its use of a laptop sized slot loading optical drive. The drive is a DVD/CDRW combo drive featuring 8x DVD, 24x CD-ROM, 8x CD-RW and 8x CD-R.

To make installation a little easier, the power supply can swing open with the removal of just one screen. The power supply is mounted on a swinging mechanism so you don’t have to remove the entire unit during installation. It’s a very nice touch. The ACHME power supply is relatively quiet but it can get louder depending on the internal temperature of your system.

Here’s another view of the inside of the system before the drives, heatsink/fan, and cards are installed in the system.










- Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz (533Mhz Front Side Bus)
- 2 x 1GB PC2100 (266Mhz) DDR DRAM
- Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
- ATI Radeon 9700 128MB AGP Video Card
