First pic is from the side, with the second shot being a close-up (you can see how close the SATA and power cables are to the Ninja... yikes).
Third pic is from the other side, there's not alot of room to hide/tuck cables away but I think I managed alright. You can see a nice gouge near the top on this side, argh!!!... happened when I was trying to put the panel back on and didn't have one of the guides aligned correctly.
Fourth and fifth pics are from the back and front, respectively... the case came with a metal grill on the back that I didn't want restricting flow, so I took it off. Front of the case also had the same grill, but was harder to get off because the front panel had to be unscrewed in order to get to it (one of my main peeves with this case).
Last pic is of the greatest unknown tool to computer modders, until now... I present to you, the surgical hemostat clamp.
Got it from my wife (just finishing up her first year of residency. House husband here I come! T-minus 2 years, 2 months and counting...) and it's awesome for getting into hard to reach areas, pull wires/ties through tight spaces, etc. It can be locked closed as well (with the barbs near the handles) so zip ties can be mounted in hard to reach places but with the hemostat you're still able to pull on the ties securely.Pros:
- quality finish, understated but looks like it cost $100 (which it did)
- removable motherboard tray absolutely critical for such a cramped working space (see hemostat)
- good flow (2x120mm fans), able to run a Ninja in passive mode
Cons:
- front panel difficult to remove, especially for those with stubby fingers
- location of hard drive cage makes using a large heatsink difficult
- motherboard tray doesn't slide out the back, rather it gets tilted in from the side... makes larger heatsinks difficult to install
- most edges are rolled, but when I took off the fans to swap them out a couple knuckles were bloodied by the exposed edges of the mount
- expensive! as mentioned previously, the TJ-08 shares the same chassis with an Athenatech (though with 80mm fan mounts) that could be modded to match the TJ-08 at about half the cost
Built this comp for my wife to use for e-mail, browsing, VPN, light gaming and music... however, it was originally in an Aspire X-QPack. I became unhappy with the cooling and dust-catching ability of the thin slats the Aspire used for intakes. The TJ-08 was definitely roomier, and in the early pics from Silverstone, air flow seemed much more free... it didn't hurt that it looked pretty nice too.
Ordered from Newegg, and immediately started dismantling it out of the box. Removed the included fan grills and plugged in some Yate-Loons for intake/exhaust... while I was originally pleased with the removable mobo tray, I was a little disappointed to find out that the case wouldn't accomodate the Ninja except by clipping it on after the mobo tray was reinstalled. Mentioned it before, but I figure this might save some people the hassle later... the location of the hdd tray/drives made it impossible to use the ninja with standard SATA cables. I ended up buying some elbowed cables, and while they still touch the ninja, it doesn't seem to be putting any excessive pressure on the heatsink. I also tried a Zalman 7000cu and it was almost as cramped with the regular cables, though I was able to fit it on the mobo before reinstalling the tray into the case (with some wiggling). A word about the fans and cooling... even with the Yate-Loons running at 12V, the comp is pretty quiet... the hard drive seeks seem much louder than the fans. At lower volts, the hard drive seeks are about the only things that I can hear (desk is about 2-2.5 below my ears). Although the SATA and power cables touch the Ninja, the comp idles right around 30C (see specs below).
Overall, I think the case has a few flaws that are relatively easy to work around/with... a smaller heatsink would work fine in this case (had an extra Ninja and wanted to put it to use, even passively, if I could). While cable management can be tricky, it's probably no more tricky than in most other mATX cases out there... although the modular cables helped, my PSU took up a good chunk of room. A shorter optical drive might be helpful here. And finally... the front panel, though difficult to remove, is definitely quality. While a cheaper alternative to the TJ-08 can be had with some modding, the overal quality and finish of the case may make that extra $50 worth it for some.
Specs:
DFI RS482 mATX Infinity Socket 939 ATI Radeon XPRESS 200
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice (stock)
Antec Neo HE 500 (left over from a previous build)
1GB Corsair Value RAM
250GB Seagate 7200.8
ATI Radeon X550 256MB
2x120mm Yate-Loon D12SL-12
