The MBX MKII is a PC case that, by all accounts, has no right to exist.
It was 7 years in the making, weighs a shocking 100 pounds fully-loaded and
everything about it was purpose-built from the 8mm thick aluminum motherboard tray to the
274 screws required for its assembly.
It's the brainchild of Charles Harwood, the creator of Murderbox 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.
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It was 10 years ago, but I remember the day I met this guy like it was yesterday.
He drove 2 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 2-4 week endeavor.
And that's assuming that nothing goes wrong with sourcing and building whatever cutting-edge new design or material he 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
TJ07 owners to upgrade their existing systems to something worthy of the million dollar PC galleries.
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 its 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 TJO7 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 screws
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 at 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 7's
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 TJO 7 mount storage drives by default
is taken up by up to six by one, 20 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, 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 TJO 7 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, epoxying 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 my ulterior 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 ii 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 ii 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 2,000 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, its 150 page user manual and a quad radiator mount as well as the optional luminance panel for $12.99
It's still eye wateringly expensive but there will never be another production run of the mark ii, 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
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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
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