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

[ebc92]

Yeah true, we'll get it done (getting it done as we speak actually ). Thank you very much, always nice to hear that after so many many hours working on something. Would you say that the new glass panel design is a deal-breaker for you, or is it a minor issue?

That's awesome news!

Im unsure which is the 'new' one. Personally i'm loving the logo design, but not a huge fan of the text version.

Regarding AIO

• Also, we'll contact AIO manufacturers and encourage them about the rise of SFF Case market (perhaps to no avail, but better than doing nothing). I certainly feel like the demand for SFF cases is increasing, this should lead to more 92mm AIOs if this indeed is the case.

Great initiative! I think everyone on here agrees that with the past years efficiency improvements in gpu and cpu architectures, the market for SFF is indeed on the rise.

 

[dlal1520]

Regarding AIO

• 30mm width has to be added to the case in order to fit a 120 mm AIO / case fan in there. If all goes well with MJOLNIR I campaign, we'll do that for MJOLNIR I+. Also, we'll contact AIO manufacturers and encourage them about the rise of SFF Case market (perhaps to no avail, but better than doing nothing). I certainly feel like the demand for SFF cases is increasing, this should lead to more 92mm AIOs if this indeed is the case.

Regarding GPU

• Great point, looking at our 3D model we can lower the GPU 10 mm. Would that suffice?

Cheers,
Alex

Sounds good! Around when would a mjlorn 1+ be in the works if all goes well? Would you think about setting up 2 for the market and allow us to decide which we want. Cause Id most likely got for the 120mm aio support (but I am biased towards the new Kraken coolers from nzxt). Especially since they'd look beautiful in your case. And 10mm should allow for some more gpu support; as long as you maximize hardware support in the case, the better. Have you guys thought about tinting the glass so the copper parts of the pcie extension is hidden?

 

[AlexTzone]

Sounds good! Around when would a mjlorn 1+ be in the works if all goes well? Would you think about setting up 2 for the market and allow us to decide which we want. Cause Id most likely got for the 120mm aio support (but I am biased towards the new Kraken coolers from nzxt). Especially since they'd look beautiful in your case. And 10mm should allow for some more gpu support; as long as you maximize hardware support in the case, the better. Have you guys thought about tinting the glass so the copper parts of the pcie extension is hidden?

We would first have to check the demand, if it is there I would estimate ~ 6-12 months (depending on if we only change the width or add more cool stuff). We will have to create new casting dies (which are very expensive), so a separate Kickstarter campaign is most probably needed to cover the costs

 

[dlal1520]

We would first have to check the demand, if it is there I would estimate ~ 6-12 months (depending on if we only change the width or add more cool stuff). We will have to create new casting dies (which are very expensive), so a separate Kickstarter campaign is most probably needed to cover the costs

Ah ok. Totally understandable. I'd suggest doing another poll to see which people prefer more (if you haven't already). I bring this up since the added space will help with both the ability to have higher end cpus, and give more space to manipulate custom cables. It also seems like the 92mm aio will barely tame higher tdp cpus like the 8700k/7700k (reported high 30s and low 40s at idle). So a larger aio will allow for the ability to have the best of all three worlds (temperatures, aesthetics, and hardware). With this change you guys could probably slice your self a nice bit of the sff market. I feel like these issues are very important to the high end sff enthusiasts who want to build powerful show-worthy builds.

With this in mind, I'm still very excited to see where this is still heading!

Keep up the great work,

Dhruv

 

[AlexTzone]

Ah ok. Totally understandable. I'd suggest doing another poll to see which people prefer more (if you haven't already). I bring this up since the added space will help with both the ability to have higher end cpus, and give more space to manipulate custom cables. It also seems like the 92mm aio will barely tame higher tdp cpus like the 8700k/7700k (reported high 30s and low 40s at idle). So a larger aio will allow for the ability to have the best of all three worlds (temperatures, aesthetics, and hardware). With this change you guys could probably slice your self a nice bit of the sff market. I feel like these issues are very important to the high end sff enthusiasts who want to build powerful show-worthy builds.

With this in mind, I'm still very excited to see where this is still heading!

