Completed MJOLNIR: The minimalistic – but not boring – 9.7L Case

[PoneG]

Well. As i can understand your point of view with all the emotions in here you have addressed the issue we are talking about for...years. To expect a perfect case for this ton of money. Or at least dont make the same mistakes or more than we had with the last productions. From my point of view as a buyer i will say sorry if i ever hurt your feelings, on the other hand you are the head of this company and therefore are responsible for changes to be made or faults that have been made. There are so many experienced people trying to help you in here but nothing changed much. Must admit communication on this forum got better.
Why does mjolnir f.e. have rubber feet but borg doesnt? All the weight of the parts is standing on the ground and will damage the wood etc. is this your designed in sweden? theres another swedish company louqe, who somehow have rubber feet on their cheaper raw s1.
And now you need to ask someone else (guess hes cool tho) about how to do things like you never used it before. Thats like someone creates a machine and isnt able to write a short manual in a year or more without the help of buyers.
There are so many things that went wrong and did not get better since the faults where seen with the last productions and its always the easiest way to say its the others fault...factory workers or the buyers bad computer parts. If i buy something i want it to work and thats for 50$ stuff or 500$. And somehow it went like that until i bought from thorzone. If i want to do some work i can buy used stuff where i expect things to fall off and glue them back on. Thats where i put in extra money and time, not for brand new stuff.
My riser doesnt work with gaming so i did not get what you told is in the bag. Thats a warranty issue, but nobody answered my mail, before i had an answer after a few minutes.

Ending words:
a buyer of a product always wants the company behind it to be successful so that he can buy a better, newer version at some point. it's frustrating to see when the product doesn't get better and the company doesn't really want to improve it or offers new not well thought out addons. no matter what they say. at this point, turn away and go to a better company that respects the wishes of customers and does not consider them bad as soon as they find shortcomings and talk about changes.

 

[AlexTzone]

at this point, turn away and go to a better company that respects the wishes of customers and does not consider them bad as soon as they find shortcomings.

Never, I know what has to be done in order to improve and that's exactly what I intend to do after finishing shipping the current batch. This is the last time I rush out a product, addon, etc, without carefully considering each aspect. I don't care if people don't believe me that I can improve, I must prove to myself that I can do it and nobody will sway me to do otherwise. Thousands of people already use our products and love them, so I know we can make mind-blowing stuff (even in this batch the complaints are about 1% of total orders, so the WAST majority think the products are awesome), and after this batch that's exactly what I intend to do.

The above can't happen in the middle of a batch, or rushing between batches, it has be done from the beginning. Some people may expect everything to instantly improve after me stating the above but that's not realistic. I have plans for how to do it and its something we'll do once this batch is shipped.

 

[PoneG]

Never, I know what has to be done in order to improve and that's exactly what I intend to do after finishing shipping the current batch. This is the last time I rush out a product, addon, etc, without carefully considering each aspect. I don't care if people don't believe me that I can improve, I must prove to myself that I can do it and nobody will sway me to do otherwise. Thousands of people already use our products and love them, so I know we can make mind-blowing stuff, and after this batch that's exactly what I intend to do.

after this batch. the trust is already gone and its a difficult and long way to ever get a bit of it back.
Your answer is the example of this. Just picking the things you like and not going for all the things i have said.

 

[AlexTzone]

after this batch. the trust is already gone and its a hard and long way to ever get a bit of it back.

I do not care if it's hard, I will do it anyways. I also don't think it's a long way to get a bit of it back, I believe most of it will be back if the next thing we do is well organized, well delivered and well supported. ~95% of our customers are happy, but the 5% that are not have not gotten the support they deserve. I can't change what has happened in the past, but that experience is important in order to know what to do in the future.

Note: I was not picking out the things that I like in your comment, I agree on your statements, the one thing I picked out was what I didn't agree on.

 

[NotBoringCase]

This is supposed to be your solution or only a bad joke?
"If you experience problems running PCIe 4.0 on the riser, you can switch it to 3.0 in BIOS with negligible performance loss. I’ve heard some think this is somehow worse than a Gen 3 riser, but that is categorically wrong. A Gen 3 wouldn’t even boot a 4.0 device."

