Silverstone Tek Micro-ATX Mini-DTX, Mini-ITX Mini Tower Plastic with Aluminum Accent Computer Cases

I have been living with a 'medium' tower for years, and my perception of it was never 'medium'. So i was on the lookout for a smaller case for awhile, the trouble is, you need to be certain your motherboard will fit, as the name of the item states, it's NOT a full ATX tower, and will only fit micro and mini boards. Thankfully my current mobo fits the bill.I did look at the other competitors, including some of the other Silverstone models, but this one just seem to have an edge on design, it ticked the most boxes for me.Some points that i liked:-2 front 3.5" bays, which i use for a hard drive hot swap, and a card reader. i keep my dvd drive external since i never use it.-2 usb3 ports in front-large quiet fans that suck from the sides-smallest footprint of any case while not compromising flexibility-Fits large heatsinks such as the hyper 212+-Quality that is good, not exceptional, but plenty good, i don't care if the front panel isn't pretty aluminum.Size:It's no mac mini, but then again we're talking about no compromise. This thing hacks off a good chunk of what bothered me about the medium tower. Mainly, i realized i don't use hard drive space, SSDs take up far less room, and i prefer to have external docks/hard drives instead of having them internal, so i didn't need the dozen trays of the larger tower. this one has just the right amount, and i'm not even using them, since they also made a clever little slot just for an SSD, which is out of the way and takes up basically no room at all. If you look at it, you realize it's about as small as you can physically make a tower that doesn't need proprietary parts.DesignThis case is probably not for someone who makes frequent trips inside their computer, it's not difficult at all to build your system, but if you don't have patience or attention to detail, i can see it being less than a pleasant experience. In particular, the cable routing is something that cannot just be shoved around, they include plenty of ways to route your cables intelligently, and if you don't read up on those methods and just push cables wherever you please, you'll likely run into issues. They also built in options for you, such as the top rear vent which you can choose to use or not depending on how you mount your PSU, and the other rear fan space they included in case you want to add a bit more flow. And the hard drive caddy is removable, in case you need to fit some larger PCIE components.Fans and noiseI love the airflow. the two fans in the front such air not from the front, but from either side, brilliant! There's also an easy to remove dust guard. The noise is very quiet, it's not dead silent, but i've never once been bothered by the low hum. I would prefer if it moved a bit more air, but then again, i've yet to have any heat alarm go off. I do not overclock, nor do i game, but i do heavily edit HD video. Vibrations are minimal, but that's probably because i don't have any spinning disks in it. They also included some nice soft rubbery feet, to ensure any vibrations from your aging raptor drives don't transfer and resonate into your floor.Space insideit can hold a few hard drives, and amazingly, it can accomodate a full 12" video card, something many smaller cases cannot. And even better, since they made the case just a tad bit wider, it can fit a large heatsink, like my coolermaster hyper 212+, and still a wee bit of room to spare. They also put in a little support bar for such large heatsinks, i don't know if that thing actually does anything, but hey it's a bonus and perhaps reassuring. It seems they really thought out how to squeeze everything in there when designing this.Building itLike i mentioned, read the manual, get familiar, take your time. I'm an experienced builder and yes i know the feeling of hey, i can build anything in 5 min, i don't need a manual, blah blah... You'll save yourself plenty of headache if you ditch that ego, just read through the manual to see the tidbits of how this case was designed.ConsensusI got just what i wanted. If you're looking for a small case that is built and designed well, and let's you use most of what you're used to using in a build, then i definitely recommend this one.