Keep up the great work,

Dhruv

Great advice as always Dhruv. Current polls show that the majority are satisfied with the current cooling options BUT that doesn't mean that we wont do something for better cooling in the close future. We'll start working on it right after the release of MJOLNIR I.

 

[AlexTzone]

Hey guys! *small-update*

We have updated the website for the latest updates, check it out and please let us know if something is strange / unclear

NOTE: PLEASE CLEAR YOUR CACHE IF YOU HAVE VISITED OUR WEBSITE IN THE PAST 24 HOURS

Also, added new pics to the first post.

Other than that we have just completed one of the hardest parts of the tolerance analysis, the rest of the model should be relatively easy to adjust. Can't wait to send the CAD model for the first enclosure prototype, have eagerly waited to do that for the last 3 months...but it's always better to wait until the model is fully adjusted.

Best,
Alex

 

[dlal1520]

Hey guys! *small-update*

We have updated the website for the latest updates, check it out and please let us know if something is strange / unclear

NOTE: PLEASE CLEAR YOUR CACHE IF YOU HAVE VISITED OUR WEBSITE IN THE PAST 24 HOURS

Also, added new pics to the first post.

Other than that we have just completed one of the hardest parts of the tolerance analysis, the rest of the model should be relatively easy to adjust. Can't wait to send the CAD model for the first enclosure prototype, have eagerly waited to do that for the last 3 months...but it's always better to wait until the model is fully adjusted.

Best,
Alex

Nice updates on the website and looking forward to the cases release and future updates!

 

[Josh | NFC]

To @AlexTzone and the Mjolnir team.

Well I've been asked to apologize and delete this post by a few forum members whom I respect. My goal was to defend and protect the family here on SFFN, not pollute your thread.

I can't apologize, but I can compliment your artistic talent. I would hire your team in a second to work on my designs. I mean that sincerely, and I meant it before when I praised you for your talent.

I really super care about this forum and the people on it who contribute to it. I did learn a lesson here tonight.

 

[Philairflow]

To @AlexTzone and the Mjolnir team.

I have some harsh things to say, and I hope that you and our community can read them and understand that I seek to heal a wound rather than to open one--but it is going to be a painful process.

You credited your whole team, but make no mention of the man who designed the foundation of your chassis.

This is *just* yet another Dan clone. Let those words sink in.

All the nice updates you made, the quality you brag about, your pretty website, but your renders just represent a clone. I would be ashamed of myself if I claimed to have the "worlds most premium" case, list my whole team brag about their their college degrees, and ask for money on kickstarter but all I had was a series of nice renders based on stolen ideas.

I'm not saying you and your team doesn't have talent. Obviously you do. I'm not saying that you haven't made beautiful, meaningful updates to Dan's chassis. Again, you have. It's just a pity that you spent all this talent, time, and money to grab and claw at someone else's livelyhood--without even crediting them!!!!!

So here is a checklist for earning my respect and some of the good people on this forum:

• CREDIT your sources and honor those whose shoulders you stand on.
  
• Prove you can make this to the quality you brag about before grabbing at people's money. A drawing is not a mass produced product.
• Earn the titles and honors you award yourself.

From this post you might think I'm at emnity with you. I'm not. I want to see beautiful, amazing things from you and your team team. I believe in same things you say inspire you: quality, excellent design, beautiful craftsmanship, and most importantly, integrity. I would love to help you, support you, and defend you. I love peace, but peace is an active virtue. Yes, sometimes it means knowing when to be passive, but most other times it means stepping into the fire to set things right.

Please, be a part of this family. Don't use us.

Sincerely,

Josh

I absolutely understand the points you make. But as SFF grows isn't it hard to draw the lines? Like look at the popular ATX cases. They are petty much all the same.

But you are right. This one and also Ghost S1 are the DAN A4 layout.

There will always be evolution and revolution. This case and ghost are only evolution of DAN A4. I prefer new and unique designs for my projects. But evolution also has it's right to exist.

 

[AlexTzone]

To @AlexTzone and the Mjolnir team.

I have some harsh things to say, and I hope that you and our community can read them and understand that I seek to heal a wound rather than to open one--but it is going to be a painful process.

You credited your whole team, but make no mention of the man who designed the foundation of your chassis.

