Are Silverstone Tower Cases Overrated?

Are Silverstone tower cases overrated?

  • They are overpriced but not overrated.

    Votes: 48 44.9%

  • They are overpriced and overrated.

    Votes: 20 18.7%

  • They are overrated in terms of quality but the pricing is fair.

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • They are neither overrated or overpriced.

    Votes: 30 28.0%

  • Silverstone cases are an excellent value.

    Votes: 7 6.5%
  • Total voters
    107
B

Blackstone

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Mar 8, 2007
Messages
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As you know Silverstone's flagship Temjin line of cases is quite expensive. My question is whether Silverstone cases (TJ03, TJ07, TJ09, TJ10) are overrated or too expensive.

What alternative would you suggest. The one I am most interested in is the TJ09.
 
I don't think the build quality is always on the same level as LianLi to be honest...

But that's me...
 
I'm quite happy with my TJ-09. Both in design and build quality.
 
i've had the LL v2000 and currently have the TJ10. imho, the SS is better in quality and looks.
 
I'm curious about the people who have said they think silverstone cases aren't as good in build quality compared to Lian li. Are you guys just saying that just because of Lian Li's reputation, or have you guys actually dealt with cases from both manufacturers? As someone who has, I can without a doubt say it is simply not true. The unibody silverstone tj07 is probably way more durable than any Lian Li made, though their FT01 and some of the other cheaper ones aren't on the same level IMO. But their TJ series cases are built as well or better than Lian Li cases.
 
I haven't had a chance to look at their high-end line in person, but it does seem like the mid-range stuff is overpriced for what it is.

I've had a lot of LianLi cases from $70 ones to $200+ and they've always been the same high quality... the more expensive ones are just bigger and have more features.

I'm planning to grab an X500 for my I7 build... :D
 
Both yes and no.

Because of aluminum construction I think it's natural that we compare construction quality to LL:
Silverstone seems to use thicker materials than LL who seems to use thickness which is structurally enough. While that overengineering gives more rigidity it also means you won't get much weight advantage from aluminum.
Also nowadays SS uses plasticky HDD trays and such while in basic cases LL uses pretty much full alu construction/parts.
So in that area there really isn't single overall winner.

Design wise TJ07 is probably the best case for heavy watercooling with least modding but aircooling wise overall airflow design is mediocre and HDD mounting is acoustically bad.
Newer cases have similarly some gross imbalances in design, especially HDD bays seems to be getting their special imbalancing attention.

So while general construction quality definitely shouldn't have anything to shame against others outside special needs I find it very hard to find design choises/features justifying Silverstones over others.

Blazestorm said:
I haven't had a chance to look at their high-end line in person, but it does seem like the mid-range stuff is overpriced for what it is.
Click to expand...
At least Fortress is horribly overpriced for its size/features: Cramped for long graphics cards. Acoustically very questionable plastic HDD trays with way too dense HDD spacing blocking intake fan... four is real number of HDDs and even then cage structure itself is severe restriction for intake fan.
For comparison Lian Li has A70/71 for similar price with lot more space and better balanced design: E-ATX space for long graphics cards without blocking anything. In practise over double amount of HDD bays with working soft mounting, good spacing allowing cooling airflow without high pressure/high speed fan and main HDD cage has additional fans on inside end for making sure air keeps going toward components needing it.
 
Yea, I was really looking at the FT01... it looked like a nice layout and good construction until I read more about them. Thin side panels etc.

I wish they had something like an "X1000" which had 3 120's on the front, and 8-10 PCI slots and maybe a bit more space between the PSU and HDD cage as well as motherboard and front fans (then you could do internal 3 x 120 + rear 120 rad's for watercooling) as well as fit longer PSU's with both HDD cages, and use classified board /etc. where the last PCI-E slot hangs over the edge.

Honestly just an inch or two in depth and a few more inches in height and it'd be the perfect case imo... seperate chamber for the PSU, HDD's, and CD Drives along with room for 3 x 120 internal RAD and a 120mm rear RAD... and extra PCI slots for... whatever... :)

Sorta rambling... I wouldn't mind checking out a TJ07 they're just ridiculously expensive and don't seem to offer anything as much as LianLi does for the price, but again I don't know personally because I've never worked with one...
 