 

[PoneG]

Let me tell you a story (spoiler: its about myself):

i saw mjolnir one day and thought: hey this fits great in my office.
all the people laughed at me and said: you don't really want to do that, check out the reviews on trustpilot or in the sffpc forum. you must be crazy to spend so much money on a product that you have to tinker with yourself and that has so much delivery delay.
so what did i say: hey look alex said he has some good ideas how to make it even better and faster.
so i ordered it.
time passed and i got impatient and sad because i trusted in alex words. some time later i had to buy another case and couldn't stop the order process at thorzone. after almost 12 months a package finally arrived. it's lying around here now. not in the office but in the basement. with defective parts, whether due to the delivery or bad quality assurance.
and people laugh at me again and say: you are an idiot. so much money for something that is never seen and that doesn't even work. we told you so.
so i try to sell it.
you can't sell it because people are smarter than me and say: never would i spend $600 on a computer case, i'll give you $150 because i still have to tinker with it.
so i sit here with 450$ loss and alex writes everything will be better.
so should i trust alex again? because he says so?

what would you do? Alexander Baranov, founder of thor-zone, a swedish computer hardware company who said 1% of the products are faulty (after he deleted that 5% of the customers aint happy...but the rest doesnt write positive reviews about it) and in the future it will become much better....again.

 

[OshanTama]

Your biggest problem is the worst communication. It's too late to fix it right away, but in the next batch? There is a saying "a stitch in time saves nine."
People evaluate impressions by giving more weight to negative information than to other positive information. I'm fairly certain that the negative experiences of the 5 percent of people you ignore and your money-oriented attitude will hold your business back. I'm done, so long

 

[AlexTzone]

Let me tell you a story (spoiler: its about myself):

i saw mjolnir one day and thought: hey this fits great in my office.
all the people laughed at me and said: you don't really want to do that, check out the reviews on trustpilot or in the sffpc forum. you must be crazy to spend so much money on a product that you have to tinker with yourself and that has so much delivery delay.
so what did i say: hey look alex said he has some good ideas how to make it even better and faster.
so i ordered it.
time passed and i got impatient and sad because i trusted in alex words. some time later i had to buy another case and couldn't stop the order process at thorzone. after almost 12 months a package finally arrived. it's lying around here now. not in the office but in the basement. with defective parts, whether due to the delivery or bad quality assurance.
and people laugh at me again and say: you are an idiot. so much money for something that is never seen and that doesn't even work. we told you so.
so i try to sell it.
you can't sell it because people are smarter than me and say: never would i spend $600 on a computer case, i'll give you $150 because i still have to tinker with it.
so i sit here with 450€ loss and alex writes everything will be better.
so should i trust alex again? because he says so?

what would you do? Alexander Baranov, founder of thorzone, a swedish computer case company who said it will become much better....again.

If you don't want it sell it on Ebay, there's like one MJOLNIR a month there and somebody WILL get yours at no loss or even profit.

Again, you don't need to trust me and you may think it's impossible for us to get better, but we will do it anyways. Riser, Booster Cell fan header and magnets are pretty much the ONLY issues in this batch and all except the riser are an easy fix and you'll never have to think about it again, it's a shame it occurred but not the end of the world like some make it out to be. Even the riser is running on 4.0 on most builds including ours, and those that are affected can easily switch to 3.0 to solve the issue. The only people complaining are all pretty much in the past 2 pages of this thread, it's not a systemic thing. Nevertheless, we will improve to the point where even those people don't have to complain.

It's not an impossible task to improve, which is a lot cooler than running away without proving you can do better. You can probably make a list of things you'd wish had been better, like:
- A lot shorter delivery times
- More QC
- Better support
- Better policies

Do the above really sound like impossible things to improve? They most definitely are not. However, improving those requires doing everything better from the ground up, which is what I should have done instead of rushingly pursuing new batches. So again, after this batch they are my main goal to achieve. I'm not sure people want to hear me tell a long story of how I handled each of those points thus far and how I think they should be handled instead, but yeah I don't mind saying.

