The Journal
Projects
Stories from the studio.
Featured
Optimist WorldThe 480R System: Stepping Stones for the Venturi
Before the 600R at the heart of the Venturi, there was the 480R — and the harder question it couldn’t answer.
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Collection UpdatesIntroducing Venturi
A workstation-class graphics card, on a single closed copper loop, in 10.7 litres — the densest and quietest of its kind.
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Entries
Retiring Fleur
Our return to the pink-floral idea that started with Sakura — built with SSUPD — set down so the look can come back with a proper refresh.
4 min
Nocturne's 2026 refresh
The most popular system we've ever made, given the largest refresh it has ever seen — led by a side panel of solid, hand-finished hardwood.
4 min
Introducing Dusk
Built for density — the most capable machine we can fit into the least space, and portable enough to travel with.
3 min
What is Thermal Throttling?
Why a fast machine slows mid-job — and why sustained speed, not peak, is the number that gets your work done.
5 min
Retiring Lumiere
The white, oak-and-glass answer to Nocturne — the build you asked for by name.
4 min
Retiring Night Rose
A flagship of The Floral Series, born from Sakura — retired to make room for what comes next.
4 min
Retiring Ultraviolet
The loudest thing we’ve ever built — a frosted-hardline Cyber Series showpiece — set down so the idea can come back lighter.
4 min
Retiring Containment
Our black-and-red outlier — the biohazard build — retires as its parts go out of reach.
4 min
What makes a good power supply?
The two numbers on the box tell you how big it is and how little it wastes — not whether it will protect the machine you built around it.
4 min
Retiring Orion
Our art-deco collaboration with Corsair and Jawa.gg, retired while it still means everything it did the day we finished it.
3 min
8 Years of Service
From a small Etsy store to our own home online — the builds that shaped us, and the belief that never moved.
3 min
Refreshing Nocturne: Highest Rated of 2025
The first full refresh of any Optimist system — moved onto RTX 50-series, refined but never redrawn.
3 min
Optimist Featured in Bloomberg Businessweek
A word of thanks — for a feature about where we always believed the whole hobby was heading.
2 min
Cooling That Lives Outside the Box
Take the cooling out of the computer entirely — a modular, daisy-chainable external radiator that lets a sub-five-litre machine run flat out.
3 min
How is acoustic volume measured?
The little “dBA” number on every spec sheet, explained — and what each ten points actually sounds like in a room.
4 min
Introducing Nocturne
The machine we built to belong in the room you actually work in — warm, wooden, and calm.
3 min
The Optimist Flower Emblem
Why the mark is a flower — a soft thing in a category that keeps trying to remove personality, chosen on purpose.
3 min
Sakura V2 in PCGamesN
A word of thanks — for a client build that carried the flower idea further than our own workshop.
2 min
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