SilverStone Temjin TJ04-E: Devil in the Details
by Dustin Sklavos on February 10, 2012 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- SilverStone
- mid-tower
Conclusion: A Starting Point for Enthusiasts
I'll be candid: if it isn't clear at this point, I do have a personal bias towards SilverStone's designs. Their cases are typically clean, there's obviously some thought put into the engineering, and it seems like nobody ever told their engineers something couldn't or shouldn't be done. Whatever the results, testing an enclosure of theirs is always at least interesting, and the Temjin TJ04-E is no exception.
On the plus side, the TJ04-E is a beautifully minimalistic design, and thermal performance is mostly there. In its factory configuration, you can be at least relatively confident the CPU will stay cooler than it would in most other enclosures. The RAM and chipset are also going to run nice and frosty, which is good news for any end user who plans to do some serious overclocking. End users that like figuring out the best way to optimize thermal performance beyond just plugging everything in and going will no doubt at least have some fun with the TJ04-E; I've even been eyeballing it, trying to figure out how to get the most out of some of the more unusual design choices.
Unfortunately, I think the TJ04-E really needs a bottom intake fan to feed the graphics card, a problem compounded by the fact that one doesn't come preinstalled and the case doesn't rise high enough off the carpet to make this a good idea. Worse still, that also makes it less suitable for multi-GPU systems. There's also the problem of noise: this case needs a fan controller. Finally, there are just too many little nuisances involved with the assembly. Where other SilverStone cases have a clear method to their madness, parts of the TJ04-E just make me feel like it shouldn't be this hard.
SilverStone's Temjin TJ04-E isn't a bad enclosure by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not a homerun either, especially at the $149 asking price. The KL04 at $109 is going to be a much, much better deal; it has the same internal design while eschewing conveniences like the hard drive heatsinks and SATA splitter cables. At that price, the KL04 merits some of the extra time that's going to be required to make the most out of SilverStone's design. While the TJ04-E is more attractive and enjoys the extra niceties in the packaging, at $149 it's a tough pill to swallow when other, quieter designs like the Antec P280 are out there.
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ckryan - Friday, February 10, 2012 - link
And this is pretty strange. My guess is the team at Silverstone must be a pretty unusual lot.earthrace57 - Sunday, February 12, 2012 - link
Personally, I think case companies such as Li-Lian or SilverStone should stop trying to innovate in the case design; the S design is pretty well proven. Instead, they should innovate in HOW they cool it, for example, take Alienware's "active cooling" to the next level. First, add those fin things alienware did, and, instead of just having them flip up and down uselessly, have a fan connected, so when they flip up, the fan starts up...little things like that that will help idle noise while not hurting performance under loadImpulses - Sunday, February 12, 2012 - link
That kind of solution requires far more money and engineering for questionable results imo... And the S design just sucks. It may be fine for 90% of systems out there, but it's far from optimal for any enthusiast or gamer running one or more high end GPUs (each one generating more heat than an old Pentium 4). You could argue that's a GPU issue but until that market slows down we're far better off with some innovative case designs.Impulses - Sunday, February 12, 2012 - link
Obviously this case is a miss on the GPU-cooling front... At least with the stock config, but I was speaking in general above (and with some of ST's other designs in mind). Frankly I appreciate these reviews for the usual in-depth scope most AT reviews have, but I think the performance metrics are rather worthless, specially as a way of comparison against other cases.I understand why it's done like this, and frankly I can't think of a fairer way of doing it... But I also can't picture any enthusiast worth his salt not making any changes whosoever to the stock cooling of a case in a DIY build, specially when we're talking $150-300 cases.
Sometimes the smallest changes can make a huge difference, it just seems equally unfair to write off some enclosures because they lacked an extra $15 fan. Different mentality I guess... I certainly don't follow the same logic when say, buying a car, even tho I know people who would.
earthrace57 - Sunday, February 12, 2012 - link
The S design hits the hard drives, CPU, RAM, and Chipset, only the GPU's are left to fry, but even then, in most cases (pun not intended) there is a side fan, which hits the GPU directly, so, just add a 10 dollar fan into one of those slots and the S design is all the sudden made quite a bit better. Also, I might just like to point out, to release a fully functioning case (as in not this), extensive tests have to be done, revise, test, revise ect. In this situation, even though the upfront costs are higher, you can get a product that works into the market quicker, without the extra cost and time that it takes to test and then revise a product. (And yes, this fan control would have to be revised, but it wouldn't take nearly the same amount of time as revising a case IMHO)lawrencekellie - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
The Silverstone website does not state that a mini-ITX will fit in the case. Can you confirm or deny whether it actually does?Thank you