The room behind the mobo is significant, much more so than a standard case, and I can do a pretty awesome job at wiring those, and YES with non-modular PSU's haha. As far as the ODD space, well, I don't use ODD so who cares lol. There are short drives out there, and maybe shorter PSU's?
The big problem for me was brought up by SPCR, that structural integrity is a bit lacking, most noticeable when you remove the top section.
It's true I've gotten used to cases like Corsair's line (every one of which I've tested has been moronically easy to assemble), but the Temjin is cramped, no way around it, and you really are going to want to put it together in a very specific way. My major beef was with wiring everything; the clearance between the PSU and the ODD is bad and unfortunately largely unavoidable due to the needs of the TJ08-E's design.
And while it's true YOU may not use ODDs, some of us still need them. I master blu-rays on my desktop, and I watch them on my media center. You might suggest just ripping them, but wouldn't that still require an ODD? Also, the PSU is pretty much as short as they come and was sent by SilverStone specifically for that reason.
SPCR may have felt the structural integrity was lacking, but that was not a problem that I experienced in testing the TJ08-E. Also, the top section is held on by six screws and really only meant to be removed once, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably fine.
I also seriously don't get your complaint's about lack of building space!
I just build for a friend a LAN-PC using this same case.
Parts used:
* Asus ROG Maximus IV GENE-Z (for the PCIe 4x SSD slot) * Core i7 2600K * Antec KUHLER H2O 920 * Sapphire HD6990 (A seriously big card ;-) * Corsair TX750 V2 (not modular!) * Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 3TB * OCZ RevoDrive X3 240GB * Drawer handle (on top for carry the case to and from lan's)
And I have really no complains about space, and even with a non-modular PSU my build looked a lot cleaner then yours.
TyRaps, stick-on TyRap points and the space under the mobo plate are really your friend!
And a friend of us, even water-jet out the side panel for a window, as it is a sweet looking clean build, specially for suds a small case.
Total actual building time less then 30 min.
I installed all the parts, and PSU last, then pulled all the cables to the right side of the case in the blind space you have there, and there is really a lot of space for all your extra cables and cable lengths next to the PSU, there is even a TyRap point there to zip them all up there! (do it would had bin nice if they had made more TyRap points there)
Hahaha, an HD 6990... I always chuckle a little when I see someone choose one of those overpriced hunks of junk for their build. Any 2x GPU card really. And unless you are overclocking, you should have settled for the i7 2600, not the K model. Or even the i5 2500, if it's strictly a gaming box. Meh, overkill.
The design is strikingly similar to that of the old Lian Li PC-A05N (and new PC-A05FN). Same inverted motherboard and similar front-to-back hard HDD carriage. The Lian Li is a bit longer, but it can fit a full ATX motherboard. It's a much more practical design in my opinion.
I had a coupl've issues with the A05N which I think the TJ08 has solved. Namely that the exhaust fans were much closer to the user, making the A05N quite noisy, and that the exhaust from the PSU had a tendency to get recirculated back into the case. It also had very poor GPU cooling, with warm air tending to get trapped at the top of the case.
I have that same case, but the one large problem is that the front ventilation is not sufficient if you have the front cover on. The cover prevents waaaaay to much air flow. I also installed a 120mm fan above the GPU slot to clear out stagnant air that gets trapped above the GPU. Over all thought the PC-A05N is very similar.
You say the case will not work well with dual graphics cards, but you did not even test it. You should test it.
I concur with the 160mm modular power supply. Should also find an optical drive about 170mm in length.
I recommend avoiding both CPU air cooling and 3.5" hard drives in the hard drive cage. Put 3.5" hard drives in the bottom and/or media bays. The length of the hard drive cage is perfect for 2.5" hard drives with adapters. Consider SSDs and/or notebook hard drives for the hard drive cage.
I've often wondered if a left hand mounted mobo would be better for passive graphics cards.. heat sink on top seems rational to me. That said, im no master of thermal and fluid dynamics, any benefit may be negligable to none. I see an experiment in my near future.
Well, I"m not sure, because the fans are usually sucking air into the card - in this case they will get the air from the warmer, upper section of the board, whereas normally, the y get it from the bottom, where cooler air is supposed to be. If you"re running passive or with custom fans though, it may be beneficial. Still you have a heat source below the card, with all the VRM and CPU, so it may not be ideal.
I have a passive graphics card. Ran my experiment. It would appear that thermal conductivity has a far greater impact than orientation. 'Negligable to none' confirmed.
