Performance.

I thought I’d compare this case against a direct rival chassis, in the shape of the Lian Li PC65. I often find that when testing how a case performs (with 99% of that performance being the average temperature at which it keeps the various internal components) its pointless to test it against a chassis that is not, for whatever reason, competing for the same persons hard earned money. If X case cools 27% better than Y case, am I going to care, if X case is a high-end aluminum full tower costing £220, and Y case a small, plastic offering from Bargain Cases R ‘Us? Of course not.

The Lian Li PC65 and the TJ06s, however, are both very much in the same shop window – both very pleasing on the eye, both aluminum or a steel aluminum mix, both look great and both cost about the same. So, as these cases are clearly being aimed at the same market, its actually worthwhile to know which of them cools better in which situations, rather than knowing if either of them cooler better or worse than a case that, regardless of the results, has little connection with the review subject.

Anyway, that’s the logic.

To that end, I installed my review rig in both of these chassis, and, after looping 3DMark2005 for 90 minutes (and if I’m honest an hour or so of Half Life II), took a reading, firstly from as close to the CPU as I could get, then from the underside of the Hard Drive, and finally from behind the exhaust fan (externally behind).

The specs of the test rig used were as follows:

Asus A8V Deluxe rev2.0
Winchester core 3500+ @ 2.7ghz (ThermalRight XP120 w/ Delta Foccussed Flow 120mm fan)
1gb Corsair TwinX PC4400C25PT.
ATi Radeon X800XT-PE @ 520 Core 1.2ghz Mem.
74.6Gb Western Digital Raptor.

As you can see, this is quite a powerful rig, and it kicks out quite a bit of heat, also, as we are in the grips of a Birmingham winter as I write this review, the central heating in the room I am testing in is on full. This is not a 486 ticking over in a basement, so keep that in mind if you find the temperatures underwhelming. For the record, the PC65 has similar cooling to the TJ06s, however it has 80mm intake and exhaust fans, and an extra 80mm fan located on the top panel of the case, blowing directly down onto the memory. Finally, note that the Lian Li is a standard ATX style case, with the Motherboard mounted the ‘correct’ way and no large gap between it and the bottom of the PSU. Right, now you have all the factors to take into account, the results.

90 Minute Loop of 3dMark 2005 - Temp Reading - CPU Socket.

In the CPU measurement, the Silverstone chassis has a relatively small but noticeable 2.9 degree advantage, which I can only put down to the placement of the CPU at the bottom of the case, and the wind tunnel. I am quite pleased with these results, as although the wind tunnel was never going to give as dramatic an effect as removing the stock heat sink for an after market cooler or water cooling, its nice to know it does have a real and genuine effect and is not simply a gimmick to add a bit of zing to a case that frankly needs no gimmicks.

Next, the Hard Drive measurements:

Nothing really in it on this one. It seems placing the Hard Drive at the top or in the middle of the case has no real effect on the temperature, but the Lian Li’s extra top mounted fan, which does blow partially onto the Hard Drive has just given it the edge over the Silverstone, but not to any significant degree. The TJ06s has increased in temperature though where as the Lian Li has fallen slightly, but comparatively, 0.3 of a degree is a different that the margin of error can through up.

Finally, the chassis exhaust on both cases:

Again, within a degree of each other, the Silverstone perhaps giving the slightly lower reading due to the balanced airflow and larger 120mm fans. Really though, when the results are within a degree of each other, there is little you can read into it.