 

[runsamok]

If you experience problems running PCIe 4.0 on the riser, you can switch it to 3.0 in BIOS with negligible performance loss. I’ve heard some think this is somehow worse than a Gen 3 riser, but that is categorically wrong. A Gen 3 wouldn’t even boot a 4.0 device.

Hey Alex. I paid for a 4.0 riser. I got a riser that only functions in 3.0, which means you lied & sold me a faulty product. I don't want to wait 400 days, again, for you to fix your mistakes, again, so I've taken care of it myself. I shouldn't have had to do your job for you, but due to incompetency on your part & a reluctance to just settle for the mediocre after spending $5K on a computer I've had to step up.

2. Booster Cell fan header
- While this issue is easily fixed, just snap off the plastic guard, it is saddening because this supplier has manufactured our electronics without any issues for the past years. Other than the wrong header the electronics are beautiful. I don’t believe the supplier had bad intentions, the connectors are super similar and it’s not like one is cheaper than the other. Again, luckily it’s an easy fix.\

Another issue caused by incompetence & a lack of attention to detail, making your customers do your job for you & fix your mistakes. Again.

4. Magnets falling off
- This is extremely irritating issue, because we doubled the number of magnets but didn’t improve our gluing skills. I should have insisted the factory show me how they glue them, because when I do it myself it’s permanent. In any case, once you glue them back with Loctite (I can’t believe this issue still persists since Kickstarter) they will never fall off again and your MJOLNIR will have a LOT tougher panels than any previous iteration. On a positive note it seems we fixed the gluing of the corner guards, not heard anyone say they have fallen off in the latest batch.

Your solution for the magnets falling off was "more magnets" & not a change in the mounting or machining. The cheapest & least effective option. But that's OK Thor-Zone customers, you can just fix your premium case yourself! Such design, much quality! Just glue it up yourself.

5. No manual for BORG
- We are working on the manual for BORG now. I wanted to get the BORGs shipped before Chinese new year, but that would mean once they arrive we would have not finished the manuals yet. I still stand by this decision, it’s better that you have the product first and the manual later then getting both after Chinese new year. Also, BORG is pretty easy to attach without a manual, so I though it would be better if people got them asap.

Surely you could have made the manual at some point in the 8 months of delay. And considering all I'm looking for is a goddamn PDF like what I got for my case & my Booster Cell. You're in Sweden, the cases are in China. Do they not have PDF software in Sweden? Don't worry Thor-Zone customers, once again, you can fix their shortcomings yourself! Easy peassy!

6. Wrong label on BORG package
- This is basically a non-issue, but it’s frustrating to me that it even happened (easily avoidable and a reason to never skip triple-checking your work). Once you take the product out of its package you’ll probably never see that package again.

It shows that while the case may have been imagined in Sweden, literally every part of it was actually designed, over-value-engineered & handled by the cheapest contractor you could find. The lack of care & attention to detail is endemic in every single one of your efforts & products. Chipped chemglass, poor packaging, crummy risers, fragile magnets, brittle corners, bare bones borgs, missing manuals, booster cells assembled incorrectly, the list just goes on & on & on. The only thing as long as the list of mistakes you've made on these projects is the list of excuses you expect all of us to swallow. This isn't your first rodeo anymore Alex. You appear to have learnt nothing from the Kickstarter batches in terms of customer service or business acumen.

Of course I wish none of these problems would have been in the new batch, and some of them could have been avoided (Booster Cell fan header, magnets, BORG label) if we investigated more, which we should have done. It makes me sad though that some people think I’m like some evil dude that goes around and lies to your face and tries to hide problems. There are a lot of things in the new batch that have been improved, like tighter panels gaps, better corner guards, double panel hold (if all magnets are there), etc. But everyone instead overemphasizes the issues (most of which are easily solved), I understand why this happens though…super expensive case and you expect everything to be perfect (which I would expect as well).

