So to all the new faces that found my little shop from Linus' Channel
WELCOME!!!!!
So y'all had a ton of questions other?
Well I am Joe!
The journey of XFORMA started many years ago, I remember I was working for a friends dad fixing garage doors and garage door openers when I saw the launch teaser for the MKII. What I also saw was a crazy price tag of $1199.99 and this was around 2010. While cases of that value are semi normal now for limited runs, back then it was unheard of!
Photo credit: Xforma Facebook Page
Well fast forward a few years and I found myself making custom cables for Lutro0 Customs as an apprentice making cables for the guy who's youtube videos taught me how to make cables. Well as that chapter closed I found myself with an email from Charles about being part of the XFORMA project to provide the cables for the MKII chassis.
Photo credit: Xforma Facebook Page
I was hyped! Little did I know how much work this would actually require and at the time I was still measuring wires by hand and hand crimping everything. This has since changed but making cables even just the case cables for 150 units was one hell of a tall task. At one point I even had friends helping me make cables to try and fulfill all the orders. There were moments of traveling for my 9-5 and making cables at 2-3AM or even not sleeping at all kept alive by the sweet sweet brew that was Redbull (DO NOT DO THIS, IT WILL BITE YOU IN ALL THE BUTTS.)
Had some shipments of cables lost during this, (true sadness is making 50 of a sleeved cable and having it confirmed at a warehouse but then lost in the abyss, never to be seen again.)
Well initially the cases were sold through PPCS, then they got shifted over to Mod-One. Well while they were sold by Mod-One, there was a accident at one of the neighboring shops. This accident involved an explosion, some jazz cabbage wizardry, at least one fatality, a buckled roof and a poorly timed rain storm. So for those wondering what the flood/ water damaged units were about, yeah that's where those came from.
Eventually Mod-One was acquired by Titan Rig and the cases were moved to the San Antonio warehouse, where I worked for 2.5 ish years. During my time there I was lucky enough to meet Charles and his wife, Linda in person while they inspected all the cases at the Titan Rig warehouse. This is the origin story of all the (READY FOR JOE) sticky notes.
YES THAT'S THE MAN! THE MYTH! THE LEGEND! CHARLES HARWOOD!!!!
Well during my time at Titan Rig, if you bought a Xforma MKII, I was the one that prepped them for every customer. This process entailed having to open and inspect every single unit, then disassembling the chassis to access the bare unibody to install the light strip, defuser, LED module, disk drive (if ordered) and install all the wires for the disk drive assembly. Since we had cables lost from my initial shipment, I would also have to make additional ones as well. Those were then pinned out to whatever PSU the customer had if they knew which PSU they would be using.
Photo credit: Xforma Facebook Page
After I left however, there were a few cases sold but the cables were not pre-installed for the customers and honestly the white glove treatment the case came with was lost.
I then got news that Titan Rig was moving back to California (don't ask me how that makes any sense.) Charles was then told by TitanRig that he needed to find a way to find a new home for the cases or else they would be thrown in the dumpster (Yes I still have the emails from when he told me this). I could not let that happen for many reasons, the biggest reason being I could not stand by and watch Charles vision and years of work just tossed out like some common garbage. Charles then offered me the B stock cases, keep in mind they were only considered B stock because they did not meet Charles' very strict standards. This ended up being around 6 pallets and some change worth of cases.
So with that I came into possession of 40 ish MKII cases, and I have been keeping them here at my house for the last few years. With plans to modernize them into what I referred to as MKIII but really is more like a MK2.5. The plan was to offer accessories that brought additional value to existing and new MKII customers to add functionality to their setup. While the MKII is still an absolutely beautiful case, its over a decade old and a large part of the case the front drive assembly is aged. I don't want to say obsolete as there are still people that use large mechanical storage arrays but most people would rather ditch that assembly for a full length light panel, or distro and especially since the custom EKWB res is not available anymore, maybe even show off a different style of res.
The front bay that has the option for the slotted front for additional ventilation or to be spot for a Aquacomputer Aquareo, used to have the option for a crossflow fan that was made my Silverstone way back in the day for their SFX SUGO line of cases. Those were actually the origin of the Falcon Northwest Fragbox chassis. However this crossflow fan is no longer produced and has not been for quite some time. However to help make the front bay functional I developed a 3x 40mm adapter to still give additional airflow and keep that sleek slotted aesthetic.
Photo credit: Xforma Facebook Page
So where do we stand now?
Well my inbox and the comment section have been flooded with request to buy one of the MKII cases I have, however all the cases are incomplete. They are missing components some are reasonably easy to source, others like side panels, not so much. So with that I am now going through everything I have to see how many cases I have, how much of each accessory is available and what needs to be fabricated.
So welcome to the true journey of the MKII project and join me on helping Charles' vision get out into the wild. Although he is no longer part of the project, I feel like I do owe it to him to at least try. Part of the collection I have will be offered as prebuilt systems from Noir PC.
https://www.noirpc.com/
https://www.instagram.com/noirpc/
So with all that said, I guess this is the launch of my youtube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/@BespokeBaka
We will be exploring the MKII and what this case was meant to be leading up to the new accessories I will be designing and fabricating for new MKII owners and existing ones. All of that will be featured on the channel, so if you like tech, pc builds done to the 9's with a large scoop of ADHD and neurospiciness, well then welcome to the channel.
A special thanks to Charles Harwood, never lose sight of what your vision did for the PC modding community. Your amazing eye for detail is here to inspire generations to come in this industry and many others by not accepting the standard as good enough. You shocked the industry with your initial line of add-ons for the original Silverstone TJ07 and followed up by stunning us with the MKII, showing us that a PC was more than just for work and gaming, it is art, it is beautiful and it is statement.