Silverstone Temjin TJ11 Review

Posted 06/13/2011 at 11:44am | by Nathan Edwards

The Luxury Sports Car of Computer Chassis

From the moment you first see it, it’s clear that the Temjin TJ11 is Silverstone’s balls-to-the-wall attempt to create the best chassis money can buy. Silverstone packs in virtually every trick in its arsenal—from the mid-chassis air-intake duct found in previous Temjin cases to the unibody aluminum frame of the Fortress FT02 to the rotated motherboard tray first seen in the Raven RV01. The result is massive, possibly overengineered, and awesome.

At 2 feet, 1 inch tall, the Temjin TJ11 is a monster.

At 9 inches wide by 25 inches high and 25 inches deep, the TJ11 is a full inch deeper and higher than the Corsair 800D, itself one of the largest chassis we’ve ever tested. Like all recent Silverstone cases, the motherboard is rotated 90 degrees, so the I/O plate and PCI slots point up. Unlike the Raven RV03, though, the motherboard tray is along the left-side panel, with the case window on the right panel. The TJ11 has a “dual unibody” frame—the front, bottom, and top panels are all a single piece of aluminum, with the rest of the case also made of aluminum, except for the removable motherboard tray and the mid-case fan brackets, which are steel. There isn’t a rivet to be found on the case; it’s all screws all the way, to the delight of any modder.

The TJ11 is separated into two main compartments. The lower compartment contains two three-bay hard drive cages. Each bay has its own 12cm fan, so the hard drives are thermally isolated from the rest of the case, and each HDD tray has its own hotswap backplate. The case can also accommodate two power supplies or one redundant server PSU.

The drive trays remove to accommodate a radiator up to 480mm. Between the bottom and top compartments are two mid-case air ducts that feed cool air to the two filtered 18cm intake fans at the bottom of the motherboard compartment.

The motherboard compartment is generously apportioned, with room for ATX, microATX, SSI CEB server boards, and even XL ATX boards like the Gigabyte G1.Assassin. The case has nine 5.25-inch drive bays—plenty of room for multiple water-cooling reservoirs, fan controllers, and more. Three optional SSD mounting brackets attach to the left side of the optical drive bays.

We’ve chided Silverstone for taking few risks with its Temjin lineup. Never again.

The I/O backplate contains nine PCI expansion slots and can accommodate quad-SLI or CrossFireX setups with the removal of a bracket. All the front-panel cables (two USB 3.0 via a pass-through, two USB 2.0, two audio cables, and two power buttons—one on top and one on the front) and connectors are routed to the bottom of the motherboard for easy cable management. Plenty of cable-routing cutouts mean that it’s easy to construct a beautiful rig in the TJ11.

The case’s two 18cm fans are quite loud at full bore, but the TJ11’s thermal performance was the best of any case in our roundup. This is an all-around fantastic case, with superb performance, plenty of features, and beautiful attention to detail. It’s obvious Silverstone has spared no expense in crafting the ultimate premium chassis. It’s easy to spend more money on less case (see: Thermaltake Level 10, ABS Canyon 695), but it’s also easy to spend less than half of the price on a case that’s more than half as good, if you follow us. Nobody needs a $600 case. But if you’re made of money and want to spend it on a great case, the TJ11 is our choice.

$600, www.silverstonetek.com