Thanks for the review, I was seriously thinking about buying this case for my build (parts just arrived today). In the end I went with the Antec Three Hundred instead, and looks like I'll be glad in terms of ease of assembly. This is a really nice looking enclosure though!
Last system I built for my dad's gaming/video rig used the 300. Very spacious and easy to build with. Some sharp corners if I remember correctly, but other than that no complaints and the huge fan on the top on the low setting (fan has low/medium/high) is virtually inaudible and moves a LOT of hot air out.
Only long-term issue I can think of is dust issues inside but that's what the air compressor is for once or twice a year.
1. When photographing a black case with a black interior, illuminate it with a LOT of external light (try to minimize shadows), BEFORE pointing the camera at it. Trust me. Your photographs shows a lot of black on black, with minimal illumination, which showed much less detail than it should have, for this type of review. Remember, some of us aren't kids with sharp eyes anymore.
2. Remember to take some angled pictures of the interior of the case. Some of the best details of any case can only be discerned while looking at it from an angle OTHER than straight on. Close ups are also lacking, especially in the drive areas.
3. When reviewing a micro-atx case, doing so with a mini-itx motherboard just seems like cheating to me. You're complaining about crowding, but you really don't have a problem fitting a motherboard that small in the case. Seeing a micro-atx motherboard in there would tell a much better story, especially if you're complaining about space (or lack of).
Nice case, but not really worth that price point, IMHO.
Thanks for this review. I'll be doing a new build in the near future and am very interested in microATX or maybe even mini-ITX because I don't need that many components (no optical drive, only one HDD, SSD, and video card). The TJ08-E looks nice but the difficulty in installation kind of bothers me for something that costs that much and I'd prefer to keep my PC P&C Silencer 610W if I was using a microATX case. Can you comment on something much cheaper such as the Cooler Master Elite 341? I know the materials and maybe thermals won't be the same, but I like the size, layout, and price.
That's one hell of a Mini Tower! It's amazing for it's price and it' kinda good looking too. Could you guys do side by side or something with already proven cases when a new one pops? Specially some offerings from CoolerMaster (they're always cheap :P)
Just saw this on Newegg this week and thought it looked awesome. It's great you were able to get it into test so soon after release.
Pretty sure this is the way I'll go with my next build. Time to update (and downsize) from my Antec 900. I'd been considering the FT03 as well, but that seems like more form over function. It's quite expensive, it really isn't all that compact, and from your testing, it doesn't perform as well as the TJ08.
Quick question, do you need an adaptor to use the USB 3.0 headers w/ a USB 2.0 port on the motherboard? Aren't they the same form factor, and you can just plug them in?
You do need to use an adaptor (the TJ08-E comes with one); the USB 3.0 motherboard header has at least twice as many pins as a USB 2.0 motherboard header.
You're complaining about cramped size yet you're building a mITX system in a mATX case. Seriously?
Anyone with common sense knows that building a SFF system has size issues; that's inherent with the design and the size of the form factor. If you're not prepared to cable manage and optimize in some ridiculous ways - don't build a SFF system.
They might exist but I've never seen a Mini-ITX board with four expansion slots. Seems like a lot of extra unnecessary space for something that could fit into a LIAN LI PC-Q08B (that can hold some 7 drives and has two expansion slots). I can only see this case being useful for Micro-ATX setups.
Not sure what exactly you are referring to, but if you mean that this case has enough PCI-slots (those things at the back of the case where you connect your display and network cables) to accommodate 4 different cards, you might also keep in mind that this is a micro ATX compatible case. Micro ATX boards are very much able to have 4 different cards on them. :-) As for the case, it looks nice. Although I like cube cases in that space region more. I have a Lian Li V-252-B myself and am interested in the Sugo 02-06 series from Silverstone in the future (depending on how the CPU and GPU sizes and energy consumption goes).
We decided on two test beds for our case reviews; for ATX-compatible and larger, we use a Sandy Bridge ATX motherboard and test with overclocking. For micro-ATX and ITX, we use a mini-ITX motherboard and, where possible, test with the GTX 580 installed. We figured two set configurations was better than three or four different options. The only thing mATX would potentially add is more performance and more heat, so by that token testing ITX in a uATX case is actually putting less strain on the cooling.
Using modular PSUs in small cases like this is often a bad idea and far from required. The problem with modular PSUs is that the modular bits tend to add significant length and stiffness that makes cable routing harder (often significantly.) Non-modular supplies might have an extra SATA cable or two to tuck away, but that's generally easy to do. Problems can come up with PSUs that are much too powerful and therefore come with tons of extra cables, but that's just operator error. :)
Wouldn't it be fairer to use stock coolers rather than custom CPU coolers? The CPU temp is rather impressive, at just 6-30 degrees Celsius above room temperature. But I can't help but think most of the kudos goes to the custom cooler rather than the cooling prowess of the case.
