SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E: Fat Case in a Little Coat
by Dustin Sklavos on August 4, 2011 1:50 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- SilverStone
- MicroATX
- Mini-Tower
In and Around the SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E
Superficially the SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E looks like a simple, clean brushed aluminum mini tower with design cues that wouldn't seem out of place on a Lian Li enclosure. There's a single large vent on the front for the intake fan, two USB 3.0 ports, the standard mic and headphone jacks, and two 5.25" external drive bays. At the bottom is even a 3.5" external bay, although the placement seems a little awkward and the cover rotates a bit in the bay. Still, if you're not interested in putting a floppy drive or card reader in, internally that bay will support an additional 3.5" drive. When you get to the top of the case you'll see the typical top vent, but that vent really is anything but typical.
Your first clue that everything in the TJ08-E is a little topsy turvy is going to be when you look at the back and realize that everything has been flipped: the motherboard mounts to the opposite side of the enclosure, and the power supply bay is at the top and designed to mount the PSU upside-down. There's a major benefit to all this, though: the motherboard is now lined up behind the front 180mm intake fan.
Opening the enclosure is a three part process. Both side panels are secured with thumbscrews and you'll want to remove them. The top panel of the TJ08-E also comes off, and this is something I really wish SilverStone had simplified: you have to remove six screws to take it off, and when you're installing hardware you will need to have it removed.
Once you're inside you'll be met with a fairly generous amount of space behind the removable motherboard tray; that removable tray is a nice enough touch and SilverStone recommends you remove it during installation, but during assembly I actually found that step was unnecessary. There's a decent-sized backplate cutout in the motherboard tray and a few holes surrounding it for routing cables.
There are also two drive cages stacked on top of each other; the top one is intended to support four 3.5" drives and is lined with a soft material to dampen vibration. I'd prefer if the drive cage were rotated with the drive ports facing the back to simplify cable routing, but space is really at a premium inside the TJ08-E with everything SilverStone packed in here. Below the top cage is a second cage that can be used to house an external 3.5" drive or an internal one, and then below that are four holes in the bottom of the enclosure used to mount a 2.5" SSD.
SilverStone also includes two features of potentially questionable value, though I think they're really ideal more for shipping than anything else, and they certainly don't hurt. There's an adjustable support on the bottom of the enclosure for larger coolers to reduce stress on the motherboard (the standoffs of which are built into the motherboard tray, thankfully), and then the top of the drive cages is raised and flat in such a way that it can support longer graphics cards to reduce stress. SilverStone includes a rubber pad that can be affixed to the cage to close the gap, too, preventing vibration in the process.
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Veroxious - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
Def not my cup of tea. While the dynamics makes sense for their EATX cases it does not work here. Way too cramped for my liking. Also in this case it is just plain fugly - it a freakin block. Definitely not comparable to the likes of Lian Li.burntham77 - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
With a case like this, I think my build will be a mini ATX setup. I game, but I don't require the highest of high end, so with some careful part selections, focusing on a balance of energy efficiency and performance, I can see putting a mid-range AMD setup in this case.ericore - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
I'd much modding an aluminum server 1U rack than using this case. How do you do it?Well, you use a PCI-Express Riser, and mount the graphics card on the outside along with a powerful SFX power supply also on the outside, so not using 1U power supply. Now that is a winner. Easy assembly and extremely portable. You could also mount two of these on top of each other, with graphics card and power supplies all the way on top for two systems in compact space.
This case fails on so many counts; the most obvious being that not only is it rather big but it is also a pain in the ass to setup. And apparently, you need modular. Ya let's spend 200$ on enclosure and power supply to have a hard time assembling, and having it all disorganised. Makes no sense. Sticking to my plan.
MODist - Thursday, September 15, 2011 - link
I liked it so much I went out and grabbed on the same day. I have been building Micro ATX gaming rigs for a couple years now. This is very close to what I have been looking for. Small and light yet has enough space for drives and dual video cards. I was looking at the Silverstone FT03 but it lacked hard drive space and the airflow was a concern for a high end gaming setup.I7 2600K @4.9Ghz Megahalems Rev.B
Asus P8P67-m pro
16GB DDR3 1600
160GB Intel SSD (boot)
3 x 1TB Seagate HD raid 5(file storage)
2 x GTX 285 SLI
DVD/CD drive
3 1/2" card reader
650W powersupply (need to replace)
dcburr - Sunday, December 18, 2011 - link
I don't get it I have this case and have had no trouble putting it together; in fact the ability to run cables underneath the mothe board is fantastic. If you understand how the case works its very easy to assemble. I have a quad core processor and a discrete Radeon card; the box is very small, runs very cool and very quiet. I have been a professional CTO for over 15 years and this is one of the best desktop cases I have ever seen.argion13 - Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - link
I found this review very helpfull when I first read it. The case was definitly on my short list of cases for my new build (whenever that was to occur). That time finally came and the TJ08-E was the choice. I was surprised by the room available. I was able to fit my two 275GTXs in there without a problem. I thought the manual was more than ok. The whole setup is quiet in comparison to my old build which sounded like a fridge. HDD cage not being used since I only have an SSD and one 500GB HDD. I assume this will help with the airflow in the case. Paired with a i5-3570k, Asus P8Z77-M Pro motherboard and a Xigmatek Gaia cooler. The cooler cleared all the components very easilymartyrant - Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - link
That's one nice looking and great performing build...wouldn't mind if I won it! ;)