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

[AlexTzone]

There are a good things with videos like this as well, because it shows what sort of problems a can person run into when building without pre-planning everything. Turns out, adding a few extra long screws and making the center front column flippable would've let him stick to his original plan. Also, it’s good to know what can happen to the riser when putting on the shell perhaps a bit too hastily (we added the internal chamfer to production units a few weeks back but now it really feels like a good decision seeing how a straight edge can be quite sharp). All in all, I think he’ll be happy with all the changes he sees on the production models in May

 

[AlexTzone]

Found a way to add a 4th slot to the back panel, see point (8).

This way the shift panel is always secured in 4-points to the back panel, looks better and is a tiny bit more secure.

 

[kuj0]

His problem is that he never reads the manuals or reviewers guides, so he always does the dumbest things as a result. I still watch his stuff, but a lot of these youtubers are surprisingly incompetent. At least Alex is competent enough to focus on the constructive criticism and turn a blind eye to their dumbassery

One of the reasons that I really like Alex and Thorzone. Responding to feedback and being agile with the design of this case builds trust and definitely makes me feel more confident in dropping the kind of cash this case costs.

 

[AlexTzone]

This time I'm gonna be the first to post hoho! NANOQ R in Graphite (air-cooled) by Devyn:

 

[Notional]

This time I'm gonna be the first to post hoho! NANOQ R in Graphite (air-cooled) by Devyn:

Damn that blue grey looks so good. Idk. what to choose anymore. I'm still leaning towards moonstone, because it fits the black front better.

I think you already said you would add more sCrews?

 

[AlexTzone]

Damn that blue grey looks so good. Idk. what to choose anymore. I'm still leaning towards moonstone, because it fits the black front better.

I think you already said you would add more sCrews?

Oh yes, like I said, 8 additional sCrews!

It's a difficult color to wrap your head around. In highlights the blue tint is prominent like in Devyns video, when it's darker (example, an office without direct sunlight during the afternoon) it looks dark gray. On the website, I tried to balance it between both, but...it's a tricky one haha.

 

[rfarmer]

This time I'm gonna be the first to post hoho! NANOQ R in Graphite (air-cooled) by Devyn:

Damn beat me to it. Amazing the difference between someone used to building in SFF case and someone who isn't. I guess Jay did find many issues that inexperienced builders might run into.

 

[Notional]

Very nerdy question for a potential mini mod. When installing the rubber feet, they stick out on the inside of the case with a sort of lip. I can see the front has a very tiny cutout for these lips to pass under when sliding out the shell. I wonder what is the clearance here? 1mm, 2mm?

 

[AlexTzone]

Very nerdy question for a potential mini mod. When installing the rubber feet, they stick out on the inside of the case with a sort of lip. I can see the front has a very tiny cutout for these lips to pass under when sliding out the shell. I wonder what is the clearance here? 1mm, 2mm?

Actually, the don't stick out on the inside of the shell, those front cutouts are actually for the dust filters (so they can pass the front panel without snagging on it)

 

[AlexTzone]

Damn beat me to it. Amazing the difference between someone used to building in SFF case and someone who isn't. I guess Jay did find many issues that inexperienced builders might run into.

Haha coincidentally opened YT at the very moment Devyn uploaded. I think if Jay wanted he could have done his build in no time, especially if he knew there was a certain way the cables were made and accepted to have the NANOQ branding upside down to get the rad on top. I mean, just the amount of things he gets sent his way is mind-blowing, I kind of understand he has no time to be super patient with a build. But totally agree, I like seeing those issues as well, because some of our customers probably have never built a PC before and now we're a bit more prepared for how to guide them. Also, the chamfer we added on the internal edge should prevent the riser chop to a substantial degree (IMO the biggest issue in Jays build).

 

[AlexTzone]

Had a talk with our fasteners supplier regarding magnetic screws. Apparently, they are cheaper than the stainless steel screws we use…but it seems like something everybody wants so we’re making a switch. The material used is Carbon Steel and is fine with regards to rust in the use case we have (I.e the cases are not sitting out in the rain).

Again, like I told @keepcoding , I’m terrible at cost saving anyways, so now we can spend the surplus on having thread lock on all screws instead. So, magnetic screws with thread lock, should be good for building and handling vibrations during travel

 

[rfarmer]

Had to search YouTube to get the next review up first @AlexTzone. He did mention the non magnetic screws which I am glad to see you just fixed.

 

[AlexTzone]

Had to search YouTube to get the next review up first @AlexTzone. He did mention the non magnetic screws which I am glad to see you just fixed.

Thanks mate! Ouch the riser again, I think we’ll need to put a dedicated step in the user manual for how to put the shell back on. Even with the added chamfer one still needs to be careful, this guy here does it perfectly: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3d_aFKPGa1/?igsh=dmF3aHR1M2x6cXIx

 

[turboleak]

God morgon, I’ll just post my email to Jay, covers it all:

“Hi Jay, watched your last video and happy to say that most of your struggles have been dealt with already. I’ll address your new points and include a pdf of all fixes (not just the ones mentioned below).

