MortyNO wrote:I'm currently leaning towards the TJ08-E. Haven't quite finalized my thoughts yet, but while it may be a bit harder to build in, it is at least an appropriately small case for a mATX build.
If you are interested in the TJ08-E, my suggestion is you check the
OCN Silverstone TJ08-E Owners Club, you will get tons of information there, like any cooler or fans that are on the market are in there... more than 200 pages of builds, questions and tests. There are builds there that even after two years still amaze me, specially some watercooled builds.
Now my suggestion is to also consider the PS07, its very similar to the TJ08-E, the changes are the frontal fan from an 180mm to 2x 120mm fans, the frontal mesh is swapped for a plastic door with intakes on the sides (similar to R4 or an Antec P183/280), the power and rest buttons are other places but no practical difference here. The inside is the same, dimensions and construction. Fans like Noctua Redux NF-S12B, Scythe Gentle Typhoons, Noiseblockers M12, or Nexus Basic 120s will work very well with this case, specially with a motherboard that can control fans, like Asus with FanXpert2. Here is a picture of my old TJ08-E build and one that did for a friend on PS07,
Now if you are set on the TJ08-E, my suggestion is get a motherboard that can control the AP181, any Asus H97/Z97 will come with FanXpert2 that should allow you to drop it to around 420-450rpms on idle (samples vary) and to achieve this be sure to switch the fan controller to low and to connect the AP181 to a CHA_FAN, then ran the FanXpert2 tuning and it should test the fan and allow it to drop that low.
That said, on very quiet environment the fan is still audible, part of it is because of the frontal mesh of the TJ08-E, as i tested outside and its very quiet at those speeds, but thats one of the things that differs on the PS07, no mesh and frontal door that somewhat dampens the frontal fans, its more like mini R4 kinda.... if you get what i mean. Either way for a more quiet scenario, i would suggest the PS07, while it wont cool as good as the TJ08-E, you will have tons of options with 120mm fans to make it virtually inaudible, this can be done on the TJ08-E but will require more work, specially switching the frontal fan for AP182, dropping the knob to min, and do the same fanXpert2 routine. Personally i like more MSI motherboards, for example MSI
Z97M-G43 or
MSI H97M-G43, their Bios fan control for more minimalistic (no software), if you prefer this route check
Taming the beast, Silverstone AP182.
For either the PS07 or TJ08-E, be careful choosing the CPU cooler, a cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 will overlap with the first PCIe slot, so in case you going with a dedicated GPU, keep this in mind. Coolers that i would recommend for this are Thermalright HR02 Macho (only the black/white as the fan drops lower), Scythe Mugen 4 and Kotetsu, above this imo the price goes up and you don't gain that much, but in case you want other options, Thermalright HR22 or Thermalright Silver Arrow IBE, both are asymmetrical design making it not overlap with the first PCIe slot, but i still recommend you more the before and saving some $$$.
One last recommendation, get low profile memory,
Crucial Ballistix Sport Very Low Profile 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3-1600 1.35V UDIMM 240-Pin Memory Modules BLS2C4G3D1609ES2LX0 is what i have used on 5 builds now, on Asus and MSI motherboards and no issues at all, they will allow you to use any CPU fan as they don't even go above the latches of the memory slots, so you will have a ton more flexibility into whatever you chose now or in the future.
If you have any questions let me know, good luck with the choice and build.