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

[AlexTzone]

Hey guys,

Here's a mini-update - improved Glass Panels. We're doing tolerance optimization for the enclosure and decided to make the Glass Panels a bit stronger, 10mm mounting pins instead of 5mm. We also removed the unnecessary (and weak) frame around the glass panels. Once again this improvement was suggested by this community, thank you very much

Cheers,
Alex

 

[Solo]

I hope the Mjolnir becomes a success, and I'm actually baffled by the lack of traffic in this thread. It's a savage looking design.

 

[AlexTzone]

I hope the Mjolnir becomes a success, and I'm actually baffled by the lack of traffic in this thread. It's a savage looking design.

Thanks a lot, we're hope so too I really can't complain, this amount of traffic has really helped us develop the case quite a bit further than the original version. Perhaps the traffic will increase once we construct a prototype

Thanks a lot for the appreciation once again!

Cheers,
Alex

 

[FoskcoRS5]

Thanks a lot, we're hope so too I really can't complain, this amount of traffic has really helped us develop the case quite a bit further than the original version. Perhaps the traffic will increase once we construct a prototype

Thanks a lot for the appreciation once again!

Cheers,
Alex

I hope so. I do enjoy the social media interactions and you guys have been very responsive.

I'm baffled as well by the lack of traffic on the forum, the chassis looks great.

Having a prototype will help. There are a ton of people on board with the Ghost S1 and in my opinion it looks hideous.

 

[Necere]

I have to admit to writing off this project as unrealistic. There are some significant design issues that to me are evidence of a lack of proper research and knowledge necessary to execute a successful project, some of which I brought up earlier in the thread. I think if/when there's a real prototype built and tested, the problems will become much more clear, and large parts of the design may have to be rethought. This project may eventually evolve into something more realistic and practical, but for now I remain skeptical.

 

[AlexTzone]

I hope so. I do enjoy the social media interactions and you guys have been very responsive.

I'm baffled as well by the lack of traffic on the forum, the chassis looks great.

Having a prototype will help. There are a ton of people on board with the Ghost S1 and in my opinion it looks hideous.

Yeah it's really nice to interact about all updates/features, and social media is a really interactive platform. Really helps with learning what people want to see in our case, wonderful advice, etc Regarding the prototype, just about finishing up tolerance optimization for the whole case (about 95% done) so it looks like we can start making one towards the end of the month.

I have to admit to writing off this project as unrealistic. There are some significant design issues that to me are evidence of a lack of proper research and knowledge necessary to execute a successful project, some of which I brought up earlier in the thread. I think if/when there's a real prototype built and tested, the problems will become much more clear, and large parts of the design may have to be rethought. This project may eventually evolve into something more realistic and practical, but for now I remain skeptical.

Please share your thoughts, which features [more specifically] are unrealistic? (note that CPU cooler height has been adjusted towards what you mentioned earlier regarding regarding proper measuring). And yes, we don't know everything right of the bat, I posted the project here to listen and learn

Best,
Alex

 

[dumplinknet]

I have to admit to writing off this project as unrealistic. There are some significant design issues that to me are evidence of a lack of proper research and knowledge necessary to execute a successful project, some of which I brought up earlier in the thread. I think if/when there's a real prototype built and tested, the problems will become much more clear, and large parts of the design may have to be rethought. This project may eventually evolve into something more realistic and practical, but for now I remain skeptical.

Can you elaborate and specify details? I'm interested in this case, but my knowledge in building cases is abysmal.
As far as I can tell, the renders look great. This case has a nice design .

 

[theGryphon]

Alex,
It's clear from the posts here that there are two main concerns with this case design, and rightfully so:

1) Cooling performance. Airflow through the case does not seem to be thought-through. The unibody outer-shell with very little perforations is to blame here. With high wattage components that you claim to support in such a small volume, cooling performance is the first thing a potential (rational) customer will be looking at and such a crucial consideration cannot be an afterthought. You really need to build a prototype, even a cursory one, to properly test for cooling performance so you can make proper adjustments and eventually convince everyone that the case provides adequate cooling.

2) Structural rigidity. You have a rather unconventional take on the structural design, and there are sound concerns. Again, you need to build a (sufficiently detailed) prototype to see for yourself and demonstrate others that these concerns are addressed (or, make changes if they're confirmed).


tl;dr, Build prototypes ASAP to validate rather unconventional design choices, otherwise you won't be able to rally people.

 

[AlexTzone]

Alex,
It's clear from the posts here that there are two main concerns with this case design, and rightfully so:

1) Cooling performance. Airflow through the case does not seem to be thought-through. The unibody outer-shell with very little perforations is to blame here. With high wattage components that you claim to support in such a small volume, cooling performance is the first thing a potential (rational) customer will be looking at and such a crucial consideration cannot be an afterthought. You really need to build a prototype, even a cursory one, to properly test for cooling performance so you can make proper adjustments and eventually convince everyone that the case provides adequate cooling.

2) Structural rigidity. You have a rather unconventional take on the structural design, and there are sound concerns. Again, you need to build a (sufficiently detailed) prototype to see for yourself and demonstrate others that these concerns are addressed (or, make changes if they're confirmed).


tl;dr, Build prototypes ASAP to validate rather unconventional design choices, otherwise you won't be able to rally people.

That is the plan, we’ll build a prototype to test those things. As mentioned earlier, there will be no Kickstarter until a prototype is made and people (majority) are satisfied

Now, we’re aren’t doing the prototype as ASAP as some other people have done for their projects. The reason for this is that case design will be very flexible after we’re finished with tolerance optimization (everything is interlinked and a change to 1 dimension re-optimizes hundreds of dependable dimensions in mere seconds). Changing airflow openings for example (their width) can be made very quickly and the case will be production ready straight away (instead of redoing the optimization process).

