Split Personality

This build is for a gamer named Krunk, a close friend of mine for 30+ years. We’ve known each other since high school, we’ve gamed together competitively across multiple games, we’ve worked together, and our families have been close for over 2 decades. He gave me complete creative freedom on this machine. The only strict requirement was it had to be a closed case as his office can tend to get very dusty.

Given that I know how small his office is, I wanted to push the limits with materials and customization in the smallest footprint possible without sacrificing the ability to have it on display. This machine is a mix of our hobbies and interests combined into one very very small package. While these images make the machine look larger than life, the motherboard fits in the palm of my hand. This is the O11 Mini, designed for ITX motherboards and small media systems.

Krunk’s favorite color is blue, and one of the card games he plays has Blue, Cyan, Black, and Purple on it, so I themed it to bring that element into the build as well beyond just his MMO characters. The machine also features custom laser etched artwork by award winning tattoo artist Phil Newman (aka Skwishy) featuring the 3 main characters Krunk has played across 20+ years: Oxox, Shorticus, and Krunk.

Everything on the front side is Blue, Black, Carbon. Everything on the back is Black and Silver, giving the machine itself a split personality. I wanted to use unique materials on this build with custom carbon fiber tubing, custom cabling, a modified Lian Li fan controller, and a first-ever lighting design recessed inside the distribution block. The cable combs are also a custom design to handle 40 series signal wires elegantly.

A truly special machine.