I’ve been using Lancool PC-K62 mid-tower case for almost three years, and I must say that carrying around a heavy steel case including all the innards is killing me. Unless we’re talking about cases made of aluminium, otherwise, they’d just get heavier especially those full tower steel cases. Even worst, I don’t actually need all that space of a mid tower.
So, for the next PC update, I went on and made some research on SFF (small form factor) cases. In the end, I got the SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E. This case is well accepted by the community because of the design and performance. Whatever, let’s have a look at this fat little case.
Classy brushed aluminium front. Externally, there are two 5.25 inch drive bays on the top and one 3.5 inch at the bottom.
Specifications:
Included in box:
- TJ08-E chassis
- User’s manual
- USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 adapter
- 3M rubber pad
- SilverStone sticker badge
- Screws
- Cable ties
I forgot to take the photos of the accessories packet.
Front I/O includes two USB 3.0 ports and standard audio jacks. I’d be more happy if they make it four USB ports.
Both activity LEDs are in blue.
The chassis comes with a 180mm SilverStone AP181 Air Penetrator fan. It comes with a fan controller to configure between two speed – 700rpm vs 1200rpm.
The front filter can be removed from both sides.
The PSU (power supply unit) is going to be installed on the top section of the case, with the fan facing up.
The intake for the PSU has a magnetized filter which can be easily removed for cleaning.
I displayed an upside down picture? No, in fact quite a few SilverStone cases have this unique layout, some of them even have the back I/O facing upwards, such as the Raven series.
It supports up to Micro ATX boards, hence there’s only four expansion slots. The expansion slots are at the same level as the back panel, thus the protruding part at the back for securing the expansion cards.
An optional 120mm fan can be installed at the back. Too bad they decide not to include one.
The thumb screws have rubber washers to prevent it from scratching the case panels.
Internal of the case.
Unlike any regular cases, the motherboard is going to be installed upside down at the another side of the case.
As you can see, the internal is divided into two sections, the top section is for PSU and 5.25 inch drive bays.
To install the PSU or drives, you need to remove the top panel.
The cables for the front I/O and fan.
The drive cage supports up to four 3.5 inch drives. The drive cage can be removed if you don’t plan to use it.
It is padded to reduce vibrations.
The top part of the drive cage also serve as support for long GPU.
There’s another single drive cage under the four-drive cage. You can even install another 2.5 inch drive underneath it. (SSD)
This cage can be removed as well.
Installing the SSD at this location is quite troublesome. First you have to remove all of the drive cages before you can have the SSD installed.
The works as CPU heatsink support.
If you have large heat sink installed on your CPU, you can have this elevated to support the heat sink and reduce the stress on the motherboard.
Too bad that I won’t be using it for my PC build.
Another side of the case.
The motherboard tray is removable. There are a few cable management holes and hooks for cable management.
There are plenty of space at the back of the motherboard tray for the cables.
TJ08-E build and thoughts
I absolutely love the brushed aluminium front of TJ08-E, too bad I have to install that plasticky DVD-ROM.
I reuse the Lian-Li 120mm fan from my previous case.
Have a look at the internal, how cramp is that.
Intel Core i5 3470
ASUS P8Z77-M
G.SKILL DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz 4GB x2
SAPPHIRE HD6950 1GB GDDR5
Crucial M4 128GB + Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB SATA 7200rpm x2
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music SB0460
Gigabyte Odin Pro 550W
Samsung SH-S223
As you can see, the hard disk drives are taking quite a lot of space, in fact the cables might get in the way if you plan to install a large CPU heat sink.
You have to make sure that the RAM heat sink won’t get in the way of the hard disk drives. RipjawsX is still OK, but higher than that is definitely no-no if you want to install HDD in the drive cage.
The drive cage WILL block those 24pin power connector with hard cover (pictured). Sleeved or unsleeved connectors are perfectly fine as you can bend them. Motherboard choice will affect the ease of connecting the ports, for example, my P8Z77-M have the USB 3.0 port located next to the RAM slots, hence the cable have to go through between the two drives. I tried to bend the cable, but failed miserably due to the drive cage being located too near to the motherboard and the cable is too stiff to bend.
Take a look at the PSU and 5.25 inch drive bay, there isn’t much space in between. Although you can install up to 180mm length PSU, but that would just give you cabling nightmare unless you don’t install a DVD-ROM. SilverStone advises to use 160mm or shorter PSU. Odin Pro is 160mm length and there’s barely much space left due to the modular cable connectors.
Ignore my lazyman’s cable management.
My brother helped me with the build and it was whole lot of fun and challenging. Large cases are easy to deal with because you have loads of space, unlike small cases, you need to properly plan the build sequence to avoid taking apart installed components. Of course choosing the right components is more critical
Overall, this is one awesome little case, I sacrifice the internal space in exchange for a small and light system. Previously I tend to avoid small cases because I had bad experience in managing the cables *coughcoolermastercough*…
TJ08-E however, proved that with proper design, even small chassis can be fun to build.