Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ05 - Personal Reivew

[Judaeus Apella]

I have done TONS and TONS of research and I found a tower that has very high review scores and is of exceptional quality and strength. I highly recommend the Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ05-BT ATX Mid Tower. I just received one my self and it lives up to its reviews. The body is solid steel, with a thick aluminum front panal that swings open like a door using a key lock to protect your drives, and has another swinging door over the drive bays. It also comes with a blue light up LCD that controlls up to 3 fans, displays the time and date w/ alarm clock, and monitors your system, cpu, and hard drive temperatures and will alarm if your system goes over a temperature you can specify your self. It has four 5.25 bays and two 3.5 bays. The tower is extra long with more than enough room for not only an extended motherboard, but enough room for even a pump and a radiator! It comes with a 120mm fan in the front and one in the back, plus three additional places to install 80mm fans on the sides. The 120mm fan in the front screws into a two peice fan port that has a removable filter, and the whole peice can be removed by removing a thumb screw, revealing a large hole already cut into the front of the chassis. When you slide off the left panel, there's a secondary swinging door down low that can fit two of those 80mm fans, or two hard drives. The third 80mm fan is on the right side of the tower, at the front bottom, and comes with a two peice tooless fan dock with removable filter. If you decide to remove the drive cage, you can use that area for a pump and radiator. If you keep the cage, it fits 5 drives. The fan on the right blows accross that area and keep them nice and cool. The left sliding door, even has a switch that can hook up to certain motherboards so your system can warn you if your panel is open. Most of the system is tooless and even has some neat extras, including a little accessory tool box that attaches to the inside bottom of the case, snap and lock extenders that press against PCI/AGP cards to keep them from comming loose, and even a plate that unscrews to make installing the Power Supply Unit easier.

The SST-TJ05-BT goes for around $168 and I think its money very well spent. It comes in silver and high gloss black, and a less expensive high gloss black model without the LCD. The window panel will be available at the end of January 2005 or a week or so later. The panel models are SP05B for the black, and SP05S for the silver windowed panel.

Silver SST-TJ05-ST:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-163-028&depa=1

Black SST-TJ05-BT:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-163-029&depa=1

Black SST-TJ05-B (without LCD -$20):
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-163-023&depa=1

You can probably find an even better deal if you look around. :)

Edit: Heres a video review of it:
http://7of9.keystreams.com/gameman/archives/3dgameman.com_videoreview_464_tj05st_case_02_512k. wmv

Upsides:
- Good solid steel construction, with thick aluminum bezel.
- LOTS of features.
- Glowing Blue LCD built into the front, without using any drive bays (3x Fan controller, 3x Temp Monitor w/ alarm, Clock w/ alarm LCD)
- High quality glossy paint job (black model)
- Lots of extra room especially with drive cage removed.
- Tooless design.
- Easy PSU instalation w/ removable plate.
- Comes with 2x 120mm Fans, and 3 extra 80mm fan ports. (2 ports are tooless)
- Hard Drive cage slides easly out to reveal a large area for radiators, pumps, anthing extra you want to add.
- Adjustable feet.
- Comes with removable fan filters already installed.
- Accessory tool box built into tower. (Can be removed)
- Excellent Air Flow.

Downsides:
- Very heavy, 38lbs. (Doesn't really matter unless you attend lan parties)
- Slightly Expensive. (around $150)
- Aluminum cases conduct heat away from system, but this case has such good air flow, it isn't an issue.
- The included fans only do around 50 or 60 cfm. If you want something more, you'll have to upgrade.

Pictures of the case I ordered:
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower01.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower02.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower03.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower04.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower05.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower06.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower07.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~shadowclaw87/Tower08.jpg


My official score 4.5 out of 5 stars, or an A-. The reason why I took away a half star is because I dont like the fans that came with it. I also felt that the 5.25 bays can be a little annoying to insert. Mine keeps getting stuck. If I jiggle it and move it back and forth, that resolves the problem. It might be because its just new and some of the edges are newly cut, so they snag a little. Ive had this problem with lots of fittings in the past before for all kinds of different products. Its not really that big of a deal, but still annoying.

[Techmasta]

I did a review on that case here: http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page=silvertemjintj05

I agree, it's very heavy and that's one of the reasons I recently got rid of it. It's also really long which makes it a pain to move around, especially through doors. I'm a fan of quiet cases so I really liked the fans that came with it.

[Playful_Buffalo]

anyone compared with a wavemaster?