Blazestorm said:
Sorta rambling... I wouldn't mind checking out a TJ07 they're just ridiculously expensive and don't seem to offer anything as much as LianLi does for the price
Click to expand...
To tell the truth I can neither find reason for Lian Li's similar (and similarly priced) V2x10 models over A7x for non watercooling use:
You have max four 5.25" bays available for real use because with high end components mobo chamber needs practically at least one intake fan in front so in the end you just have less both HDD and 5.25" bays and less freedom in cable routing.

So it's not that just SS has overrated and priced models but similarly also others have overrated/no sense making models not worth the price for most uses.
 
Yea, I was never a fan of the big LianLi's either... seems like a lot of wasted space on bays...

I don't get why lianli is all worried about hotswap bays and bumping up the price for PCB boards for those hotswap bays... how many people REALLY use that feature?

Here's a really quick photoshop I did... thinking if LianLi did something like an X1000 (inbetween the 500 and 2000)

Pretty hard to see, but 3 x 120's in the front, + 8pci in the back... and then on the side-view it's extended forward about 2 inches... more room between the graphics cards and front fans... and more room for the PSU between the bottom HDD cage Maybe in the added area up top in front of the top HDD bay, there could be a bay for 2 x 2.5" drives (like SSD's)

http://lousyhero.com/blaze/x1000idea.jpg
http://lousyhero.com/blaze/x1000idea2.jpg
http://lousyhero.com/blaze/x1000idea3.jpg

Sorta getting off topic, but honestly neither company has a case that's "perfect" or close to it... every single one has flaws of some kind... and I doubt anything could ever be perfect, but this comes close imo -_-
 
Blazestorm said:
Sorta getting off topic, but honestly neither company has a case that's "perfect" or close to it... every single one has flaws of some kind... and I doubt anything could ever be perfect, but this comes close imo -_-
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
I wouldn't say over-rated, but any high-end case is gonna cost a few benjamins. I think if both SS and LL dropped $50-70 off their top-end stuff, it'd be nice. But we're in such a niche, I mean who else are you going to turn to? And Corsair is pricing their cases appropriately (and similarly), so ALL the players in this field are matching each other's high prices.

I find in the end, you MUST mod if you want to tweak your case to perfection. Problem is I'm just too damn lazy.
 
Maybe I need to design cases for someone. I can see how to make many of these cases perfect. A minor tweak is all it would take. Take the TJ-09 for instance. It needs to be one inch taller. This would allow a video card to hang off the bottom expansion slot, or allow them to put an 8th slot there which would be useful for us EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified owners. Finally, ditch the blocky side vents. They just need to come up with something more streamlined and flatter on the sides. That's all they need to do. Then the case would be nearly flawless.

Antec's P192 needs some work as well. They needed to keep the face of the old one, wide the case by about an inch or inch and a half, move the fan on the side panel back inside, and they did fix the PSU bay and start selling them without PSUs, so at least they got that right. That one is steel and plastic so it isn't in the same class as Lian-Li or Silverstone, but you get the idea. Oh, and cases need to start coming with 2.5" drive bays for SSD's and Velocirators. More drives will be going to this form factor, I can almost promise that.

Minor tweaks, that's all many of these designs need.
 
Blazestorm said:
Sorta getting off topic, but honestly neither company has a case that's "perfect" or close to it... every single one has flaws of some kind...
Click to expand...
Perfect case is impossible... or give me hint if you find case which can shrink with its contents to convenient transporting size.
But real problem is that mostly designers don't even seem to be wanting to do balanced cases. Often they can get few things right but then they drop bowling ball and throw sense out of window and sacrifice everything else for the sake of fashion and bling bling.

Dan_D said:
Oh, and cases need to start coming with 2.5" drive bays for SSD's and Velocirators. More drives will be going to this form factor, I can almost promise that.
Click to expand...
For storage SSDs will be too expensive still for years so better to keep them 3.5" sized. (also nothing prevents 3.5" SSDs in the future)
If mounting is just from standard screw holes instead of all fancy wrap around caddies/trays and backplanes you can use adapter for fitting two SSDs into one 3.5" bay:
7531901.jpg

When getting case year ago I didn't think that at all but now that's just another reason to like A70/71's soft mounting method which works perfectly with any of these adapters.
 
