There are a lot of great ATX mid-tower cases on the market today. The only real way to set yourself apart is to either have the best of a particular feature or a very unique feature. SilverStone has been one of the companies we can depend on to create unique case designs. The case we are looking at today is not a unique look, but does have a very unique system of space and cable management. Lets see what a seemingly “basic box” can be when it’s pushed to the design edge with the SilverStone TJ04-E (Windowed) Evolution chassis!
Features and Specifications
There are two very interesting aspects to this case, but those will take some very detailed explanations so lets start with the basics. The TJ04-EW Evolution is part of the Temjin Series and is built with a very strong steel body with a solid 1/4 inch (7 mm) thick aluminum face. The case supports SSI-CEB, ATX (up to 12 x 10.9 inches), and Micro-ATX motherboards. It comes with three 120 mm fans (Top, rear, and side) with the side fan not being over the motherboard tray, but near the front on the right side of the case. I will come back to why that is important later.
The TJ04-EW has the exact dimensions of 8.43 x 19.25 x 19.25 inches and weighs 21.16 lbs. empty. While we are on this subject it can support a graphics card up to 17 inches, up to 8 expansion cards, four 5.25″ ODD slots, and up to 15 HDDs/SSDs. Yes, 15 total internal drives (nine 3.5″ HDDs and six 2.5″ SSD/HDDs) can be held by this mid-tower case that is just a little wider than most mid-tower case. It also has support for two USB 3.0 ports and HD audio on the front panel.
The SilverStone TJ04-EW does approach cooling in a different manner. There are three fan intakes and three outputs. The front side has space for two 120 mm fans and one 120 mm fan slot in the bottom. The exhaust comes from the 120 mm fan in the rear, 120 mm top fan slot, and optional top 120/140 mm fan slot. The key to proper cooling and dust reduction according to SilverStone is the TJ04-E’s positive pressure design. This is why the case only has ventilation via the fan slots and expansion slot vented plates.
At first glance, it’s a seemingly nice package for the $149.99US MSRP, but I am here to offer a closer look so let’s get going on that!
What’s in the Box?
The box for the TJ04 is fairly simple, but provides a lot more detail about the case than most PC case boxes. It has the default eye catching ad on one side with the specification list on one of the sides. It also has a diagram that provides more details about the case such as the unique internal HDD case, locations of fans, location of cable managements, and other quick details about the case. This is important as some cases don’t give very good descriptions of their features, leaving you surprised by unexpected things. Such is not the case here. No pun intended.
The SilverStone TJ04-EW is protected by two very large foam pads, standard plastic protective bag, and flexible foam sheet to prevent scratching the beautiful from aluminum panel. I also found inside the case itself a unmarked white box that weighed well over 5 lbs. It was like a white brick in the case which turned out to be the box of accessories and screws. We’re going to get into more detail about the contents of this box in short order.
The TJ04-EW and its box have set the tone by being familiar yet offering more than your average mid-tower. Trust me when I say pictures do not do this PC case justice. The black steel and face plate with polished unpainted edges has an elegance to it you cannot photograph.
Test System Setup
Since the focus is on the case, the internal components are mainly just to generate the heat of an average PC system. To ensure I get worst case scenarios to match the results to past case reviews I will continue to use the Radeon HD 6850 reference card and Stock AMD cooler.
Hardware
- CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 @ Stock
- CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 & AMD Stock cooler
- GPU: AMD HD 6850 1 GB Reference Card
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA990FX-UD5
- Memory: 8 GB (4 x 4GB) G.Skill Ripjaws 2133 MHz RAM @ 1866 MHz 9-10-9-27
- PSU: Antec HCP 850W 80 Plus Gold
Software
The software here is your standard fair. I use some common overclocking stability tools to generate as much stress as possible and a third party tool to document the temperatures. Please note that the temperatures may vary for you based on the season and temperature in your home. Also keep in mind the temperatures are taken from AIDA64 Extreme Edition and may be different for other programs, but should follow the same trends.
- Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate Edition
- FurMark Burn-in
- OCCT
- AIDA64 Extreme Edition 1.85.1600
As I promised in the last GIGABYTE motherboard review, lets finally take a closer look at the case I was using at that time, the TJ04-E Evolution.
Build Log and Design Notes
If you are like me, you spend some time just looking over a new product before you move on to installing it. For me, this goes without saying so lets look at what you will find during a once over on the TJ04-EW.
Lets just start with first thing anyone who buys this case will notice, the 5 lb white brick. The accessory box contains more than just a bag of screws and the instruction manual. I mean you will find those two, but it is the large metal grill plates that will catch your eye. I admit I was confused as to what these were for until I took a second look at the HDD cage. These two plates are heat sinks for the HDDs. Fully loaded, eight HDDs this close to each other will restrict airflow and create a heat zone which these two heat sinks should help manage.
If you are concerned about how you power that many HDDs, this is also solved by SilverStone with a 4-to-1 SATA power adapter. You get two of these adapters so you can use two SATA power plugs to power up to eight drives. In addition to all this, you will also find a USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 converter if your motherboard does not have a USB 3.0 header. This will leave you two front USB ports at USB 2.0 speeds, but will still be perfectly usable.
There are a lot of little nuances to the TJ04-EW you can only smile at when you see. As there is nothing on the left side panel, you can remove the door without fear of damaging a fan header or wires. Behind the motherboard you will find what I will call a two stage wire management path. There is roughly an inch of clearance behind the motherboard. In addition, there is a slot at the bottom that has an additional 1 1/2 inch of space. This is great for the initial cluster of wires from your PSU.