Regarding rigidity of the internal structure -> We’ll cast it as a unibody structure using the same method as for the enclosure. This is of course if there are significant issues with the original internal structure.

Also, the aim is to create a prototype on par with the final product. This takes significantly more time of course, but it will be a much better evaluation opportunity for the community

Best,
Alex

 

[theGryphon]

Sounds great! Keep it up!

 

[AlexTzone]

Sounds great! Keep it up!

Thank you, we’ll do And Thanks a lot for the advice.

Btw, I added a bit more depth and content to my reply (some insights as to what we’re doing right now)

 

[MrBreakfst]

Just curious, why are you casting the internal structures, when traditional bending and punching would suffice?

 

[AlexTzone]

Just curious, why are you casting the internal structures, when traditional bending and punching would suffice?

We'll cast it as a single solid body structure (excluding PSU, RGB, AIO and SSD frames) if the original structure proves to be to weak

 

[Necere]

Please share your thoughts, which features [more specifically] are unrealistic? (note that CPU cooler height has been adjusted towards what you mentioned earlier regarding regarding proper measuring). And yes, we don't know everything right of the bat, I posted the project here to listen and learn

I think ventilation is still an issue. Look how much of the PSU fan is still obstructed by the current vent cutout design, for example:

You'll also need to open up the top more, IMO.


My other main reservation is the investment casting production method. Admittedly, I haven't done a ton of research on it, but it sounds like it's very labor intensive, and therefore expensive. If this turns into a $400+ case, people will REALLY have to be in live with its looks, because there's not much else that sets it apart from the likes of the Dan cases or Ghost (also considering it's unlikely to perform any better).

 

[dlal1520]

When do you guys think you'll be able to make a prototype by? It seems many, including myself, have some reservations on the case's performance as it is now. I feel the best course of action would be to create a pretty close prototype to the design and preform some tests.

 

[AlexTzone]

I think ventilation is still an issue. Look how much of the PSU fan is still obstructed by the current vent cutout design, for example:

You'll also need to open up the top more, IMO.


My other main reservation is the investment casting production method. Admittedly, I haven't done a ton of research on it, but it sounds like it's very labor intensive, and therefore expensive. If this turns into a $400+ case, people will REALLY have to be in live with its looks, because there's not much else that sets it apart from the likes of the Dan cases or Ghost (also considering it's unlikely to perform any better).

Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback!

Glass panel cutouts on the sides & top can definitely be made bigger if it significantly improves temps, this will be pretty easy to do. Still, there is a 7mm gap between the PSU fan and the cutouts. Nevertheless great point, we'll evaluate this once the prototype is finalized.

Yes investment casting is labor intensive, this is taken into account given our relatively high price (299USD for the standard edition and 349USD for the RGB edition).

When do you guys think you'll be able to make a prototype by? It seems many, including myself, have some reservations on the case's performance as it is now. I feel the best course of action would be to create a pretty close prototype to the design and preform some tests.

We have a couple of small things left to tolerance optimize before we can do that (I'd say it will take 1 more week at the maximum):
- C13 socket
- AIO shield
- Power button

All in all we've completed 95% of the whole tolerance optimization process, once we're 100% done (after the 3 things listed above) we'll start making the prototype. The aim is to create a prototype that is on par with the final product, i.e same materials, same tolerances, same quality, etc.

Prototype will start to take form at the end of this month (or beginning of June). Would love to start next week but our whole team, including me, have all our university exams then

 

[greyhound]

I suggest you to commission many different styles for your side pannels as it will make easier adjust the approach on air intake

 

[AlexTzone]

I suggest you to commission many different styles for your side pannels as it will make easier adjust the approach on air intake

Great idea!

 

[dlal1520]

Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback!

Glass panel cutouts on the sides & top can definitely be made bigger if it significantly improves temps, this will be pretty easy to do. Still, there is a 7mm gap between the PSU fan and the cutouts. Nevertheless great point, we'll evaluate this once the prototype is finalized.

Yes investment casting is labor intensive, this is taken into account given our relatively high price (299USD for the standard edition and 349USD for the RGB edition).



We have a couple of small things left to tolerance optimize before we can do that (I'd say it will take 1 more week at the maximum):
- C13 socket
- AIO shield
- Power button

All in all we've completed 95% of the whole tolerance optimization process, once we're 100% done (after the 3 things listed above) we'll start making the prototype. The aim is to create a prototype that is on par with the final product, i.e same materials, same tolerances, same quality, etc.

Prototype will start to take form at the end of this month (or beginning of June). Would love to start next week but our whole team, including me, have all our university exams then

Sounds good! Im sure everyone here is looking forward to the thermal results of the prototype. As well as the fact that a physical prototype will hopefully bring more attention to the project itself.

When you are at the testing stage I think it would be helpful to the community to try different coolers (aio and air) with a intel 8700k/ ryzen 2700x. As well as a open air and blower style gpus and report these results under idle and load. The team over at loque did something very similar with their ghost s1 and it was really enlightening.

Also as someone who just finished their University exams, I feel the pain.

Best of luck to all

 

[AlexTzone]

Hey guys,

Just completed tolerance optimizing the model! SHO HO VAD SKÖNT!! (= Swedish expression for extreme joy). We’ll post some specs tomorrow (weight, number of parts, etc) and start producing the prototype at the beginning of next month

Best,
Alex