This is *just* yet another Dan clone. Let those words sink in.

All the nice updates you made, the quality you brag about, your pretty website, but your renders just represent a clone. I would be ashamed of myself if I claimed to have the "worlds most premium" case, list my whole team brag about their their college degrees, and ask for money on kickstarter but all I had was a series of nice renders based on stolen ideas.

I'm not saying you and your team doesn't have talent. Obviously you do. I'm not saying that you haven't made beautiful, meaningful updates to Dan's chassis. Again, you have. It's just a pity that you spent all this talent, time, and money to grab and claw at someone else's livelyhood--without even crediting them!!!!!

So here is a checklist for earning my respect and some of the good people on this forum:

• CREDIT your sources and honor those whose shoulders you stand on.
  
• Prove you can make this to the quality you brag about before grabbing at people's money. A drawing is not a mass produced product.
• Earn the titles and honors you award yourself.

From this post you might think I'm at emnity with you. I'm not. I want to see beautiful, amazing things from you and your team team. I believe in same things you say inspire you: quality, excellent design, beautiful craftsmanship, and most importantly, integrity. I would love to help you, support you, and defend you. I love peace, but peace is an active virtue. Yes, sometimes it means knowing when to be passive, but most other times it means stepping into the fire to set things right.

Please, be a part of this family. Don't use us.

Sincerely,

Josh

I have said before that DAN should be considered a pioneer of the SFF industry, his cases are absolutely beautiful!

That said, I don't believe this case is a DAN clone. There is nothing wrong with you thinking that though, you are perfectly entitled to your opinion. The layout of the DAN A4 SFX is an optimal design for a shoebox case, simulate it in Matlab and you'll get pretty much the same hardware allocation.

Regarding money, Kickstarter and prototype. I have said many times, there will be no Kickstarter before a prototype is shown to the community. I'm quite confident that the quality will be good, not based on any of our college degrees, but based on the production method. We're not here to use anyone, we're here to build a case based on what the community and ourselves want.

Best,
Alex

 

[Philairflow]

I have said before that DAN should be considered a pioneer of the SFF industry, his cases are absolutely beautiful!

That said, I don't believe this case is a DAN clone. There is nothing wrong with you thinking that though, you are perfectly entitled to your opinion. The layout of the DAN A4 SFX is an optimal design for a shoebox case, simulate it in Matlab and you'll get pretty much the same hardware allocation.

Regarding money, Kickstarter and prototype. I have said many times, there will be no Kickstarter before a prototype is shown to the community. The quality will be good, not based on any of our college degrees, but based on the production method.

Best,
Alex

Sry but now I have to disagree. How would Matlab ever give you hardware layouts? You only can feed a simulation tool with layouts you already know. The internals of this case are exactly DAN A4 and that maybe ok.

But please don't relativize the layout copy by saing any simulation tool will give you this. It is simply not true. I know a lot of simulation tools. And this is not true.

It is the same with iphone and all the concept copies. No copy without an original.

This layout is not self-evident or the result of a simulation tool!

 

[AlexTzone]

Sry but now I have to disagree. How would Matlab ever give you harware layouts? You only can feed a simulation tool with layouts you already know. The internals of this case are exactly DAN A4 and that maybe ok.

But please don't relativize the layout copy by saing any simulation tool will give you this. It is simply not true. I know a lot of simulation tools. And this is not true.

Set up some constraints for volume of the case, proportions of the case dimensions, volume and dimensions of the prefered PC hardware. Then minimize the case volume function.

 

[confusis]

To @AlexTzone and the Mjolnir team.

I have some harsh things to say, and I hope that you and our community can read them and understand that I seek to heal a wound rather than to open one--but it is going to be a painful process.

You credited your whole team, but make no mention of the man who designed the foundation of your chassis.

This is *just* yet another Dan clone. Let those words sink in.

All the nice updates you made, the quality you brag about, your pretty website, but your renders just represent a clone. I would be ashamed of myself if I claimed to have the "worlds most premium" case, list my whole team brag about their their college degrees, and ask for money on kickstarter but all I had was a series of nice renders based on stolen ideas.

