The Gaming Case Showdown

Silverstone TJ09

At first glance, the Silverstone TJ09 seems to hold to more traditional designs like that of the NZXT, except it is larger. The differences only start to become apparent when the case is examined more closely. The top exhaust is mounted almost right at the back, which was made possible by moving the power supply to the bottom of the case. The intake that's commonly mounted at the front is pushed back behind the hard drives, with intake ports coming out to either side. Even the entire tray that holds the motherboard and attached expansion cards conveniently slides out. Silverstone seems to have attempted a blending of newer features with a more modest, classic design.

It wasn't surprising that the only two provided case fans were adequately quiet, but there was also next to no noise generated by vibrations along the aluminum frame. Sticking to low rpm fans should mean that any noise coming from this case, even with additional fans filling the three allotted spots, would originate from the other components.

Given that the trend is to go smaller and smaller all the time, it's nice to see that cases are still made to accommodate people that want to cram the extra two or three or even five 750 GB hard drives into their systems. Without even tapping into some unused 5.25" bays, or sacrificing a floppy drive, six hard drives can easily be accommodated.

The entire design of this case seems to be centered around the idea of providing the most effective way to get things done. Sliding out the motherboard and attached components means no more needless struggle with tight spaces. Mounting the power supply at the bottom gives you better access while allowing for more effective cooling. Mounting the hard drives so they slide out to the side rather than into the case is nothing new, but is certainly no less convenient.

There's certainly very little to complain about here, while the only potential problem is also the very thing that makes the inside so easy to navigate: its size. Not everyone will have the desk or floor space for the TJ09 and will thus dismiss it immediately. Still, many others will likely recognize the merit of having enough room for all the goodies they could possibly want to squeeze inside.