As I stated before, there are no additional ventilation slots with the exception to the expansion slots. To take full advantage of this, SilverStone put filters on all intake areas and the top of the case to prevent dust from entering. All of these filters are easy to remove for cleaning. You may have noticed I have not said much about building the system into the TJ04-EW. This is because I did not run into any issues once I figured out how the HDD cage works.
I started this build by installing the motherboard and then the PSU. Once these two items are secured into the case, I recommend you do some wire management. Spend a few minutes getting wires behind the motherboard tray, fan wires routed, and move on to the HDD cage.
First you need to be aware there are two drive cages in the TJ-04. The first is a standard brace for the 2.5″ SSDs/HDDs. This is will hold up to six of these drives. The primary HDD cage has to be removed by taking out 4 retention screws, flipping up the handle, and pulling it out. Once out, you will notice it is lined with vibration absorbing material. You install these drives with 3 screws on one side, and 1 screw on the other. Then attach the HDD heat sinks as needed. Once you have the primary cage ready, you can slide the entire array back in.
If you do need the space for a large PSU or don’t need to install 10 drives, the SSD cage will attach to the inside of the primary cage. It limits the 3.5″ slots to only four. This still leaves you one hidden slot below the primary HDD cage’s slot. This hidden slot can hold either a 3.5″ or 2.5″ inch drive, but it is important to know it’s there. I personally overlooked it until I saw the diagram in the instruction manual.
After I was done getting the drives into place, everything else was a breeze. While the TJ04-E is a mid-tower, it has the space where you need it. I could even fit a Noctua NH-D14 into the case by simply moving the 140 mm fan down to even with the front 120 mm fan. It is almost mind boggling to think how easy this case is to build in. I don’t recall running into a single problem once the HDD cage was figured out.
Design Shortcomings
I can only really come down on two problems with the SilverStone TJ04-E. The first is obviously the confusion of the HDD cage. This is a minor annoyance at best, but it will require time to figure out. The manual is a big help here, but it is still confusing even after you figure it out. With two cages, so many slots, huge heat sinks, and unique installation using the drive system, setup can be complex and time consuming. This is not the case to buy if you change HDD’s a lot.
The TJ04-E is not designed to use a water cooling system. I am sure you could fit a single fan cooler on the back and possibly a dual fan cooler on the top with the cover removed. There are two pop outs in the back of the case to route tubes, but these are almost 3 times larger than the tubing you find on single and dual fan coolers. It just seems to me that liquid cooling was an after thought in this design. With that said, lets move on to testing which include acoustic and temperature testing.
Acoustic Testing
Now we are going to get into to actual testing of the case. As usually, the noise testing is done 1 meter away from the case while it is idle and full load with the stock AMD CPU cooler and AMD 6850 reference card. Obviously not optimal equipment for a low noise system, but that is kinda of the point.
The SilverStone TJ04-EW manages to fall right in the middle of the cases I have tested so far. It is neither the loudest, nor the quietest in either category. There is one thing the test does not show and that is the type of sound. Some PC cases create a high pitched whine, the TJ04-EW has a low mellow hum. Its like comparing a 3.2 liter V4 to a 6.0 liter V8. Yeah the noise is just as loud, but one is much easier on the ears.
Cooling Efficiency
Then we have the only other think a case needs to do which is keeping your system cool. I will be putting the TJ04-EW through the paces and will measure three important heat sources: CPU, GPU, and motherboard. Lets see how it does when at full load and the heat is on.
Much like the BitFenix Outlaw, the TJ04-EW seems great at idle with only the GPU being a little too hot. When switching to a full load scenario, the GPU suffocates which brings its heat up. I think the design of the case having no ventilation is working against it here. On the same note, I think this issue could be easily corrected with a single extra fan in the bottom of the case.
Final Thoughts
I think this case was designed just for me since it fits right into my personal preferences for a case. It is a simple, sleek, and elegant design with unique features to make working with it easy. It uses the space it has available exceptionally well. Everything about the case itself is sturdy from the steel frame to the large power/reset buttons. They even have the little click sound I love in a push button, letting you know that you’ve hit the button correctly.
This case has two very minor annoyances that I can’t really consider weaknesses. I can say without a doubt the HDD cage design makes installation time consuming. To install and remove HDDs can be confusing the first few times. As mentioned, it seems that liquid cooling was not factored into this case till the last minute. I really can’t be sure, but I did attempt to find official details from SilverStone’s product page for the TJ04-E with no results.
Though I am fairly sure a dual fan cooler will fit the top of the case, I am not 100% certain. Considering the lack of rubber grommets for tubes and two half dollar sized push-outs, it just doesn’t seem like SilverStone considered liquid cooling for this case in its design. This is a non-issue for most people, but with all the other options offered, I don’t see why consideration for liquid cooling was not on the checklist.
There is a lot to consider when picking out a PC case and the SilverStone TJ04-EW (W for window) delivers on most of them. Options, space, large GPU support, ridiculous number of HDD slots, strong build quality, all purpose design and more and all at $149.99 MSRP. I gladly recommend this case to anyone shopping in this price range, but I also recommend you get an extra high pressure fan or two. I don’t think anyone can be disappointed with the TJ04-EW once seen with their own eyes. It really is that good.
Pros:
- Sleek, Elegant Design
- Extensive Hard Drive Space
- Great Wire Management
- Surprisingly Spacious Interior
Cons:
- Water Cooling not well thought out
- Hard drive cages can be time consuming to work with
Overall Result: 9.25/10.0
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