You're not evil Alex, you're just not cut out for this. Incompetence, not malice. You make excuses instead of trying to find resolutions. You shift blame to everyone except yourself. Go back to whatever you were doing before you started down this path & stop disappointing customers after failing to live up to the expectations you've set for everyone.

Last but not least, I have never stated that we make the cases in Sweden, never. We’ve looked into Swedish factories in the past but they don’t have the capabilities to produce precision extrusions at lower quantity (say below 10.000 units). Also, the anodizing was subpar and very limited vs our factory in China. I have said they are designed in Sweden and made in China. You can’t find me saying anything else, period.

If you want the credit for the design, you have to take the blame for the execution & the execution of the cases has never been what you've made it out to be.

I think you had the best of intentions with the project, but your arrogance mixed with incompetence has soured the whole thing.

 

[AlexTzone]

Your biggest problem is the worst communication. It's too late to fix it right away, but in the next batch? There is a saying "a stitch in time saves nine."
People evaluate impressions by giving more weight to negative information than to other positive information. I'm fairly certain that the negative experiences of the 5 percent of people you ignore and your money-oriented attitude will hold your business back. I'm done, so long

Yes I completely agree, it's one of the main points that we will address going forward (not just slightly improve, but redo from the ground up), together with delivery times, QC, etc. Like you said, it can't be done instantly, that will only lead to "half-fixing" something. That's why I want all batches and replacement parts to be shipped first, then take the time needed to redo everything.

Also, yes our attitude has been way too money-oriented and I hate it. It's all my fault of course, when you're a normal young inexperienced guy that potentially owes millions of usd to factories or customers (in terms of undelivered goods), it's easy to get defensive and veeeery money oriented in order to avoid your worst fear (being millions in debt to the factories or customers and ruining your whole life and the life of people closest to you). However, this is short-term thinking. Today I have a realistic perception how much things costs, what the expected losses are, % defects and their costs, etc. It's highly unrealistic that I can get into big debt like I feared in the beginning, so the money-oriented attitude can be eliminated...it must be...because long-term thinking is about the customer.

So yes, we will do better and you are absolutely right, but first I will finish sending yours and a lot of other people's orders and replacement parts.

 

[runsamok]

Never, I know what has to be done in order to improve and that's exactly what I intend to do after finishing shipping the current batch. This is the last time I rush out a product, addon, etc, without carefully considering each aspect.

It took you 402 days to get me a faulty riser & a footless, manual-less, incorrectly-labeled BORG. If that's "rushing" I don't want to see what taking your time looks like.

Again, you don't need to trust me and you may think it's impossible for us to get better, but we will do it anyways. Riser, Booster Cell fan header and magnets are pretty much the ONLY issues in this batch and all except the riser are an easy fix and you'll never have to think about it again, it's a shame it occurred but not the end of the world like some make it out to be. Even the riser is running on 4.0 on most builds including ours, and those that are affected can easily switch to 3.0 to solve the issue. The only people complaining are all pretty much in the past 2 pages of this thread, it's not a systemic thing. Nevertheless, we will improve to the point where even those people don't have to complain.

You promised me a 4.0 riser with my Kickstarter case, then made me buy another one which won't run in 4.0 in my system & your "solution" is to just eat the loss & let you scam me in silence? I think not.

Zero humility, zero apologies, zero service. Just excuses & shifting blame.

You talk like you're Elon Musk at SpaceX or Tesla, but run your business like you're Elon at Twitter.

 

[PoneG]

*goes a few pages back* people complaining
*goes 100 pages back* people complaining
Trustpilot - people complaining
Reddit - people complaining
Even on youtube
Yes nobodys complaining but me

The only people complaining are all pretty much in the past 2 pages of this thread, it's not a systemic thing.

 

[runsamok]

This is supposed to be your solution or only a bad joke?
"If you experience problems running PCIe 4.0 on the riser, you can switch it to 3.0 in BIOS with negligible performance loss. I’ve heard some think this is somehow worse than a Gen 3 riser, but that is categorically wrong. A Gen 3 wouldn’t even boot a 4.0 device."