[Judaeus Apella]

LOL, thats one of the things I'm always skeptical about when I read reviews. People have different likes and dislikes and it effects the way they do reviews. Like, for example I like the fact that its long and heavy. That means that it has LOTS of space for extra stuff and that its built like a tank. And the airflow is excellent, so it doesn't matter that its not aluminum... it has 5 freakin fan docks! Its like the big Buick of towers! Several people would argue that aluminum is better because it draws heat away from components, and that because its steel that makes it too heavy. Still, more would argue that they like aluminum because its light and like to go to lan parties. Everyone has a different taste, and I feel that not enough reviewers take that to mind. Does anyone else agree with what I'm saying?

Also, keep in mind that steel is much better if you like to tweak you're case a lot. Aluminum wears down over time, and can bend, warp, or even rip. Steel is many times stronger, and can take the constant abuse of constantly opening and closing your case, installing and installing hardware, switching fans, trying different setups, etc. This case feels like it was made for military use or something, cause its so tough and durable.

[redstang308]

i do :)
I do like the lighter cases, but he is right. I just want pictures and specs when I shop around. To see what people do for custom cases is a different story when it comes to reviews,

Nice job though

[Judaeus Apella]

Its important that us review guys pay very close attention of what consumers have to say about our reviews, and invite them to give us input, so we can more finely tune our ability to review products in a way thats better for everyone and not just a spacific type of person.

[Franky 4 Finger]

I liked the review. Quick question, are you able to hide wires behind the mobo tray if you remove the right side panel?

[Judaeus Apella]

Yes. Theres also a clip at the top of the panel covered with rubber that holds them tightly together too. Go scroll up to the bottom of my review and click on pics 3 and 4 to see what Im talking about.

[Magnj]

Any pics with a Rad and pump? Wondering How the airflow will be and if i should plan to mount a double or triple rad outside instead of a single in the back.

[Judaeus Apella]

Always go with an external rad. If you suck warm air out the back through a rad, your sending warm water to an already hot system. If you have a radiator on the intake, then your blowing warm air into your system. It's better to just use an external setup. A few people have been telling me not to do that, and Im glad I listened, although the case does have room for it. Oh well....

[Magnj]

hmm, what if i put it on the top inside of the case, I wouldnt be able to use the two top drive bays and then i could just make a bunch of blowholes on the top. Meh soundsl ike more work than its worh, outside i guess

[Judaeus Apella]

The only solution Ive been able to come up with would be to have the radiator using an intake, then use thermal ventalation ducts to direct the warm air out of the case by using it to connect the rad exhaust to a fan dock. But with all the water lines, cables, and power cords..... not only would some big thermal ventalation duct cramp the system, it would also decrease the air flow going to the components that are not water cooled. What I think Im going to do is install a pci card that has molex sockets on the outside of the PC, then hook up the external fans to that through a fan controller I'll mount near the keyboard on my desk. The radiators will be installed into the side of the desk, in the outside, with the whole in the desk covered by a ventalation vent from Home Depot.

[Judaeus Apella]

I'm updating this thread.

If you like this case, get the version without the thermal controller... unless you just want it for temperature readings. Its fine in that case.

So far, after two years of ownership I have come across a major issue for the models that have the digital fan controller/thermal sensor/alarm clock. The version of this tower model that includes this device should be avoided!!

1. They only display military time (24 hours instead of 12am and 12pm)! WTF?

2. The sensor part of the CPU thermal sensor broke while I was installing it, which doesn't say much for the quality of this gadget. If you unplug ANY of the thermal sensors or one is broken, then when you start your system and this digital device has power, it will sound a long shrill alarm for a minute or two, then turn the alarm off and work normally from then on. It's a very high, loud, and shrill sound that's bad enough to force you to either unplug it or leave the room... or jumping out the nearest window do your demise. This would probably work well as an effective torture method for getting information out of terrorists..... :D

3. Also, it has only 3 channels for controlling fans, and the maximum combined output for all three channels is 1.5 amps (18W)... which really blows. I don't even plug mine in and I wish I didn't have it. :( You cannot turn off Temp monitoring either.

It's features are very cheap, and more of a gimmick than anything else. I'm actually pretty surprised that Silverstone would make a mistake like this. I've had a couple people point to it and ask me what it is... and it makes my nice tower sound like a piece of junk when I tell them it doesn't work, when everything else about the case is great! :mad:

Oh yeah, and swinging doors break on ALL cases. It doesn't matter who makes it. You can get the replacement part for it though... I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm thinking of demanding that they send me the front panel without the digital device in it, and send them the original front panel, if they come through...

[firestarter71]

Oh yeah, and swinging doors break on ALL cases. It doesn't matter who makes it
I have a Lian-Li 6070 and the door on that is very sturdy. I have never had any issue with it even after 2 years of use. I thought Silverstone is better built than the Lian-Li and was considering buying the TJ05 or the TJ03. Now i have to go back to the drawing board i guess.