Gadgetory

the mbx mark ii is a pc case that by all accounts has no right to exist it was seven years in the making ways a shocking 100 pounds fully-loaded and everything about it was purpose-built from the 8 millimeter thick aluminum motherboard tray to the 270 four screws required for its assembly it's the brainchild of Charles Harwood the creator of murder box and fellow BC boy and integrates more PC industry firsts than I can keep track of including defused basement lighting integrated comprehensive cable management frameless cooling fans and an utterly unique visual design that doesn't scream performance so much as it whispers it it's built to be the case that you use for the next 10 years and it's manufactured to the highest standard but it comes with a price tag that reflects its pedigree let's get up close and personal with it Roseville's closed-loop CPU coolers feature a performance copper base pwm fan speed control and more for an affordable price check him out today at the link below it was ten years ago but I remember the day I met this guy like it was yesterday he drove two hours to pick up some $10 water cooling fittings from me because a customer commissioned one of his already famous murder box gaming machines and no other fitting was good enough for him it was this rejection of good enough that drove Charles to do things the rest of us thought were crazy I still remember him explaining to me that wires shouldn't be hidden they should just be beautiful when he unveiled the first individually sleeved power supply no one is gonna spend that kind of time and money on a power supply I said but I think we all know how that played out every one of his creations was like that a work of art utterly unique and always pushing the limits whether it was tubing layouts lighting or design with zero compromises on build quality unfortunately Charles had a problem building a single murder box an 8,000 to $18,000 machine often including in person delivery is a two to four week endeavor and that's assuming that nothing goes wrong with sourcing and building whatever cutting-edge new design or material he's working on he'd never get the parts production economical like that the business model had to shift that's where murder mod came in Charles partnered with Niels a pioneer in the sleeving space to create a lineup of aftermarket faceplates mid plates mounts and other accessories that would allow t jo7 owners to upgrade their existing systems to something worthy of the million dollar PC galleries and these two business models complemented each other well on paper the higher margins and sales volumes of accessories would help to absorb the cost of prototyping and development while the boutique system business would give murder mod a high-profile avenue for showing off at latest creations except for another small problem accessories are only high-volume if they're compatible with more than a single high-end case from niche manufacturer silverstone and they're only high margin if you have the upfront funding and the know how to navigate the quagmire of overseas mass production so he forged a relationship with silverstone with the plan of bringing a tweaked and pre modded TJ o7 to market and then iterating from there another great in theory idea that turned into an endless cycle of prototyping and refinement until finally four years later thanks to a cash bailout from a community member named Richard it was ready to ship to the early backers every component of the mark ii has a story literally every one but i won't bore you guys talking about the 50,000 unit minimum order quantity on each individual variation of the custom made hex Chris let's start with the luminous panel ten years ago PC lighting was done with cheesy plastic cathode tubes with cheap inverters that usually burned out quite literally burned out in a year or two there had to be a better way and the inspiration came from runway fashion shows now building a panel that looks like this is easy if you have a bunch of space behind it for light distribution and diffusion but Charles had to do it without taking up any of the space for radiators on the bottom or for the system itself on top so he ended up with LEDs on one side firing into what he calls the core a proprietary material that he modified and etched with a grid to project the light upward the remaining three edges were lined with reflective material to bounce back and recycle the light that would normally pass right through and be wasted a final piece of semi translucent material was added on top to diffuse the light giving the finished luminance panel a glow strong enough to be seen in daylight but subtle enough to game next to at night and add a thickness of just 15mm the blood drips in the front have an equally fascinating backstory the first iteration was a murder mod faceplate a very rudimentary solution to the tjo sevens dated even then septuple five and a quarter inch Bay design optical drives were already on their way out it was water cut and used an LED strip mounted inside a Hammond project box reflecting off a piece of white acrylic simple but in the mark two the entire basement where the TJ o7 mount storage drives by default is taken up by up to six by 120 millimeters worth of radiators and the power supply and the front is a modular space that can be adapted for three and a half inch storage water cooling controllers pumps two and a half inch storage a slim optical drive you pretty much name it so there's potentially a lot of stuff that has to go in there he needed something more compact so Charles created a lighting solution using only a single LED firing upward through an acrylic block with silver mylar edges like the luminance panel but this time using a piece of adhesive vinyl at the back that's printed with a gradient graphic on it to control light reflection toward the front and a strip of a photographic material called dura trans to diffuse the light coming out this combination ensures that the drips fade to black effect will be perfect and seamless even in complete darkness a characteristic that not only looks sick but also helps hide the optional stealth slot load optical drive that you didn't see that one coming the top grille was also designed as a TJ o7 nod that you could just drop into the existing flange and was inspired by ceiling fans why do we need frames in a position where we don't need to create static pressure to build this Charles bought almost literally every cooling fan on the market to find the ideal one he needed a clean aesthetic the right hub size easily removable fan blades in case painting was required to match the look of a particular build and quiet operation out of the box without fan control because there would be no room for PWM wires in the tiny 2 by 4 millimetre wire management channel every unit was shipped to kallen in Australia where he painstakingly hand assembled them this process involves removing the fan frames removing the existing wiring from the fan hub soldering the new leads specially designed for the top mount epoch seeing in the hubs running the wiring around the internally machined frame and terminating to a single sleeved 3 pin connector that will work with basically any motherboard one of a kind looks and drop in compatibility like this are really really tough things to combine which I guess brings us finally to mile Terrier motive for making this video so this video isn't sponsored I mean after all the money he's lost on this Charles couldn't afford our rates and I wouldn't ask him anyway but there is something in it for me I want to see what he'll create next so I offered to do a profile of the mark 2 and its history in hopes that they'll all sell so he can repay his investors and work on something new there are 142 mark 2 cases left in the world you'll find the where to buy link in the video description the config that we showed would run a whopping two thousand US dollars but for this video Charles and mod 1 created a more basic limited time promotional bundle including everything that you need to get started the case it's 150 page user manual and a quad radiator mount as well as the optional luminance panel for $12.99 it's still eye watering ly expensive but there will never be another production run of the mark 2 it was a financial disaster for everyone involved so if you want to own a piece of PC history the case equivalent of something like a DeLorean something only a fanatical person would build well you know where to get it blue apron delivers all the farm-fresh ingredients that you need right to your doorstep in exactly the right proportions for delicious home-cooked meals no trips to the grocery store no waste from unused ingredients their recipes are chef-inspired and they offer two types of plans the two-person plan and the family plan and there are now eight recipes to choose from each week instead of six blue apron recipes are delivered in a refrigerated box so the ingredients will stay fresh even if you're not at home when your package arrives and blue apron ships to most of the United States there's no commitment you can skip or cancel the service at any time and prices start as low as $9 per serving the first 50 people to sign up at our link below are gonna get 50 bucks off their first two weeks of blue apron so go check it out now so thanks for watching guys if you just liked this video you can hit that button but if you liked it let us know in the comments hit that like button maybe get subscribed and while you're at it check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description while you're down there we'll have a list of everyone who contributed parts for Charles to do the showcase build including silverstone EK mod 1 gigabyte nvidia and aqua computer as well as a link to our merch store which has cool shirts like this one I forgot to call it the forum for forum