I selected this case for a micro ATX build for a client. I had experience building in Silverstone's Temjin TJ08B-E, so I knew going in what to expect. This case is the same as the higher up Temjin, except for the following.1. This front of this case is plastic, unlike the Temjin, which is aluminum. This reduces cost.2. This case has two 120mm fans up front, instead of a single huge 180mm fan.3. This case has no 3.5" bay on the bottom of the front for a memory card reader like the Temjin.4. Front dust filter access is different on this case. You open a door on the front to reveal a large, removal air filter. The Temjin case front air filter you push out from either side of the front of the case. More of a pain than this case.Everything else about this case is identical to the Temjin model. The structure is exactly the same, and uses the same parts as the Temjin. Since it is the same, the internal layout and build process is the same. You get the nice magnetic air filter where the power supply mounts for easy cleaning. Silverstone thought this case out a lot, trying to make it small, but with excellent build quality. There are cons to this case, just like the Temjin since it is virtually the same. I will list them below.CONS:1. The screws that hold the top panel on, and the motherboard tray, along with the hard drive cage and pedestal are proprietary, very small screws. I strongly recommend you use a magnetic screwdriver. You can't just go to the hardware store replace them. I can't figure out why Silverstone decided to do this. I never lost any screws, but just be warned. This also applies to the Temjin model.2. It might be disconcerting for some how the layout of the case is. The motherboard is installed upside down.3. Serviceability - You have to remove the top to install or replace the power supply, not to mention the optical drives. Also, the only SSD mount in this or the Tejmin is on the bottom of the case, where the pedestal and hard drive cage are. These are sacrifices that you make for such a small tower.ON THE FENCE ABOUT:The motherboard tray is removable, which is really nice. You really need this though anyway, given how small the case is, and the space you have to work with. Putting the motherboard tray back in, I had to tweak and jockey into the position to get it just right. It was a bit of a struggle to get it to align with the motherboard I/O shield properly. So just keep that in mind, since you could possibly run into that.PROS:1. Excellent airflow just like the Temjin. The fans included are very high quality, and the system is about near silent in my opinion.2. Excellent quality material used. Even the plastic front panel felt solid enough, and looks nice.3. Excellent cable management/room for cables. I will stress that you need to take your time and do proper cable management. Not really a con, and you should enjoy and take your time building your computer anyway.4. The front panel USB 3.0 ports, power and reset buttons ooze quality. They feel very solid. The power and reset buttons have a very satisfying click. They are not cheap like so many cases. The USB ports and headphone/mic jacks feel very sturdy and not like they will break when you plug things into them over the years.5. Like the Tejmjin, the optical drive bay covers are very easy to remove or re-install. Kudos to Silverstone.I would keep in mind, and Silverstone tells you in the excellent documentation they provide that the optical drive and power supply configuration has limits. You only have so much space between the two when installing them. I installed an EVGA 430 watt power supply in here, which fit fine. However, since it wasn't modular, I had to bundle the unused cables in some of the space they provide for cables in the case. I would recommend you use a modular power supply. Silverstone has a specific recommendation for one of their models when building in this or the Temjin. Any modular or semi-modular power supply will work fine though.In conclusion, I think Silverstone has hit many marks here, and some not so great marks. But this is a high quality mini tower, and head and shoulders above most others out there.

I used this as the case for my first ever computer build, which was for a home NAS (network attached storage) server build. This case was very easy and straighforward to build in, even for a noob like me. A big, big plus is it can hold four full size hard drives in addition to a SSD. The SSD is mounted below all the hard drives (under the rack they are in) and screws into the base of the case. Cable management is easy and there is plenty of room and options for where you want to put your cables. I managed to fit a full size RTX 3060 GPU in the case along with four HDDs, a SSD for my boot drive, all plugged into a micro ATX motherboard. The HDDs I purchased are pretty loud, so there was even room for me to stick some sound dampening material to the inside of the side plates of this case (the parts that come off either side to allow you to access the internals of the case).I did replace the two included case fans that come mounted in the front of the case for two Noctua fans, and I added a third Noctua fan at the back of the case (there's a spot for it) as an exhaust fan. You always want to have more intake fans than exhaust fans, so the two in the front are intake, and the rear fan is exhaust. Airflow is great, and my temps are always a little below where you'd expect them. The intake fans pull fresh air over the four hard drive spots, then over your motherboard and the CPU fan, and then out the back where the exhaust fan is.This case isn't flashy and doesn't have any clear sides or fancy LEDs. The only LED is on the front and indicates when the HDD is doing something. I think you could unplug that particular cable and have a totally stealth build. This case would also work as a gaming PC as it fits very large GPUs just fine (check your measurements just in case). Overall, I highly recommend this case!