I'm not saying you and your team doesn't have talent. Obviously you do. I'm not saying that you haven't made beautiful, meaningful updates to Dan's chassis. Again, you have. It's just a pity that you spent all this talent, time, and money to grab and claw at someone else's livelyhood--without even crediting them!!!!!

So here is a checklist for earning my respect and some of the good people on this forum:

• CREDIT your sources and honor those whose shoulders you stand on.
  
• Prove you can make this to the quality you brag about before grabbing at people's money. A drawing is not a mass produced product.
• Earn the titles and honors you award yourself.

From this post you might think I'm at emnity with you. I'm not. I want to see beautiful, amazing things from you and your team team. I believe in same things you say inspire you: quality, excellent design, beautiful craftsmanship, and most importantly, integrity. I would love to help you, support you, and defend you. I love peace, but peace is an active virtue. Yes, sometimes it means knowing when to be passive, but most other times it means stepping into the fire to set things right.

Please, be a part of this family. Don't use us.

Sincerely,

Josh

@Josh | NFC I sure hope you contacted these people before publicly calling them out. One sure way to lose some of the community's respect if you didn't.

Before this turns into a flame war:
- There are only so many ways you can lay out a chassis within a given volume. Your own layouts can be traced back to earlier designs in the industry as well, IMHO (and this is the important bit, opinion). Keep in mind in many industries, various products have a fixed design of sorts (cars, smartphones, monitors...) and these products can co-exist happily.
- Without creating new hardware (like ASRock is doing), we are limited to the slot, plug, etc locations of things
- Opinion matters, and in the creator's opinion, this design may not be close enough to the Dan case to justify a mention
- Opinions may offend, as I'm sure mine will, but lets keep this civil. If you have a personal issue with this product, take it to a private message, instead of soapboxing.

 

[Philairflow]

@Josh | NFC I sure hope you contacted these people before publicly calling them out. One sure way to lose some of the community's respect if you didn't.

Before this turns into a flame war:
- There are only so many ways you can lay out a chassis within a given volume. Your own layouts can be traced back to earlier designs in the industry as well, IMHO (and this is the important bit, opinion). Keep in mind in many industries, various products have a fixed design of sorts (cars, smartphones, monitors...) and these products can co-exist happily.
- Without creating new hardware (like ASRock is doing), we are limited to the slot, plug, etc locations of things
- Opinion matters, and in the creator's opinion, this design may not be close enough to the Dan case to justify a mention
- Opinions may offend, as I'm sure mine will, but lets keep this civil. If you have a personal issue with this product, take it to a private message, instead of soapboxing.

It is the opposition between being a community <=> group of competitors. I prefer the first one. Cars and smartphones are the perfect example. They don't coexist happily. It is huge competition.

But otherwise I completely agree with you.

 

[BernardoZ]

I agree with Josh. It's very obvious you have been inspired by Dan case, so it doesn't hurt crediting him. Dan-cases is not a big company yet, it's a startup that was built from this own community not too long ago.
Also, I would like to add a couple things:

1. You've been tweaking the design for so long, but still haven't solved the main problem (in my opinion): Tempered-glass panel vs Temps.
As mentioned by some users here already, you can't easily make vent holes on tempered-glass.
We will use tempered-glass in our project too, but I think I found a way around it (see this post). So, if you want to use a similar solution, you are welcome, but please credit us

2. I would warn people for your Instagram hype.
When I first saw your Instagram page a couple mounths ago, I was impressed how the hell you've got 12k followers without a single real prototype pic. Don't wanna claim anything, but something is not right there...

Anyway, I wish you good luck. You guys indeed have very good 3d modelling skills, so I hope you can translate that to real prototype. Cheers

 

[AlexTzone]

I agree with Josh. It's very obvious you have been inspired by Dan case, so it doesn't hurt crediting him. Dan-cases is not a big company yet, it's a startup that was built from this own community not too long ago.
Also, I would like to add a couple things:

1. You've been tweaking the design for so long, but still haven't solved the main problem (in my opinion): Tempered-glass panel vs Temps.
As mentioned by some users here already, you can't easily make vent holes on tempered-glass.
We will use tempered-glass in our project too, but I think I found a way around it (see this post). So, if you want to use a similar solution, you are welcome, but please credit us

2. I would warn people for your Instagram hype.
When I first saw your Instagram page a couple mounths ago, I was impressed how the hell you've got 12k followers without a single real prototype pic. Don't wanna claim anything, but something is not right there...