I like this case a lot, but how would one go about improving the acoustics? I mean, I could go out and buy sound dampening foam and put it in... but that stuff is really over-priced everywhere I've looked and that seems like kind of a pain.
The Zalman cooler we use for testing is honestly a bit loud and the Zotac board doesn't really have much in the way of fan control; just putting a quieter cooler (think the Cooler Master Hyper 212+) in would go a LONG way towards quieting down the Temjin.
This isn't the first article with this problem, but the white on yellow text in the graphs is near impossible to read on both my Dell LCD and my Samsung 2343BW.
Also, you mention that the Antec Mini is bigger, but I would have liked to see more details & comparison.
This thing is begging to be used with a PICO-style PSU and just integrated graphics for those who don't need a discrete GPU.
Or for those that do and aren't going to go with a high-end card and madly overclocked CPU, an SFX12V PSU like, oh, I don't know...Silverstone's very own ST45SF.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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 easily
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47 Comments
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MakingMonkeys - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Looks awesome.EnzoFX - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Maybe you're too used to oversized cases =P.The room behind the mobo is significant, much more so than a standard case, and I can do a pretty awesome job at wiring those, and YES with non-modular PSU's haha. As far as the ODD space, well, I don't use ODD so who cares lol. There are short drives out there, and maybe shorter PSU's?
The big problem for me was brought up by SPCR, that structural integrity is a bit lacking, most noticeable when you remove the top section.
Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
It's true I've gotten used to cases like Corsair's line (every one of which I've tested has been moronically easy to assemble), but the Temjin is cramped, no way around it, and you really are going to want to put it together in a very specific way. My major beef was with wiring everything; the clearance between the PSU and the ODD is bad and unfortunately largely unavoidable due to the needs of the TJ08-E's design.And while it's true YOU may not use ODDs, some of us still need them. I master blu-rays on my desktop, and I watch them on my media center. You might suggest just ripping them, but wouldn't that still require an ODD? Also, the PSU is pretty much as short as they come and was sent by SilverStone specifically for that reason.
SPCR may have felt the structural integrity was lacking, but that was not a problem that I experienced in testing the TJ08-E. Also, the top section is held on by six screws and really only meant to be removed once, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably fine.
Havor - Saturday, August 6, 2011 - link
I also seriously don't get your complaint's about lack of building space!I just build for a friend a LAN-PC using this same case.
Parts used:
* Asus ROG Maximus IV GENE-Z (for the PCIe 4x SSD slot)
* Core i7 2600K
* Antec KUHLER H2O 920
* Sapphire HD6990 (A seriously big card ;-)
* Corsair TX750 V2 (not modular!)
* Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 3TB
* OCZ RevoDrive X3 240GB
* Drawer handle (on top for carry the case to and from lan's)
And I have really no complains about space, and even with a non-modular PSU my build looked a lot cleaner then yours.
TyRaps, stick-on TyRap points and the space under the mobo plate are really your friend!
And a friend of us, even water-jet out the side panel for a window, as it is a sweet looking clean build, specially for suds a small case.
Total actual building time less then 30 min.
I installed all the parts, and PSU last, then pulled all the cables to the right side of the case in the blind space you have there, and there is really a lot of space for all your extra cables and cable lengths next to the PSU, there is even a TyRap point there to zip them all up there!
(do it would had bin nice if they had made more TyRap points there)
http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1256#3
szimm - Tuesday, August 9, 2011 - link
Hahaha, an HD 6990... I always chuckle a little when I see someone choose one of those overpriced hunks of junk for their build. Any 2x GPU card really. And unless you are overclocking, you should have settled for the i7 2600, not the K model. Or even the i5 2500, if it's strictly a gaming box. Meh, overkill.Havor - Tuesday, August 9, 2011 - link
A HD 6990 is just as fast as a HD 6970 CF setup, and both solutions cost the same.And the 2600 vs 2600K is 20 Euro difference
So how cares for a couple of Euro's on almost 2000 euro PC.
Meh, don't care.
piroroadkill - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Eh, if you have the money, there's nothing wrong with a 6990.I7 2600K, definitely. Don't get the non-K.
