Everyone who's ever built a PC has different opinions about cases. Some simply go for the lowest cost, others go for flashy appearance. Some people like big, massive towers, and others like unobtrusive microATX systems. Those with an eye toward overclocking will want a case with maximum cooling potential, while people thinking about home entertainment applications will want minimal noise.

Today we look two PC cases, each with slightly different goals. The Silverstone TJ06 looks to maximize thermal management, but without blasting out too much sound. The Lian-Li PC-6070 is designed to keep your system running quietly while still allowing enough cooling to run the hottest components. Today, though, we're mainly looking at these cases from the perspective of someone trying to build a system. Factors we're considering here include:

• Overall build quality

• Fit and finish
• Ease of installing components
• Putting it all together

In this two-case review, we won't be looking at noise or thermals. That may sound a little odd consider what we just said, but that's because we're going to use each of these cases in future articles to see just how well they meet their goals of thermal management and noise reduction. We'll certainly take a close look at the key enabling features for thermal and noise management, but we're focusing on how easy it is to actually build systems in these cases. Continued...