No see, Alex didn't intend to scam us, so that makes the scamming OK, because it just sorta happened, like the weather. Can't blame him when he had the best of intentions! He tried really hard to do what he said he would do, but it was just not in the cards, for some unknown, unsolvable, unfixable reason. Turns out we weren't buying a product, or kickstarting a business, we were paying for Alex's best intentions, not actual results!

/s

 

[AlexTzone]

Hey Alex. I paid for a 4.0 riser. I got a riser that only functions in 3.0, which means you lied & sold me a faulty product. I don't want to wait 400 days again for you to fix your mistakes again, so I've taken care of it myself. I shouldn't have had to do your job for you, but due to incompetency on your part & a reluctance to just settle for the mediocre after spending $5K on a computer I've had to step up.

Another issue caused by incompetence & a lack of attention to detail, making your customers do your job for you & fix your mistakes. Again.

Your solution for the magnets falling off was "more magnets" & not a change in the mounting or machining. The cheapest & least effective option. But that's OK Thor-Zone customers, you can just fix your premium case yourself! Such design, much quality! Just glue it up yourself.

Surely you could have made the manual at some point in the 8 months of delay. And considering all I'm looking for is a goddamn PDF like what I got for my case & my Booster Cell. You're in Sweden, the cases are in China. Do they not have PDF software in Sweden? Don't worry Thor-Zone customers, once again, you can fix their shortcomings yourself! Easy peassy!

It shows that while the case may have been imagined in Sweden, literally every part of it was actually designed, over-value-engineered & handled by the cheapest contractor you could find. The lack of care & attention to detail is endemic in every single one of your efforts & products. Chipped chemglass, poor packaging, crummy risers, fragile magnets, brittle corners, bare bones borgs, missing manuals, booster cells assembled incorrectly, the list just goes on & on & on. The only thing as long as the list of mistakes you've made on these projects is the list of excuses you expect all of us to swallow. This isn't your first rodeo anymore Alex. You appear to have learnt nothing from the Kickstarter batches in terms of customer service or business acumen.

You're not evil Alex, you're just not cut out for this. Incompetence, not malice. You make excuses instead of trying to find resolutions. You shift blame to everyone except yourself. Go back to whatever you were doing before you started down this path & stop disappointing customers after failing to live up to the expectations you've set for everyone.

If you want the credit for the design, you have to take the blame for the execution & the execution of the cases has never been what you've made it out to be.

I think you had the best of intentions with the project, but your arrogance mixed with incompetence has soured the whole thing.

I agree on lot of your points, but frankly "cheapest contractor" is dead wrong, it's the most expensive factory we've ever had quotes from but we went to them because their machining/anodizing was superior to any other factory we sampled. Glass panels from Kickstarter cost exactly as much as the new glass panels, they are in no way cheaper, only different composition.

Also I don't care if you think I'm not cut out for this, let see you try to design and deliver thousands of products worldwide, products that the vast majority (all but 5%) love. Given how incompetent you think I am, you'll probably eclipse Steve Jobs himself if you give it even 1% of your effort. How exactly do you think one gets better at this, through experience, experience which I now have an will use to improve. Why are you always so negative? I mean, you obviously like your MJOLNIR as you still use it and have said that it's one of the coolest pieces of teach on your desk. But if one reads what you say here it's pretty much all belittling and telling me how much I suck at everything that I do. The worst part is that you can probably help us get better when we start to redo things, but how can I listen to a person that constantly puts you down?

Anyways, for my own health I must stop reading your posts, it brings out the worst in me, I've been whining like a child in the last 5 posts. Please don't buy anything from us again and please sell your MJOLNIR to someone who can appreciate it. Or helps us improve once this batch is finished, but not with constant negativity.

 

[runsamok]

I agree on lot of your points, but frankly "cheapest contractor" is dead wrong, it's the most expensive factory we've ever had quotes from but we went to them because their machining/anodizing was superior to any other factory we sampled. Glass panels from Kickstarter cost exactly as much as the new glass panels, they are in no way cheaper, only different composition.