Wieland - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
The design is strikingly similar to that of the old Lian Li PC-A05N (and new PC-A05FN). Same inverted motherboard and similar front-to-back hard HDD carriage. The Lian Li is a bit longer, but it can fit a full ATX motherboard. It's a much more practical design in my opinion.Menty - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
I had a coupl've issues with the A05N which I think the TJ08 has solved. Namely that the exhaust fans were much closer to the user, making the A05N quite noisy, and that the exhaust from the PSU had a tendency to get recirculated back into the case. It also had very poor GPU cooling, with warm air tending to get trapped at the top of the case.superccs - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
I have that same case, but the one large problem is that the front ventilation is not sufficient if you have the front cover on. The cover prevents waaaaay to much air flow. I also installed a 120mm fan above the GPU slot to clear out stagnant air that gets trapped above the GPU. Over all thought the PC-A05N is very similar.slagcoin - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
You say the case will not work well with dual graphics cards, but you did not even test it. You should test it.I concur with the 160mm modular power supply. Should also find an optical drive about 170mm in length.
I recommend avoiding both CPU air cooling and 3.5" hard drives in the hard drive cage. Put 3.5" hard drives in the bottom and/or media bays. The length of the hard drive cage is perfect for 2.5" hard drives with adapters. Consider SSDs and/or notebook hard drives for the hard drive cage.
Andrew Rockefeller - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
I've often wondered if a left hand mounted mobo would be better for passive graphics cards.. heat sink on top seems rational to me. That said, im no master of thermal and fluid dynamics, any benefit may be negligable to none. I see an experiment in my near future.Rick83 - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Well, I"m not sure, because the fans are usually sucking air into the card - in this case they will get the air from the warmer, upper section of the board, whereas normally, the y get it from the bottom, where cooler air is supposed to be.If you"re running passive or with custom fans though, it may be beneficial. Still you have a heat source below the card, with all the VRM and CPU, so it may not be ideal.
Andrew Rockefeller - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
I have a passive graphics card. Ran my experiment. It would appear that thermal conductivity has a far greater impact than orientation. 'Negligable to none' confirmed.IMPL0DE - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
are barely visible, because you used a white font on bright yellow.PorscheMaD911 - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Thanks for the review, I was seriously thinking about buying this case for my build (parts just arrived today). In the end I went with the Antec Three Hundred instead, and looks like I'll be glad in terms of ease of assembly. This is a really nice looking enclosure though!7Enigma - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Last system I built for my dad's gaming/video rig used the 300. Very spacious and easy to build with. Some sharp corners if I remember correctly, but other than that no complaints and the huge fan on the top on the low setting (fan has low/medium/high) is virtually inaudible and moves a LOT of hot air out.Only long-term issue I can think of is dust issues inside but that's what the air compressor is for once or twice a year.
Good choice.
PorscheMaD911 - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Awesome, thanks for sharing your experience. I'll watch the sharp corners and keep an eye on the dust level!marvdmartian - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
1. When photographing a black case with a black interior, illuminate it with a LOT of external light (try to minimize shadows), BEFORE pointing the camera at it. Trust me. Your photographs shows a lot of black on black, with minimal illumination, which showed much less detail than it should have, for this type of review. Remember, some of us aren't kids with sharp eyes anymore.2. Remember to take some angled pictures of the interior of the case. Some of the best details of any case can only be discerned while looking at it from an angle OTHER than straight on. Close ups are also lacking, especially in the drive areas.
3. When reviewing a micro-atx case, doing so with a mini-itx motherboard just seems like cheating to me. You're complaining about crowding, but you really don't have a problem fitting a motherboard that small in the case. Seeing a micro-atx motherboard in there would tell a much better story, especially if you're complaining about space (or lack of).
Nice case, but not really worth that price point, IMHO.
antef - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Dustin,Thanks for this review. I'll be doing a new build in the near future and am very interested in microATX or maybe even mini-ITX because I don't need that many components (no optical drive, only one HDD, SSD, and video card). The TJ08-E looks nice but the difficulty in installation kind of bothers me for something that costs that much and I'd prefer to keep my PC P&C Silencer 610W if I was using a microATX case. Can you comment on something much cheaper such as the Cooler Master Elite 341? I know the materials and maybe thermals won't be the same, but I like the size, layout, and price.
BoloMKXXVIII - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Why doesn't the lack of an audio line in port rate as a negative? Does it save that much money or is it pressure from the RIAA?YukaKun - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
CoolerMaster's Elite 335? http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id...That's one hell of a Mini Tower! It's amazing for it's price and it' kinda good looking too. Could you guys do side by side or something with already proven cases when a new one pops? Specially some offerings from CoolerMaster (they're always cheap :P)
Cheers!
antef - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
See my post above about the Elite 341 - it has a similar look and is even smaller since it's specifically microATX.YukaKun - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Actually, I did read your comment, but couldn't find the 341 at CoolerMaster's page.Going to look again.