E.T said:
Perfect case is impossible... or give me hint if you find case which can shrink with its contents to convenient transporting size.
But real problem is that mostly designers don't even seem to be wanting to do balanced cases. Often they can get few things right but then they drop bowling ball and throw sense out of window and sacrifice everything else for the sake of fashion and bling bling.

For storage SSDs will be too expensive still for years so better to keep them 3.5" sized. (also nothing prevents 3.5" SSDs in the future)
If mounting is just from standard screw holes instead of all fancy wrap around caddies/trays and backplanes you can use adapter for fitting two SSDs into one 3.5" bay:

Image snip..............

When getting case year ago I didn't think that at all but now that's just another reason to like A70/71's soft mounting method which works perfectly with any of these adapters.
Click to expand...

As large as some of these cases are, they could easily give us one or two SSD bays without much in the way of changes. Or they could at least include a couple of 2.5"-3.5" adapters with the case.
 
Dan_D said:
Maybe I need to design cases for someone. I can see how to make many of these cases perfect. A minor tweak is all it would take. Take the TJ-09 for instance. It needs to be one inch taller. This would allow a video card to hang off the bottom expansion slot, or allow them to put an 8th slot there which would be useful for us EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified owners. Finally, ditch the blocky side vents. They just need to come up with something more streamlined and flatter on the sides. That's all they need to do. Then the case would be nearly flawless.

Antec's P192 needs some work as well. They needed to keep the face of the old one, wide the case by about an inch or inch and a half, move the fan on the side panel back inside, and they did fix the PSU bay and start selling them without PSUs, so at least they got that right. That one is steel and plastic so it isn't in the same class as Lian-Li or Silverstone, but you get the idea. Oh, and cases need to start coming with 2.5" drive bays for SSD's and Velocirators. More drives will be going to this form factor, I can almost promise that.

Minor tweaks, that's all many of these designs need.
Click to expand...

If they also added a little bit more space behind the mobo tray and more space between the vga fan and the side panel on the TJ09, then cable routing would be much easier as well.
 
lostnkonfused said:
If they also added a little bit more space behind the mobo tray and more space between the vga fan and the side panel on the TJ09, then cable routing would be much easier as well.
Click to expand...

That's true too. I had that same thought when I first built my rig. I think most cases could be improved by being made slightly wider.
 
Same price as a Lian Li... The TJ09 is a POS compared to the Vx000 series...

1mm freaking side panels. NO. BAD.
 
Arcygenical said:
Same price as a Lian Li... The TJ09 is a POS compared to the Vx000 series...

1mm freaking side panels. NO. BAD.
Click to expand...

The structure of the Silverstone cases seem much stronger and thicker than that of the Lian-Li's. I guess each of them has to cut corners somewhere.
 
It depends on the case.

The Raven is shocking but some cases such as the TJ10b and TJ07 are beautiful. The FT01 is also very promising.
 
+1, for most of them the thinnest portions are the side panels, which I can live with. The more I look at the FT02, the more I want it, just wish the 2 right most 180mm fans weren't so restricted. I'm very interested in seeing the reviews when it comes out in august.
 
I have experience with both a Silverstone (TJ09) and Lian Li (PC-V1000B, PC-V2000B) cases. While both are obviously of high quality, both in terms of materials and in design detailing and construction, I have to say Lian Li cases are just that bit better.

I love my TJ09, and it has housed my primary rig for almost two years now. But my main complaint with it is that it does a poor job of masking noise. I think the biggest reasons for this are the grill apertures are too small and therefore induce a lot of turbulence, both for intake and exhaust fans. Another possible reason for the noise output might have to do with the fact that the side panels, in particular, are very thin; these tend to vibrate or otherwise transmit noise (vibrations). Also, the TJ09 doesn't seem to be built as solidly as, say, a Lian Li PC-V1000/PC-V2000. The main internal brace (which also functions as the stop for the leading edge of the removable motherboard tray) has a slight bow to it, which is odd since I don't believe it is a weight- or stress-bearing component.

