SilverStone Temjin TJ04-E Evolution Case

Table of Contents

The SilverStone TJ04-E carries the same “Evolution” designation as the impressive Temjin TJ08-E micro-ATX tower, but this ATX tower fails to match the performance of its smaller predecessor. Addendum 8 Aug 2012: Manufacturer’s feedback on final page.

August 6, 2012 by Lawrence Lee

Product
SilverStone Temjin TJ04-E
ATX Tower Case
Manufacturer
Street Price
US$150

Last year SilverStone released an interesting microATX tower, the Temjin
TJ08-E
. The “E” stands for “evolution,” though it
might have been more apt to use the suffix “R” for “revolution”
as its design was vastly different from previous members of the Temjin line
and most microATX cases in general. It featured an upside-down motherboard orientation,
a massive 18 cm front intake fan, and almost everything inside the case was
easily removable, allowing SilverStone to make it surprisingly compact.


The box.

We expected the ATX-sized Temjin TJ04-E would bear a close resemblance
to the TJ08-E but there aren’t many commonalties aside from the classic SilverStone
look. The TJ04-E is truer to the “evolution” moniker, sporting a more
conservative design that doesn’t veer as far from other quality ATX towers.
With a street price of US$150, it is more affordable than previous members
of the Temjin line, but admittedly, its predecessors were massive all-aluminum
affairs touting luxurious price-tags.


The Temjin TJ04-E.

The TJ04-E is a more modest offering, only 48.9 cm (19.3 inches) tall with
a total volume of 51.2 L. It’s mainly comprised of steel rather than aluminum,
though being a SilverStone case, there is the usual understated, handsome aluminum
facia. It uses traditional 12 cm fans, the motherboard is installed right-side
up, and with the exception of a removable drive cage, the TJ04-E isn’t any more
modular than a typical case.


Accessories.

The TJ04-E ships with the obligatory manual, screws, and zip-ties (not pictured
above), an internal USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 adapter and some hard drive accessories.
Included are a pair of large, passive heatsinks that can be attached to the
hard drives, and a couple of SATA power expanders that allows users to run devices
off a single connector. The TJ04-E’s main focus seems to center around storage.

Specifications: SilverStone Temjin TJ04-E
(from the
product web page
)
Model No. SST-TJ04B-E (Black)
SST-TJ04B-E (Black)
SST-TJ04B-EW (Black + Window)
Material 7mm aluminum front panel, steel body
Motherboard SSI-CEB, ATX (up to 12” x 10.9”), Micro-ATX
Drive Bay External 5.25″ x 4
Internal 3.5″ x 9 (optional 3.5” x 8 + 2.5” x 1), 2.5” x 6
Cooling System Front
Rear 1 x 120mm exhaust fan, 1200rpm, 21dBA
Side Right:1 x 120mm intake fan, 1200rpm, 21dBA
Right:1 x 120mm fan slot (optional)
Top 1 x 120mm intake fan, 1200rpm, 21dBA
1 x 120mm / 140mm fan slot (optional)
Bottom 1 x 120mm fan slot (optional)
Expansion Slot 8
Front I/O Port USB 3.0 x 2 (backward compatible with USB 2.0)
audio x 1
MIC x 1
Power Supply Standard PS2(ATX) *1
Expansion Card Compatible up to 17 inches in length *
Limitation of CPU cooler 168mm
Limitation of PSU
Net Weight 9.6kg
Dimension 214mm(W)x489mm(H)x489mm(D), 51.2 liters

EXTERIOR

The SilverStone Temjin TJ04-E’s body is constructed primarily of steel while the front bezel is composed of a 7 mm thick slab of aluminum. It weighs 9.6 kg or 21.1 lb and measures 21.4 x 48.9 x 48.9 cm or 8.4 x 19.3 x 19.3 inches (H x W x D) for a total case volume of 51.2 L, approximately the same as the NZXT H2. Its size is modest compared to most of the US$100+ towers we come across.


Not only does the TJ04-E lack the TJ08-E’s 18 cm front intake fan, it has no front fan option at all. Instead, there two 120 mm fan mounts (one fan included) on the right side, blowing over the hard drives. The placements are covered by a snap-on front filter with two layers, a large honeycomb style grill on the exterior and a fine mesh sheet on the interior.