And I forgot to thank the review! Nice review as usual!
Cheers!
Termie - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Just saw this on Newegg this week and thought it looked awesome. It's great you were able to get it into test so soon after release.Pretty sure this is the way I'll go with my next build. Time to update (and downsize) from my Antec 900. I'd been considering the FT03 as well, but that seems like more form over function. It's quite expensive, it really isn't all that compact, and from your testing, it doesn't perform as well as the TJ08.
ebolamonkey3 - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Quick question, do you need an adaptor to use the USB 3.0 headers w/ a USB 2.0 port on the motherboard? Aren't they the same form factor, and you can just plug them in?Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
You do need to use an adaptor (the TJ08-E comes with one); the USB 3.0 motherboard header has at least twice as many pins as a USB 2.0 motherboard header.zero2dash - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
You're complaining about cramped size yet you're building a mITX system in a mATX case. Seriously?Anyone with common sense knows that building a SFF system has size issues; that's inherent with the design and the size of the form factor. If you're not prepared to cable manage and optimize in some ridiculous ways - don't build a SFF system.
fujii13 - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
They might exist but I've never seen a Mini-ITX board with four expansion slots. Seems like a lot of extra unnecessary space for something that could fit into a LIAN LI PC-Q08B (that can hold some 7 drives and has two expansion slots). I can only see this case being useful for Micro-ATX setups.Death666Angel - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Not sure what exactly you are referring to, but if you mean that this case has enough PCI-slots (those things at the back of the case where you connect your display and network cables) to accommodate 4 different cards, you might also keep in mind that this is a micro ATX compatible case. Micro ATX boards are very much able to have 4 different cards on them. :-)As for the case, it looks nice. Although I like cube cases in that space region more. I have a Lian Li V-252-B myself and am interested in the Sugo 02-06 series from Silverstone in the future (depending on how the CPU and GPU sizes and energy consumption goes).
superccs - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
mATX is a vastly more popular board size, one that I have been using for years.One thing I like to see is well thought out airflow, something that is very rare in most case designs.
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
We decided on two test beds for our case reviews; for ATX-compatible and larger, we use a Sandy Bridge ATX motherboard and test with overclocking. For micro-ATX and ITX, we use a mini-ITX motherboard and, where possible, test with the GTX 580 installed. We figured two set configurations was better than three or four different options. The only thing mATX would potentially add is more performance and more heat, so by that token testing ITX in a uATX case is actually putting less strain on the cooling.JasonInofuentes - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
http://youtu.be/IolqkwNSmfAbobbozzo - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
FAKE youtube link above!GeorgeH - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Using modular PSUs in small cases like this is often a bad idea and far from required. The problem with modular PSUs is that the modular bits tend to add significant length and stiffness that makes cable routing harder (often significantly.) Non-modular supplies might have an extra SATA cable or two to tuck away, but that's generally easy to do. Problems can come up with PSUs that are much too powerful and therefore come with tons of extra cables, but that's just operator error. :)Knifeshade - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
Wouldn't it be fairer to use stock coolers rather than custom CPU coolers? The CPU temp is rather impressive, at just 6-30 degrees Celsius above room temperature. But I can't help but think most of the kudos goes to the custom cooler rather than the cooling prowess of the case.Hrel - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
I like this case a lot, but how would one go about improving the acoustics? I mean, I could go out and buy sound dampening foam and put it in... but that stuff is really over-priced everywhere I've looked and that seems like kind of a pain.Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
The Zalman cooler we use for testing is honestly a bit loud and the Zotac board doesn't really have much in the way of fan control; just putting a quieter cooler (think the Cooler Master Hyper 212+) in would go a LONG way towards quieting down the Temjin.bobbozzo - Thursday, August 4, 2011 - link
This isn't the first article with this problem, but the white on yellow text in the graphs is near impossible to read on both my Dell LCD and my Samsung 2343BW.Also, you mention that the Antec Mini is bigger, but I would have liked to see more details & comparison.
Thanks!
MadMan007 - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
This thing is begging to be used with a PICO-style PSU and just integrated graphics for those who don't need a discrete GPU.Or for those that do and aren't going to go with a high-end card and madly overclocked CPU, an SFX12V PSU like, oh, I don't know...Silverstone's very own ST45SF.
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! ;)