1. Riser snag
- We’ve added a chamfer along a pesky internal edge of the shell, this should remove most of the potential “riser chop” in case somebody quickly puts the shell on. We’ll also put a clear note in the user manual, guiding the user to put the shell on slowly and carefully.

View attachment 3214

2. Handles stability
- When used to stand the case up (not just carry it), it’s important that it’s placed on a hard surface and that it’s sitting on the 4 included rubber rings. These rings help disperse the weight evenly between themselves, as the Handles in themselves aren’t perfectly flat which creates a lot of instability.

3. Cables
- The cables we tailor-fit with BespokeBaka were intended for triple fan cards without fans on the back. However, this opened our eyes, as many people with NVIDIA FE cards will want to do your orientation on the PSU, so I’m going to talk to Joe if he can make variants for that PSU orientation.

4. Spine shift
- Relocated / added a couple of threaded holes on the front panel. Now the spine can be in absolutely any position between 4- and 2-slot GPUs. Good to note, there’s a 4th screw on the shifting back panel that doesn’t have a slot (instead it has a dedicated screw hole with 1-slot spacing); this screw isn’t necessary, 3 are more than enough, but we added in a 4th one for symmetry. Will evaluate again if we can put a slot there, but if we could it would have likely been added (best to double check though).

5. Empty looking front
- There’s a front mesh included with every case (you should have one as well), which creates more contrast and removes the industrial vibe. Still lets through plenty of air and works great with fans.

6. Flippable front column
- If you want the rad to be on top, now it’s possible to flip the front bar with the branding as well (so it’s not upside down).

7. Fan screws
- We’ve included 8 additional long countersunk sCrews (and washers), which lets the user either mount standalone fans to the radiator / fan rail, or mount the radiator above the fans like you wanted to do. All of the long screws will be slightly longer as well.

Bonus point - flathead screws
- I’m talking specifically about the screws that fasten the Handles. 2 reasons why they are flatheads: (1) this screw is flathead by its standard (DIN 920) and we would like to use standard screws in case a user wants to get new ones years in the future for some reason, (2) as you have noted you kind of come in at an angle when removing them, so our thinking is that flathead is less likely to get damaged than hex in this scenario. However, we are looking into switching all screws over to hex (even the Philips ones) and including a hex tool, so we may be able to make these Handles screws hex as well since the tool doesn’t need to come in at an angle.

All fixes: https://thor-zone.com/manuals/THORZONE-NANOQ-Updates.pdf

Production begins in 5 days so we’ve been going back and forth over the cases and addressing every issue we can find. Can’t wait to send you the updated on in May! ”

If you are going to include an hex tool I challenge you to the following:
That the tool bit is made of delrin or some other material that is softer than the screw surface so that when tooling the scew doesnt get marred.

I hate when screwing a beautifuly perfect screw and then looking at it and noticing that it's perfectlion has been taken away by the tooling, be it that the screw got a bit marred or the surface treatment was removed and now you see the metal underneath or whatever. I want perfect screws, the tool I can replace if it gets damaged.

this to say that I searched the hell out of the internet and never found a bit set that is made of something softer than the screws, because they are made to last irrespective of what happens to the screws. shame.

actually, if you want to make some extra money, why not make a Thor Zone bit set made of delrin for the case builder connoseur? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be the only one buying it.

 

[turboleak]

What is this?!?!?!?



I almost spit the coffee I was sipping when I saw this! Are those screws the correct ones for that place? they don't sit flush! man that one got my skin all flared up red from allergy.

 

[turboleak]

so just saw the shortcircuit dude video and indeed, it's not easy to design a FOOL proof case. The amount of stupid things some people are capable of doing, the lack of logical reasoning sometimes is astonishing.

But I guess fools are part of the market for this case and so, yeah, I guess something must be done about it. I would advice a service where you offer a pre-built machine, because we are talking about catering to fools, add also the posibility of choosing intel cpu's. So, select cpu manufacturer, then offer a single motherboard and allow the user to select the cpu, ram size, ssd size and gpu chip ( allow not just nvidia but also amd or even intel to the possibilities here because again, we are catering fools ).
That would take care of those elements of the human race that lack basic reasoning to be able to take on such a daunting task.

btw I'm kind of being sarcastic with a bit of my dark humor, so no ofense to anyone.

 

[AlexTzone]

What is this?!?!?!?



I almost spit the coffee I was sipping when I saw this! Are those screws the correct ones for that place? they don't sit flush! man that one got my skin all flared up red from allergy.

The bars are round and the screws have a flat top, so they will not sit perfectly flush because there’s isn’t a flush surface there

 

[turboleak]

The bars are round and the screws have a flat top, so they will not sit perfectly flush because there’s isn’t a flush surface there

View attachment 3243

I see, but they do look ugly like that.

 

[steelfractal]

@AlexTzone

 

[AlexTzone]

@AlexTzone

How did you know?? Thank you very much!!