A similar filter is attached to the top of the case. There’s a 120
mm fan and an open spot for a 120/140 mm model next to it. The slot
for the front connectors is unusually shallow, not deep enough to form
a proper coin tray and preventing bulky USB devices from being plugged
in.


The rear of the case is unremarkable. A 120 mm exhaust fan sits above the ventilated expansion slot area and below a couple of twist-off holes for watercooler tubing.


Another pair of dust filters is attached to the bottom of the case. An optional 120 mm fan mount is located on the floor at the center.


The side panels are 1 mm thick and only flex slightly when put under
pressure. The panels have a design similar to the Antec Solo, catching
at the front with the rear swinging inward into place.

INTERIOR

The interior of the TJ04-E has a traditional ATX layout except for an extra 2.5 inch drive cage on the floor behind the power supply. The internal build quality is fairly solid as you’d expect for US$150 case. The US$100 TJ08-E is noticeably flimsy by comparison.


Though the case isn’t unusually tall, there’s plenty of drive support. The main drive cage supports up to nine 3.5 inch drives while the smaller 2.5 inch module can take up to six drives. The smaller cage can also be fit into the larger one to make room for a long power supply or additional intake fan.


The primary drive cage has a nice metal handle to make removal easier.
Notice how the entire intake fan is visible from the above angle. The
inner side of the cage is very short with only one mounting hole. It’s
designed that way to fit the hard drive heatsinks. The interior of the
module is also covered in damping material.


The power supply vent is larger than usual to provide better airflow
for longer power supplies. There are also two long strips of soft padding
to damp vibrations and separate the vent grill from the PSU intake fan
to minize turbulence noise.


Two of the three stock fans are positioned in the top left corner of the case. The rear 120 mm fan acts as an exhaust while the 120 mm top panelfan blows inward. As the side fan is positioned as an intake, this makes the TJ04-E a positive pressure chassis.


Large, rounded holes are present all along the edges of the motherboard tray for routing cables, as are obligatory cable tie-down points. There’s a good deal of room next to power supply for hiding cables as well. The case’s intake fan is simply bolted to the side.

ASSEMBLY

Assembling a system in the Temjin TJ04-E is a straight forward affair. Our test system consists of an Asus 790GX motherboard, a ZEROtherm FZ120 heatsink with a Nexus 120 mm fan, a WD Caviar hard drive and a Cooler Master 700W modular power supply.


The 3.5 inch drive cage fits snugly, secured with four screws on the side. The 2.5 inch drive cage is attached from underneath the case.


There are no hard drive sleds or rails; drives are screwed in the old fashioned way. Also there is only one screw hole on the inner side of the cage. The remaining two drive mounting holes are thus free to be used with the included hard drive heatsinks. One heatsink can be used for up to four drives.


Our fully assembled test system with a Radeon HD 4870.


Cabling is easily dealt with behind the motherboard tray.


An ample 22 mm of space is allotted behind the motherboard providing some flexibility with regards to bundling thick cables together.


We found there was 14 mm of extra space above our 156 mm tall CPU cooler (SilverStone claims a limit of 168 mm).

TESTING

System Configuration:

Measurement and Analysis Tools

System temperatures and noise levels were recorded with SpeedFan and GPU-Z
at idle and on load using CPUBurn (K7 setting) and FurMark, an OpenGL
benchmarking and stability testing utility.

Baseline Noise


Stock 120 mm fan.

 

Stock Fan Noise Level
Fan
SPL @1m (dBA)
7V
9V
12V
Top
12
15~16
23
Rear
14
17~18
24
Front
16
20
25
Combined
19
24
29
Measuring mic positioned 1m at diagonal angle left/front
of case.

The Temjin TJ04-E ships with three identical 120 mm fans with the model number “HA1225L 12SA-Z,” which we’ve seen before most recently in the Fortress FT03 and Raven RV03. It’s a 3-pin, 0.33A model with a nominal speed of 1200 RPM. It’s not particularly quiet and emits a tiny amount of bearing chatter, but overall, it has a very nice, smooth sound.

Though the front fan is on the opposite side of the case from our mic, it measured
the loudest at 25 dBA@1m at 12V. The rear fan was moderately quieter, and the
top panel fan was quieter still. The quality of the noise didn’t noticeably
vary between the three positions. The combined noise level was a reasonably
quiet 19 dBA@1m at 7V, 24 dBA@1m at 9V, and 29 dBA@1m at 12V.


