Noise and Thermal Testing, GeForce GTX 580

While I hesitate to suggest the SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E is really designed to handle the kinds of gaming hardware something like the more robust FT03 was designed for, the fact that I can fit a single GeForce GTX 580 in there means I have to try. I do have some concerns about the blower-style cooler being effective enough with the card inverted, but that's what testing is for.

Wow. The Temjin performs consistently better than the FT03. I'd still argue that due to the way the video card is situated in a multi-GPU configuration might be too much for the TJ08-E, but at this point it's obvious you can put a pretty powerful system into the enclosure without much trouble.

And once again, noise levels are comparatively good. The wind tunnel design of the TJ08-E is both fairly quiet and remarkably efficient. Given the temperatures, there's really no reason to use the high fan speed setting for most users.

Noise and Thermal Testing, IGP Conclusion: Awesome Performer, But Needs Care
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  • 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/IolqkwNSmfA
  • bobbozzo - 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.

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