SilverStone TJ10 Case Review :: Assembly

Building a system in this case is pretty straight forward, as you can see there is plenty of room to support our AMD 4x4 setup with dual XFX graphics cards in SLI.  Our system setup included dual optical drives as well as a 1 KW power supply.   While we only shot the case with one hard drive installed we did fully populate the hard drive enclosures to confirm that, one it could hold all six drives securely and two that the heat generated by the drives could in fact be dissipated by the center fan.

Installation of the components was easy. The removable motherboard tray allowed the motherboard, ram, and even the video cards to all be preinstalled before having to actually work in the case.   The motherboard back plat itself offers enough standoff positions to support any motherboard.

Power supply installation is pretty simply as well. Since it is located at the bottom of the case there are no fans or cables or really anything to get in your way. The power supply did require the use of the included adapter plate to allow it to be secured to the case.

Hard drive and optical drive installation was a cinch as well. The removable hard drive racks allow you to easily assemble a full set of drives without having to wrestle them into to place inside the case.   The only thing I can really complain about is again the lack of screw less or tool free installation method.  I would have hoped that a case with a price tag such as this one would spare nothing in pursuit of perfection.

On the plus side even though this case is fully constructed of aluminum the case did not exhibit the flimsiness we often see in lesser quality designs.  Its sturdiness is thanks to some very well placed support pieces.  You can see at the back of the case there is a one inch wide beam of aluminum running from top to bottom this removes a lot of the flexibility that you would find in other cases.

Cable management in the case was pretty straight forward. All of the cables are able to simply be routed up directly to the motherboard. The position of the power supply at the bottom of the case really prevents the need for tying back loose and extra power cables that may interfere with the operation of the system. All of the extra cable can simply be stored away at the bottom of the case. The front panel connections as well as the connections for the top USB, Fire Wire and audio ports were are long enough to prevent any stretching of the cables. The front audio header is provided in both Intel HD audio format and AC 97 format. The fire wire header is also a duel connector providing for both a lose pin arrangement and a pre-molded connection.

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