Oh, so I got worse stuff & you didn't even benefit from it financially? That makes it even better.

Also I don't care if you think I'm not cut out for this, let see you try to design and deliver thousands of products worldwide, products that the vast majority (all but 5%) love. Given how incompetent you think I am, you'll probably eclipse Steve Jobs himself if you give it even 1% of your effort.

Oh please. We're not talking about my supply chain skills here, because I'm not the one who took thousands of customers' money & set expectations that were not reachable & then acted offended or personally hurt because those expectations & obligations weren't successfully met.

How exactly do you think one gets better at this, through experience, experience which I now have an will use to improve. Why are you always so negative? I mean, you obviously like your MJOLNIR as you still use it and have said that it's one of the coolest pieces of teach on your desk. But if one reads what you say here it's pretty much all belittling and telling me how much I suck at everything that I do. The worst part is that you can probably help us get better when we start to redo things, but how can I listen to a person that constantly puts you down?

I don't want you to "get better" after getting my riser & BORG. You don't deserve to succeed at this point. As a Kickstarter backer, this was your second & last chance to do right by your customer & you dropped the ball so hard a crater is left. Why would I want to try a third time to get what I was promised & paid for by a company that has shown no ability to perform in the past nor any humility or growth since? I gambled & lost on the BORG/riser, not gonna put my faith in you again. This is all on you, Alex.

Anyways, for my own health I must stop reading your posts, it brings out the worst in me, I've been whining like a child in the last 5 posts. Please don't buy anything from us again and please sell your MJOLNIR to someone who can appreciate it. Or helps us improve once this batch is finished, but not with constant negativity.

I'm sorry that pointing out your ongoing challenges & failures makes you feel sad. Imagine how people who waited years for their cases only to get less than they expected & your arrogant excuses & smugness for their patience feel.

 

[PoneG]

I think we are at the point of no movement. So it may be better to calm down and stop writing a few hours.

We learned that we will not get help from the company with this last production circle until its fully shipped. Whats a shame but you cant change things here.

In the end the customer is left alone as he gave them "millions of dollars" in expectation of a premium product. Whatever one got back from them is not yet worth the price tag. And please please stop talking about the anodizing. Cant hear it anymore. Its just one step of many.

Kind regards

The sad and let alone customer PoneG

 

[runsamok]

Total cost of riser WITH shipping to Canada was $44EUR(64$CAD) then it cost 21.80$CAD for duties because of DHL so this riser effectively costed 80$ shipped.

My actual 4.0 riser came to $78CAD shipped from AliExpress & I won't have to wait 402 days for it this time. Turns out the "cheaper" Thor Zone riser wasn't cheaper at all.

 

[beerbuddha]

My actual 4.0 riser came to $78CAD shipped from AliExpress & I won't have to wait 402 days for it this time. Turns out the "cheaper" Thor Zone riser wasn't cheaper at all.

which one from aliexpress did you get?

 

[beerbuddha]

If you experience problems running PCIe 4.0 on the riser, you can switch it to 3.0 in BIOS with negligible performance loss. I’ve heard some think this is somehow worse than a Gen 3 riser, but that is categorically wrong. A Gen 3 wouldn’t even boot a 4.0 device.

Actually this is not true.
I have a RTX 3060 with the first batch Mjolnir and the computer won't POST unless I downgrade the riser and force. So the whole point of the riser extra cost is to avoid this. We (the community that believe in this product) have bought new parts from 2020-2022, so this cannot be the case of "aging" parts.

If it was expensive then you should have proposed it - at this point we rather buy once and get no issue than to install and have to rebuy again

 

[beerbuddha]

Even the riser is running on 4.0 on most builds including ours, and those that are affected can easily switch to 3.0 to solve the issue.

That is NOT a solution - if you PAY for 4.0 riser you are not suppose to dumb it down to a 3.0 riser which is what the case is already on. Do not see how it sound? If we all wanted a 3.0 riser we would not bought a 4.0 riser.