SilverStone TJ09

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] Say the name SilverStone in any geeky forum on the 'net and everyone there will know who you're talking about. Not too shabby for a company not quite four years old but it's well earned. They offer some of the best computer hardware on the market today. Where companies like CoolerMaster and Lian Li leave off SilverStone takes over. Yes, they take over in quality and in price. I do admit that their cases are among the most expensive out there but are they worth it? Read on and draw your own conclusions. First let's see what SilverStone has to say about the TJ09 in their own words: The Temjin TJ09 is the first SilverStone chassis designed with graphics card cooling as one of the priorities. To meet this challenge, a brand new mid-section air duct was created to bypass the hard drive cage, allowing the strategically placed 120mm to draw cool air from outside of the chassis and blow it directly onto the expansion slot area. CPU and hard drives are also cooled exclusively by 120mm fans to maximize airflow while reducing noise. Covered in styling reminiscent of beautiful chassis of years past, the TJ 09' s advanced structure is second in stiffness only to the unibody designed TJ07. If you have been waiting for a chassis with plenty of technical and aesthetic excellence worthy of an upgrade, then the TJ09 is the one. Special features: Premium all-aluminum chassis for extended ATX, ATX, SSI motherboards 120mm fan only design for ultimate performance & quietness Unprecedented air duct dedicated for graphics card cooling Advanced structural engineering with superior chassis stiffness User friendly layout with multiple tool-less access Classic SilverStone styling and finish. Material 5.0mm aluminum front panel, 2.0mm aluminum body Color Black Silver Motherboard SSI, Extended ATX, ATX, Micro ATX Model Standard Model SST-TJ09B (black) W / Window SST-TJ09B-W (black) SST-TJ09S (silver) SST-TJ09S-W (silver) Drive Bay Exposed 5.25” x 4, 3.5” x 1 Internal 3.5” x 6 Cooling System Top 2 x 120mm fan slots Rear 1 x 120mm exhaust fan, 1200rpm, 21dBA Mid-section 1 x 120mm intake fan, 1200rpm, 21dBA Front/HDD area 1 x 120mm fan slot Expansion Slot 7 Front I/O Port USB2.0 x 2 IEEE1394 x 1 audio x 1 ] MIC x 1 Power Supply 1 x Optional standard PS2 (ATX) or 1 x Redundant PS2 Net Weight 11 kg Dimension 210 mm (W) x 525 mm (H) x 605 mm (D) Today we're taking a look at the SST-TJ09B-W. Talk about a long name, it's nearly as long as the chassis is. The packaging is full color and like most, features pictures of the case along with listing why you need it and what it has to offer. You'll also notice (unless you've been struck blind) that MaximumPC has chosen this case for their "Dream Machine '06" build. This is hardly surprising since they've used SilverStone cases since 2004 that I know of. Inside the box we find the TJ09 well packed inside an closed cell foam cradle and a plastic baggy. There's enough room between the areas of the box where no foam is around the case that it would take a pretty big impact to reach the case. Big enough that either way, foam or no foam the case would be destroyed. SilverStone bags the case to make certain it won't get scuffed on the trip to you. Let's take a look and see what they're protecting. Pretty clean. The case is finished with a nice brushed black anodized finish and this version features a rather narrow window that shows off the motherboard area of the case. I have to say that I personally prefer a window that doesn't show drive cages and the uglier side of PC innards. The motherboard and it's associated cards and parts are the more interesting looking parts of a PC, drives are pretty boring unless you happen to have one of the newer WD Raptor X hard drives with the nifty window. If you look at the roof of the case in the picture above, you'll notice that there's a door on the roof over the drive bays. That door pops up to reveal the forward mounted ports which include 2 - USB, 1-1394 Firewire and front mounted audio ports. There's just enough room over the drive to allow the door to shut but it does eat into the places that are typically used to hide excess cabling. Happily, with the PSU in the bottom of the case it's not an issue since the excess power cables will be downstairs. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Closer Look] Inside the case is a box with screws and standoffs. Nope, no drive rails as this is not a screw less case. The front of the case is very monolithic. No intake grilles, doors or anything to mar the "Huge slab of aluminum" impression it gives you. At the bottom is a milled SilverStone emblem set into a recess in the case front. Myself, I think it looks kind of slick but others might not be so hip on having the front of their case branded indelibly. One downside to the anodized finish is that it shows finger/hand prints horribly. They're pretty hard to get off as well. Another notable thing about the case fascia is that it's mounted to the frame with allen head screws. In point of fact, everything is pretty much held together with screws on this case. The drive bays are screwed in, the roof is screwed into the chassis as are the rear supports. If you're looking for a case that's easy to mod then you've found a likely candidate. Normally the "off side" of a case has nothing to look at aside from a large featureless panel. Not so with the TJ09. I'm sure that you noticed the "scoop" on the windowed side of the case. The other side features the same "scoop". I say "scoop" as that's what it reminds me of, the old NACA (NACA was the forerunner to NASA and stood for National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) ducts found on '60's and '70's muscle cars. While it looks like a scoop it's really the intake for the front fan and the intake and exhaust for the HDD fan should you choose to add one. Looking at the rear of the case we see that it has a pull out mobo tray that's well ventilated to help aid in cooling should you also decide to add the optional roof mounted fans. Having more exhaust fans than intakes generally causes dirt and dust to gather at all the nooks and crannies due to the air having to get into the case from somewhere. With this case you won't run into that issue which is nice. I've found that in cases that have more exhaust air flow than intake it tends to pull dirt in through the optical drives which is a pain in the neck. We also see that SilverStone was forward thinking enough to pre-drill for tubing to be routed out of the mobo tray. This means that water cooling is a relatively easy and painless upgrade for this case if you opt for an externally mounted radiator. I mentioned the box of screws earlier and these are what you get along with a manual on the care and feeding of your new case. The forward ports are terminated with block connectors and the Firewire ports feature single conductors with individual terminations and the audio port is set up for both AC'97 audio and Intel's new HD Audio spec 'ed connectors. Sadly though, the wires are a tad on the short side and don't allow for routing under the edge of the mobo if you're so inclined. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Closer Look Cont.] I know that you're looking at this and wondering "What the hell?" but I wanted to show just how thick the materials are on this case. The dive bays are made from fully 2.0mm thick aluminum as is the case roof and floor. The edges aren't covered but they're not even remotely sharp, you'd be more likely to cut yourself with a mallet. The drive bays are held in with a pair of plastic arms that lock into the drive bay. This is as close to "tool-less drive bays" as you're going to get. The drives themselves screw into the cages. As you can see, the drive cages are also made from the same thick material and feature thin rubber strips where the drives make contact with the cages. This is to help dampen any vibrations the drives might transmit to the case. The drive cages hold three drives per cage for a total load out of 6 hard drives. Also you'll note that the drives stand vertically on edge. I'll show you the whys and wherefores of this in a second. In between the drive cages resides a fan mount for an optional 120mm fan. This allows the fan to blow and draw (ha, I bet you thought I'd say "suck" didn't you.) air through the drives. This is why the drives mount on edge and is why there are slots in the roof and floor of each cage. There's also a meshed grill in the floor of the case to allow the air to flow into or out of the drives depending upon the orientation of the fan if you choose to use one. The fan holder is held in place by a pair of thumbscrews. You simply remove them and slide the fan holder out of the case and install the 120x25mm fan of your choice. In this case (no pun intended) I went with a low RPM 120mm fan by Thermaltake since it's nearly inaudible. I set the fan to draw air from the top and exhaust it out the bottom, I think that with the grill in the case floor this is the best option but that's just me. It also prevents as much warm exhausted air from being drawn in by the front intake fan. The removable motherboard tray is held in by five thumbscrews. On the left side (as you face the rear of the case) there is a handle to give you something to pull the tray from the case with. As you can see this handle curves in towards the the PCI slots, in my experience with this case it makes attaching a DVI to VGA adaptor to a video card a true pain in the posterior. I think a better design would to have it come straight out from the tray and simply curve left rather than curving inwards. After removing the thumbscrews and pulling the tray outwards you can see that this thing is built heavy enough to serve as an Olympic diving board! The corners are braced at the top and bottom with heavy gauge steel gussets and the tray is built from the same 2.0mm thick aluminum that finds it's way throughout the rest of the case. In fact, everything but the front and side panels...

SilverStone TJ09

Page 171 –