Anyway, I wish you good luck. You guys indeed have very good 3d modelling skills, so I hope you can translate that to real prototype. Cheers

Thanks for providing a link for fixing the glass panel issue. We’re working on an idea ourselves, but I would love to give you credit / check out your idea if our doesn’t work

Regarding Instagram. I promise we’re not buying followers or anything. It’s an image based platform -> good pictures & good communication = good long term growth. It has taken us almost a whole year to get to where we are now on there. We’re communicating with our followers everyday, so it takes a lot of effort But it’s a bit like a family (like this forum), so I really can’t complain.

Regarding prototype. Thank you, we’ll do our best. We could have made a prototype already (without tolerancing), but that would in my opinion be unfair (because we wouldn’t have been ready to produce the case in any larger quantities).

Best,
Alex

 

[confusis]

Please note: My above comment towards Josh isn't entirely directed at him - it applies to all. We have a private messaging system on the forum that is there for many reasons, amongst which is communication regarding issues one may have with another.

 

[Kmpkt]

While I think it is a valuable and worthwhile endeavour to make sure we discourage plagiarism in our community, I think it is also necessary to acknowledge there are three or four reasonable ways to lay out standard hardware in an enclosure. While I think that Dan's A4 case was definitely a big step forward in design with respect to small form factor enclosure design, I also think a certain amount of his success came from him being the first to find a market that would pay ~100 USD for a 3M riser to make such a case a reality (ie. I wouldn't be surprised to find that some major OEMs had come up with the design previously and abandoned it because of riser cost - it is not an unobvious configuration).

I think a constructive way of managing this sort of thing is the future might be to have a master sticky thread at the top of the "Custom Case Builds" forum that is effectively an authoritative list of all community projects with each of the major layouts. In said list we could subdivide all projects by layout type. As an example:

- Direct plug to PCIe slot (ie. NCase M1)
- PCIe riser with motherboard and GPU in line (ie. NFC S4M)
- PCIe riser with motherboard and GPU back to back (ie. Dan A4 SFX)
- Other

Once this standard was established, it would be required for all creators choose the requisite layout type. People accessing the forum would be able to refer to the master list and see all cases organized chronologically for a given layout. This would serve both to act as a history of sorts so that originators would receive the credit they were due as well as providing potential buyers a very clear way to compare and contrast the cases available in their desired configuration. Just my two cents, but I think we need to do something to keep this from being an ongoing issue that acts to divide our community and potentially scare away new creators.

 

[AlexTzone]

Tha

While I think it is a valuable and worthwhile endeavour to make sure we discourage plagiarism in our community, I think it is also necessary to acknowledge there are three or four reasonable ways to lay out standard hardware in an enclosure. While I think that Dan's A4 case was definitely a big step forward in design with respect to small form factor enclosure design, I also think a certain amount of his success came from him being the first to find a market that would pay ~100 USD for a 3M riser to make such a case a reality (ie. I wouldn't be surprised to find that some major OEMs had come up with the design previously and abandoned it because of riser cost - it is not an unobvious configuration).

I think a constructive way of managing this sort of thing is the future might be to have a master sticky thread at the top of the "Custom Case Builds" forum that is effectively an authoritative list of all community projects with each of the major layouts. In said list we could subdivide all projects by layout type. As an example:

- Direct plug to PCIe slot (ie. NCase M1)
- PCIe riser with motherboard and GPU in line (ie. NFC S4M)
- PCIe riser with motherboard and GPU back to back (ie. Dan A4 SFX)
- Other

Once this standard was established, it would be required for all creators choose the requisite layout type. People accessing the forum would be able to refer to the master list and see all cases organized chronologically for a given layout. This would serve both to act as a history of sorts so that originators would receive the credit they were due as well as providing potential buyers a very clear way to compare and contrast the cases available in their desired configuration. Just my two cents, but I think we need to do something to keep this from being an ongoing issue that acts to divide our community and potentially scare away new creators.