At 7V, the stock fans produced a noise level of 19 dBA@1m and had a fairly smooth, broadband character.

Hard Drive Vibration

More often than not we run into cases with a hard drive vibration problem.
Typically this happens when the hard drive cage is not sufficiently secured
to the rest of the chassis or if the side panels are loose; in the case of the
TJ04-E, it’s a combination of both. Upon turning on our test system, we could
feel and hear the left side panel vibrating, but it disappeared when the panel
were braced with our hands.


A small modification to reduce vibration.

The vibration issue wasn’t a complete surprise given how the HDD cage has complete
support on one side, and we’ve definitely encountered a lot worse in the past
(the TJ08-E was terrible in this regard). Applying some styrofoam to the hard
drive cage to brace the side panel helped dissipate much of the vibration.


There was a slight reduction with the side panel braced.

Acoustic analysis showed a small improvement in acoustics; the ~120 Hz tone produced by the rotation of the drive decreased by 5 dB, resulting in an overall noise reduction of ~0.5 dBA.

Test Results: Radeon HD 4870 System

System Measurements (HD 4870)
System State
Idle
CPU + GPU Load
System Fans
7V
9V
9V (top fan changed to exhaust)
CPU Temp
32°C
48°C
47°C
49°C
SB Temp
46°C
55°C
57°C
55°C
HD Temp
29°C
30°C
29°C
29°C
GPU Temp
75°C
87°C
85°C
84°C
GPU Fan
860 RPM
1950 RPM
1850 RPM
1810 RPM
System Power (AC)
117W
315W
315W
315W
SPL@1m
22~23 dBA
29 dBA
29 dBA
28~29 dBA
CPU fan set to 100% speed.
Ambient temperature: 22°C.

With the stock case fans running at 7V, our HD 4870 test system idled with
measured noise level of 22~23 dBA@1m, slightly higher than we typically see
with this configuration. On load, the internals heated up by a reasonable amount,
+16°C for the CPU, +11°C for the southbridge, while the overall noise
level settled at a loud 29 dBA@1m, a good portion of which was generated by
the GPU fan spinning at 1950 RPM.

Increasing the system fan speeds helped somewhat, lowering temperatures a
bit and allowing the GPU fan to spin 100 RPM slower, but the overall noise level
was the same. Flipping the top panel fan to blow outward was more beneficial,
improving the thermal conditions of both the southbridge and GPU, though it
caused the CPU to run a bit hotter.

When acting as an intake, the top fan provides the CPU heatsink with a stream
of cooler air from outside, which is then evacuated by the back panel exhaust
fan. This allows the CPU to run cooler but it seems to interfere with the heat
radiating upward from the video card.


Our HD 4870 test system measured 28~29 dBA@1m on load using the optimal stock fan speed of 9V.

 

HD 4870 Configuration Comparison (Load)
Case
SilverStone Raven RV03
Antec P280
Corsair Obsidian 550D
SilverStone TJ04-E
System Fans
top, bottom @9V/low
top, rear, front @low
rear, front @9V
top, rear, front @9V
CPU Temp
39°C
45°C
44°C
49°C
SB Temp
51°C
52°C
54°C
55°C
HD Temp
36°C
28°C
32°C
29°C
GPU Temp
83°C
85°C
86°C
84°C
GPU Fan
Speed
1680 RPM
1950 RPM
1890 RPM
1810 RPM
SPL@1m
25~26 dBA
27 dBA
27 dBA
28~29 dBA
CPU fan set to 100% speed
All temperature results adjusted to 22°C ambient.

Even with the reversed top panel fan, the TJ04-E is a somewhat disappointing
performer. Compared to similarly price towers, the TJ04-E has poorer CPU cooling
and is bit louder. It is easily bested by the Silverstone
Raven RV03
, Antec P280,
and the Corsair
Obsidian 550D
.

Test Results: 2 x Radeon HD 4870 (CrossFireX)

System Measurements ( 2 x HD 4870)
System State
Idle
CPU + GPU Load
System Fans*
7V
9V
12V
CPU Temp
33°C
53°C
51°C
48°C
SB Temp
59°C
68°C
67°C
66°C
HD Temp
29°C
30°C
30°C
29°C
GPU #1 Temp
78°C
90°C
90°C
89°C
GPU #1 Fan
Speed
1120 RPM
2250 RPM
2280 RPM
2260 RPM
GPU #2 Temp
72°C
85°C
85°C
83°C
GPU #2 Fan Speed
1000 RPM
2000 RPM
1950 RPM
1770 RPM
SPL@1m
24 dBA
34 dBA
34 dBA
34~35 dBA
System Power
191W
524W
524W
521W
*Top fan changed to exhaust.
CPU fan set to 100% speed.
Ambient temperature: 22°C.