In contrast, the Lian Li PC-V-series cases seem really solid despite the fact that they're both light and made of aluminum (same as the TJ09). The side panels are especially thick. I think the only real con with the PC-V1000/PC-V2000 is that neither has a removable motherboard tray. I quite love this particular feature of the TJ09. But it is definitely not a deal-breaker.

In terms of cable management, it's easier to cut into the Lian Lis' motherboard trays; on the Silverstone, the motherboard tray, while removable, is probably too difficult to cut with conventional tools (i.e., dremel-type rotary tools). The TJ09's side panels will also undoubtedly warp if you try to route cables beneath the motherboard tray and squeeze them into the space between the tray and the side panel; no such problems with the Lian Li.

I like both, but my vote goes for the Lian Li. :)
 
Dan_D said:
The structure of the Silverstone cases seem much stronger and thicker than that of the Lian-Li's. I guess each of them has to cut corners somewhere.
Click to expand...

That's quite true.

The LL's need a good reinforcement bar down the middle, connecting the mobo tray, middle case floor, and top/bottom of the case.

It would cost all of 3$ in bulk to put in, and would make the case rock solid.

But still, I just spent 57$ on acrylic and vinyl tile to re-enforce the damn panels on my SS TJ09... Which was bullshit I say!
 
i have three (see sig), and they are awesome, i look forward to building another PC with a silverstone case fairly soon.
 
i thought splurging on my TJ09 was stupid but I dont regret the purchase at all. One thing I notice about silverstone cases is that they make the structure solid and have thin panels. Lian li seems to have a weaker structure but they make up for it in terms of thicker side panels. Personally I like the look of silverstone's cases more except Lian Li's X500.

My justification is that cases dont really become obsolete so they're like an investment. Its not like something will come out in 3 months and be so much better than what you have already.
 
Staradder, you just hit on something big for me.. the looks. I don't know if it's just me, but aesthetically both Lian-Li and the TJ series for SilverStone just look TOO vanilla. I'm sure they're of high quality, but at no point is there any flare aesthetically (and no I don't mean I want some gimmicky NZXT type of case, but the clean lined rectangles just looks rather bland on the eyes), to me atleast.
 
raven2? or that red lined LL with a dragon could be to your liking.
 
PheonixChameleon said:
Staradder, you just hit on something big for me.. the looks. I don't know if it's just me, but aesthetically both Lian-Li and the TJ series for SilverStone just look TOO vanilla. I'm sure they're of high quality, but at no point is there any flare aesthetically (and no I don't mean I want some gimmicky NZXT type of case, but the clean lined rectangles just looks rather bland on the eyes), to me atleast.
Click to expand...

what about the PC-777? :cool:

I've got both the PC-777B and TJ-10B, neither is "perfect", but both are excellent in their own way, and both look flawless

NOW, the real question: do these cases justify their $300+ pricetags

in my opinion, yes, because they're both solid, good looking, and will easily outlast the computers they house under normal usage, and they dont have parts falling off of them in the first year (*cough* Antec *cough*; *cough* Cooler Master *cough*)
 
My TJ07 is the best case I've ever bought. I'd say it was worth the $330 price tag.

I don't have much experience with other Silverstone cases, and I've never had a Lian-Li.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
My TJ07 is the best case I've ever bought. I'd say it was worth the $330 price tag.

I don't have much experience with other Silverstone cases, and I've never had a Lian-Li.
Click to expand...

sounds like the TJ07 is like having a super model wife. it's kept you from having "the wandering eye" :D:D
 
I was looking to get the TJ07 for quite a while before my budget went away and I've never found a better case. One of the biggest selling points for me was the water cooling capacity, I found pictures of a TJ07 that a guy had fit 1 120X480 and 3 120X240 Radiators and all he had to do was move the HD rack from the bottem of the case into some of the spare 5.25 bays. a bit overkill probably but you get the idea. that, the extra sturdy construction, and the simple look all make that case top dog in my book.

The only problem I found with taht case was it's weight. but I was gonna build a 2nd computer for lan parties and number crunching.
 
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