That’s actually a very good idea!

 

[theGryphon]

To @AlexTzone and the Mjolnir team.

I have some harsh things to say, and I hope that you and our community can read them and understand that I seek to heal a wound rather than to open one--but it is going to be a painful process.

You credited your whole team, but make no mention of the man who designed the foundation of your chassis.

This is *just* yet another Dan clone. Let those words sink in.

All the nice updates you made, the quality you brag about, your pretty website, but your renders just represent a clone. I would be ashamed of myself if I claimed to have the "worlds most premium" case, list my whole team brag about their their college degrees, and ask for money on kickstarter but all I had was a series of nice renders based on stolen ideas.

I'm not saying you and your team doesn't have talent. Obviously you do. I'm not saying that you haven't made beautiful, meaningful updates to Dan's chassis. Again, you have. It's just a pity that you spent all this talent, time, and money to grab and claw at someone else's livelyhood--without even crediting them!!!!!

So here is a checklist for earning my respect and some of the good people on this forum:

• CREDIT your sources and honor those whose shoulders you stand on.
  
• Prove you can make this to the quality you brag about before grabbing at people's money. A drawing is not a mass produced product.
• Earn the titles and honors you award yourself.

From this post you might think I'm at emnity with you. I'm not. I want to see beautiful, amazing things from you and your team team. I believe in same things you say inspire you: quality, excellent design, beautiful craftsmanship, and most importantly, integrity. I would love to help you, support you, and defend you. I love peace, but peace is an active virtue. Yes, sometimes it means knowing when to be passive, but most other times it means stepping into the fire to set things right.

Please, be a part of this family. Don't use us.

Sincerely,

Josh

Josh, I know you're extremely sensitive about IP protection but this is not how you go about it man.

Dan deserves credit for a lot of things, primarily designing a case around an unconventional design and seeing it through as a commercial success, but Dan was hardly the first person to think of this case layout. As far as "I" know (there might be earlier implementations even), a Russian guy over at overclock.net designed and built a case (for himself) around this same layout, at least a few (possibly several) years before Dan showed up at [H] forum. I looked for a link but couldn't before posting this, but will post the link as well as soon as I find it. So, yeah, Dan deserves a ton of credit but not for the layout itself. I believe his brand is already getting more recognition than he had hoped for; this layout, albeit not his "invention", is widely credited to him and most people think of Dan cases when they see another case with this layout (and he deserves this recognition because he really is the first person to successfully commercialize this layout).

As case designs go, I believe claiming IP on layout is like Apple claiming IP on round-rectangular phone design: there is just so many meaningful ways one can put together 3 main components: motherboard, GPU and PSU. What is more essential and worthy of claiming IP over is how it all comes together. The design of the structural components and how they come together, the airflow design and outer (rather aesthetic) design. From what I can tell, Alex & Co. here did not take any of that from Dan A4.

If we go with your mindset Josh, there are now so many cases with the same internal layout, commonly known as "console-style", including your own, that probably nobody knows who came up with the layout first. And, can anybody care less?

So, please everyone, think twice before accusing somebody else for idea theft. Please have that judgement of differentiating between a cheap copy that reeks of it and a thought-through retake/redesign around the same component layout as another.




EDIT: (Total tongue-in-cheek) Maybe I should claim IP for Dan's C4, as I came up with that layout first:
https://hardforum.com/threads/new-unconventional-mitx-case-idea.1813001/
Not implemented in any form but still

You see, I really don't feel like I deserve any credit here. Not only I believe Dan wasn't even aware of it, the layout itself is not what makes it so valuable. As I told Dan in his thread that I'm just happy to see this layout getting form: for me it's a confirmation that it was a solid idea (that I once had but never had the time or resources to see through)

EDIT: I found the link to that case build log (you know, Dan A4 layout before Dan A4). Turns out it's not that old, only 2012: http://www.overclock.net/forum/50-small-form-factor-systems/1256109-build-log-velociraptor.html
Pic links are dead now but the guy's Youtube channel is live: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCISFO7LfMMZYrmu3WaHs3JA
Googling "build log velociraptor" gives you some cached pic results...

Edit: LOL, I just noticed the very last post on that thread