A second HD 4870 hraphics card put considerable extra strain on the system’s
thermal and acoustic properties. The upper GPU fan had to spin about 260 RPM
faster, and combined with the 1000 RPM speed of the lower GPU fan, the idle
noise level increased to 24 dBA@1m with the stock fans at 7V. On load, the system
measured 34 dBA@1m with the southbridge approaching 70°C and both GPU fans
passing the ,2000 RPM mark. Once again, the stock fans at 9V seemed to be the
sweet spot, giving the best combination of noise and cooling.


Our 2 x HD 4870 test system measured 34 dBA@1m on load using the optimal stock fan speed of 9V.

 

CrossFireX Configuration Comparison (Load)
Case
SilverStone Raven RV03
In Win Dragon Rider
Antec P280
SilverStone TJ04-E
Fans Speeds
top @12V, bottoms @9V/low
top, rear, sides @9V, front @5V
top, rear, front @low
top, rear, front @9V
CPU
41°C
35°C
45°C
51°C
SB
66°C
46°C
64°C
67°C
HD
34°C
31°C
28°C
30°C
GPU #1
87°C
85°C
89°C
90°C
GPU #1
RPM
2140
1890
2440
2280
GPU #2 Temp
81°C
82°C
84°C
85°C
GPU #2
RPM
1820
1680
1950
1950
SPL@1m
31~32°C
32 dBA
32~33 dBA
34 dBA
CPU fan set to 100% speed.
All temperature results adjusted to 22°C ambient.

Housing our CrossFireX HD 4870 configuration, the Temjin TJ04-E’s relative
performance is similar. The Antec P280, In
Win Dragon Rider
, and Raven RV03 defeat it easily, particularly
in CPU cooling. The three competitors also generated significantly less noise
(due to the logarithmic nature of the decibel scale, slight increases in dB
are substantial at this level). Significantly, the TJ04-E did not have a single
measured parameter that bested the others.

AUDIO RECORDINGS

These recordings were made with a high resolution, lab quality, digital recording
system inside SPCR’s own 11 dBA ambient anechoic chamber, then converted to
LAME 128kbps encoded MP3s. We’ve listened long and hard to ensure there is no
audible degradation from the original WAV files to these MP3s. They represent
a quick snapshot of what we heard during the review.

Each recording starts with ambient noise, then 10 second segments of product
at various states. For the most realistic results,
set the volume so that the starting ambient level is just barely audible, then
don’t change the volume setting again while comparing all the sound files.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The first SilverStone “Evolution” case we reviewed, the Temjin
TJ08-E
, impressed us with its modular design and clever use of space
that didn’t compromise its cooling proficiency. We were hoping the Temjin
TJ04-E
would bring more of the same to the ATX space but this isn’t the
case. The TJ04-E’s design is fairly pedestrian, with most of the “improvements”
focused on hard drive cooling. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to concentrate
on one aspect of case design but keeping drives cool isn’t a particularly hard
thing to do — generally they only need a little bit of airflow blowing
over them to be kept happy.

SilverStone bought into this idea heavily and went in the odd direction of
screwing heatsinks directly on to the hard drives, designing the case to work
around this notion. To maximize the heatsinks’ effectiveness, they had to be
mounted to the sides of the drives, so a big portion out of the hard drive cage
was left out, leading to reduced sturdiness and increased susceptability to
vibration.

To optimize HDD cooling, the intake fan placements were placed on the side,
rather than the front, a decision which seems to have resulted in a lack of
direct intake airflow to the rest of the system and subpar cooling. The HDD
heatsink prevents individual drives from being easily removed, a big no-no if
the case is to be utilized as a file server, the one application for which the
TJ04-E might have been well-suited.

Externally, the Temjin TJ04-E is attractive, but for US$150 we expect
more, particularly if it doesn’t run cooler or quieter than the competition.
Much of the cost seemed to be in the thick aluminum front bezel, the hard drive
heatsinks and the included daisy-chain SATA power cables. With no other extras,
there aren’t any compelling reasons to purchase it over the likes of the SilverStone
Raven RV03
, Antec P280,
or Corsair
Obsidian 550D
. These are more balanced designs, delivering superior
performance, yet slightly more affordable. Oh, well, you can’t win them all.

