Silverstone TJ04-E Review

Up Close:  Interior 

With the side panels removed via black anodised thumb screws we are able to get a good look inside the TJ04-E.  It's in here where the major changes over the older model can be found.  First off it's rather obvious that unlike with the older model Silverstone have powder coated the interior of this case.  The motherboard tray area is dominated by a large CPU cut out, along with 8 cable management holes.  Although these management holes have nice rounded edges they're not grommeted, a strange omission in a case of this pedigree.

Focusing our attention on the front of the interior we can see that there are four 5.25" bays.  The bays of the tool-less type but the plastic fixings can be easily removed if you prefer to screw your drives in place (as I do).  Underneath we find what is probably the most significant feature of the TJ04-E, the removable HDD rack with integral cooling.  this section is able to house 8x3.5mm HDDs, with another 1 being mounted in a non removable floor location.  An additional SSD rack is also able to accommodate up to 6 SSDs or 2,5" laptop type HDDs, giving a grand total of 9x3.5" HDDs and 6x2.5" SSDs or HDDs.  Not bad for a case of this size.

Peeking through the front and out the side (below left) enables us to get a better view of the HDD cooling intake.  Better still, removing the HDD enclosure entirely by means of the folding chrome handle affords us a view of the whole front of case interior including the floor mounted 3.5mm HDD mount and the 2.5mm SSD drive rack assembly.  Although the top I/O cables are black coated making them less visible when routing around the case, the front mobo connection ribbon isn't so will present a few more challenges to you if you wish it's presence to remain anonymous (it's also about twice as long at it needs to be for some reason).

Staying at the front of the case we now take a look at the removable HDD rack.  Able to take 8x3.5" HDDs, the rack only has two sides, with a little stub of about an inch long for the third side, which I have to say was a bit confusing at first, forcing me to refer to the instructions for guidance on how to mount the HDDs.  In Essence HDDs are mounted with screws securing them to the side of the rack closest to the chrome handle.  The drive is then located on the opposite side by only the one screw through the stub section.  The multi finned Aluminium heat-sink, which comes in two parts, is then secured to the drive directly by means of the last drive locating screw hole.  When I was putting it all together it did feel a bit of a fiddle and I wasn't too convinced by it's structural soundness, but once assembled it all feels solid enough.  The Aluminium heat-sink being indirect contact with the drives is able to provide cooling for them which is aided and abetted by the airflow from the fans.