SILVERSTONE’S COMMENT: THE FUTURE IS SMALLER

8 Aug 2012: Silverstone’s Tony Ou clarifies the design goals that
drove the TJ04-E

I like to give you some additional information about the TJ04-E and KL04
(same internals, but more affordable version of TJ04-E) because as more
reviews are starting to come out, I am seeing very polarized opinions
on them. I noticed those that dismiss the cases as just another ordinary
tower with nothing special (when at first glance compared to our other
recent efforts such as RAVEN & Fortress). Those that liked the cases
usually got the chance to meet me in person during CES where I was able
to explain in detail why we designed the cases the way we did. So please
bear with me as I try to convey those conversations below!

Somewhat similar to what you wanted to promote when you started a few
years ago with the Eco computing focused website, we believe there is
a need to reduce the size of enthusiast casse and PSUs. Many of us in
the industry have been so caught up in trying to add features such as
better efficiency (for higher 80 PLUS ratings), more wattage, better performance,
and modular cables that we ended up with much deeper PSUs than the original
ATX spec. of 140mm. The result of deeper PSUs meant that we have also
been designing ever bigger cases to accommodate them, and the cycle goes
on as PSU designers are less worried about size restriction in cases.
While we still love bigger cases for what they are and would like to continue
designing them in the future, with KL04 and TJ04-E we decided to show
people a better way to utilize the space in front of the PSU (and other
areas) instead of just leaving it for future proofing.

With the goal of maximizing the available space in a mid-tower design
like the TJ04-E and the KL04, we made them into the only cases of this
size with the capacity to fit nine 3.5” hard drives and six 2.5”
drives without sacrificing graphics card compatibility. We calculated
that with the hard drives fully installed and drive cables connected,
you can still fit cards up to 12.2″, the exact length of the longest
consumer graphics card ever released, the Radeon HD 5970 (the HD 6990
is just a hair shorter at 12″).

Even with a longer card such as those with extension brackets (or if
AMD and NVIDIA break their promise to us and deliver a >12.2″
card in the future) fits in the TJ04-E’s drive cage without removal.
One only needs to move the hard drive around in the drive cage to free
up the room for the longer card. This is very different approach from
others in which you must remove the drive cage to fit (thus losing 3 or
4 drive slots in the process) or just design a bigger case (easy, but
wasteful).

The biggest PSU that will fit in the TJ04-E without relocating the 2.5”
cage is our Strider Plus ST1000-P, a 1000W unit with a depth of 160mm,
and is fully modular so there shouldn’t be worries about insufficient
power.

I also attached a PDF
file showing our internal test on the hard drive cage and the heatsink
from the TJ04-E
, which show the hottest temperature reached for any
drive was 42C. This is a good result considering that Google’s hard
drive study showed that 35 ~ 40C operational temperature range correlated
with lowest failure rate. If you haven’t seen it, here
is the entire study in PDF
.

If you look at the chart closely, you can clearly see that as the hard
drive temperature gets closer to room temperature, failure rate starts
to skyrocket. This kind of contradicts many modern enthusiast case designs
with a lot of large fans in front of the drive cage and cooling hard drives
unnecessarily. our approach for KL04/TJ04-E’s system cooling is much
more efficient as the front intake fans are moved to the sideto allow
about half of the available airflow to go directly into the main chamber
of the case where the graphics cards are located instead of all going
to hard drives.

Results for cooling performance from a couple of sites look good thus
far considering TJ04-E/KL04 lack a side panel fan (as you know, we prefer
not to have side fan to better seal the noise away from the user). Below
are a couple of examples:

Hexus,
Anandtech

Hopefully that covers it and if you still have questions or comments,
please feel free to let me know!

 

Our thanks to SilverStone for the Temjin TJ04-E case sample.

* * *

Articles of Related Interest
SilverStone Precision PS07: Budget MicroATX Tower
Corsair Obsidian 550D Quiet Mid-Tower Case
Silverstone Fortress FT02 Revisited
SilverStone Raven RV03
Antec P280: Performance One Refresh
SilverStone
Temjin TJ08-E: MicroATX Evolved

* * *

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